Chances are good that you have not only seen a LAIKA Studios film but that you loved it as well; you have good reason to. Their movies transport you back to a time of childhood wonder and imagination and the Oregon based company does it so well that they have been nominated for a number of Academy awards over the years. Their unique blend of stop motion animation and visual effects has produced the immensely popular movies Coraline, ParaNorman, The Boxtrolls, and their latest feature, Kubo and the Two Strings.
That popularity was evident in San Diego from July 14 -July 25, 2017, where a Laika Studios pop-up store opened for Comic-Con fans to peruse. According to a Laika representative, "over 7,000 fans took detail-laden tours of "The LAIKA Experience" and scooped up "LAIKA merchandise", including a limited edition action figure Coraline doll and display case (only 3,000 were created)". Each day, ten lucky winners even won "a pair of Nikes created for each film by legendary sneaker designer Tinker Hatfield."
The experience was broken down into 4 distinct rooms and each room showcased a different Laika Studios film with sets and figures from the movie. The first room included items from Coraline, followed by ParaNorman, then Boxtrolls and finally Kubo and the Two Strings - The latter even displaying different "masks" that offered numerous facial expressions of each of the characters.
The response to the store was overwhelming and greater than the animation studio expected. They sold just under 4,000 units of merchandise and had fans waiting outside in the heat sometimes for over an hour. "By any standard and all metrics, The LAIKA Experience was a profound success in San Diego," says Brad Wald, LAIKA's CFO and SVP, Business Operations.
I can personally attest to the fantastic display inside the store with so much to see and photograph. The rooms were set up beautifully allowing visitors to get up close and personal to the items in order to examine the intricate details. It is obvious how much time, care, and energy goes into creating just one piece for a film.
If you missed the Comic-Con popup store in San Diego, A LAIKA retrospective is scheduled to run at the Portland Art Museum from October 14, 2017, through May 20, 2018, and the studio is planning to bring LAIKA exhibitions throughout the U.S. and around the globe in the future.
