Portland is home to LAIKA and the animators who made the feature length, stop motion animated film "Coraline". Apparently, there was a big movie premiere here in town complete with stars from the film including Dakota Fanning and Teri Hatcher.
The movie is based around a book by graphic novelist legend Neil Gaiman and is about an inventive girl named Coraline who walks through a secret door in her new home and discovers an alternate version of her life. On the surface, this parallel reality is eerily similar to her real life - only much better. When her alternate family tries to keep her, the plot thickens and she must return to her real life to save her family. It's an Alice in Wonderland type story, equally as frightening, but set in the similar dark world that Nightmare Before Christmas and Corpse Bride have.
I'm eager to see the movie, but I have to admit the trailers did nothing to pique my interest. Until I heard about the Mystery Boxes. It seems that those LAIKA marketing wizards have sent 50 Coraline Mystery boxes to prominent blogger sites.
ASIFA, Boing Boing, The Kreep, Wendy Knits and others were each sent one handmade, limited edition treasure box all in the style of artist Joseph Cornell. Aged wooden containers, suitcases, hat boxes and tins filled with handmade props appropriate to the blog were mailed out to promote the release - and I'm assuming to convince the bloggers to write about the movie.
Wendy Knits for instance, got a beautiful vintage tin with miniature spats pinned onto velvet, the skeleton key with secret password, and a knitting pattern for the sweater Coraline wears. Kreep's box contained relics from the film including a bat/dog model, a bat body mold, the skeleton key, a wing skeleton prototype, and an old envelope with a wax seal with inlaid black button (as used for the eyes of the witch) containing a hand-typed note explained the curious gift.
A collector of such treasure myself, I'm so impressed with the craftsmanship and creativity of these boxes, I'm counting the minutes until I can see the movie.
LAIKA, if box number 51 happens, I'd be more than happy to send my address!
