In the Other World, Mr. Bobinsky heralds a surprise circus attraction.

BD: What are you planning next?

HS: At the moment, and this has been going on for a while, I'm supporting our head of story on Coraline, Chris Butler, an incredibly talented storyboard artist, who has an original script called Paranorman and I believe he can direct this. So this is a project Laika believes in and Travis Knight is a big supporter, and it's a sweet and much more comedic story than Coraline about a boy who can commune with the dead and has a great relationship with the ghost of his grandmother, but who's been given the challenge of dealing with a curse on the town that he lives in. He raises an army of zombies only he can talk to. I think it's funny as hell and there are some designers sculpting and the second draft of the screenplay should be finished by tomorrow. So that's been cooking along and whether I'm called a producer or not, I'm not worried about a title, but I'm trying to share what I know with young talent and encourage that. And I'll write another screenplay to get another project that I'll direct in the not too distant future.

BD: An original or another adaptation?

HS: There are several interesting projects, some book-based, some a little more original. I did find an incredible partner in Neil, so we're talking about collaborating again at some point.

Other Mother's creepy true nature is revealed to Coraline. The scares in the film hearken back to early Disney animated features like Snow White and Alice in Wonderland.

BD: What kinds of stories are you looking to tell?

HS: Not necessarily for me, but I just think animation can do so much and the film I most want to see that I haven't seen is Waltz with Bashir.

BD: I finally caught up with it.

HS: What did you think?

BD: It's wonderful.

HS: See! I read about it and I've seen the images.

BD: And it really stays with you. It's such a provocative subject and has such a distinctive style.

HS: So I knew that done right, animation can take on a subject that way. There are graphic novels being turned into live action and many of them should be animated. One thing: Travis Knight will be running a company up there. He has nothing against doing a PG-13 animated film. Why wouldn't we? If we find the story or create one and that's where it goes, great! Probably the majority of successful live action is PG-13. It's just trying to elbow our way out of this box that animation is locked into. I don't understand why people don't take more risks, but at this point in history, taking chances on something new is actually the best bet. You'll never catch up with Pixar and DreamWorks or Blue Sky. They're so good. But they're successful enough to take risks. Look at WALL•E. It breaks new ground, absolutely. And it's a very difficult thing to do a family-friendly film that breaks new ground. It's brilliant work they're doing, but I want to actually be a little bolder and we have to keep the costs down.

Bill Desowitz is senior editor of VFXWorld and AWN.