SDCC 2018: The LAIKA Live Offsite Event Is Literally Heaven
While I touched on it during my Preview Night recap, LAIKA Live was way, waaaaaay too cool of an event not to dedicate its own post to.
Seriously, this is one of the best offsite events that I’ve been to in years, if not ever, so if you find yourself in the Gaslamp area of San Diego this week, the event is more than worth the likely multi-hour wait time.
LAIKA Live is at 350 5th Ave, with hours as follows:
Friday, 7/13: 2-10pm
Saturday, 7/14: 2-10pm
Sunday, 7/15: 11am-5pm
Monday, 7/16: 12-5pm
Tuesday, 7/17: 12-5pm
Wednesday, 7/18: 12-5pm
Thursday, 7/19: 10am-10pm
Friday, 7/20: 10am-11pm
Saturday, 7/21: LAIKA store opens at 10am; exhibit: 2:00pm-11pm
Sunday, 7/22: 10am-6pm
Natalie wrote about her experience at the event last year, and this year the offsite is over three times the size – this means that even if you went last year, there’s a bunch of new stuff to see, including a giant, huggable Mr. Link from Laika’s upcoming, adorable feature Missing Link.
LAIKA also has a ton of awesome new merchandise available, and will even have a merchandise-only line in case you just want to pick up some sweet wares.
Shane, Courtney, and I were all lucky enough to attend a private showcase of the exhibit which included some nice drinks and tasty treats (many of which were themed after LAIKA properties, and there were even cupcakes that had the silhouettes of LAIKA character hair on top, which amazed me for some reason).
LAIKA employees were present to chat about the almost lost art of stop motion animation, and to show off just how some of the character animations work. One of the employees sounded super excited about the advancements that things like 3D printing bring to the art of stop-motion, and noted that they’ve made some huge developments with the character models of Missing Link. There’s some new technology that allows the characters to actually breathe, which I cannot wait to see in action.
The event featured sets from films like Coraline and The Boxtrolls, had a life-sized Other Mother’s living room that made for a wonderful photo-op, a “puppet-hospital”, amazing concept art, and so freaking much more. Teri Hatcher, the Other Mother herself, even showed up to kick-off the event, and to help celebrate the upcoming 10th anniversary of Coraline (has it been that long already?).
I love LAIKA films, and I was in absolute heaven at this event. Both Courtney and Shane commented on the look of child-like wonder that was on my face the entire time we were there, and it was so hard not to buy up every amazing item in the store. After seeing just how incredible Mr. Link looked in person, I don’t know that there’s a film that I’m looking forward to more than Missing Link at this point.
Take a look at a few of the (unedited, SDCC is busy, okay) photos that I took at the event, and if you’re in San Diego, I implore you to head over to LAIKA Live.
A huge thanks to LAIKA for hosting us!
