Coraline Premiere!

The last two days have been thrilling and exhausting! Finally I have some pictures of the world premiere of "Coraline" and the after-party!

Where to start? Let's try the beginning:

I spent Thursday afternoon getting dolled up for the event. There were curlers involved! Around 6:00 our friend (and my former co-worker) MJ came over to travel with us to the Arlene Schnitzer Concert Hall in Portland. Along the way we drove Kenneth crazy singing the They Might Be Giants song from the movie: "Makin' up a song about Coooooorrraaalliiinnee! She's a pal, she's a friend of miiinnnneee!"

As we approached the city we could see the roving spotlights painting the sky from in front of the after-party location. That's when we started to get excited! It took a bit to push through the mob waiting to catch a glimpse of the stars coming out of their limos, but we made it to the "regular people's" entrance and mixed with the crowd. Everyone got a bag of popcorn, a soda, and some funky 3D glasses, and spent the remaining time before the show trying to peek over the press junket line. Alas, I am and always have been a "shorty" so no sneak peeks for me! Kenneth tried to peek too, but there were a lot of folks with longer arms in the way. Ah, well!

After a while the lobby was starting to reach mosh pit crowding proportions, so we headed inside to find our seats. MJ landed in the 3rd row, left of center.

MJ says "Hi!" from the 3rd row

We were 3 more rows back, also left of center. Not 100% ideal for 3D viewing, however it was certainly not in neck-straining zones. I did catch a glimpse of Dakota Fanning walking up the aisle to her seat, joining Teri Hatcher and Robert Bailey, Jr. I was not quick enough with the camera, though! You'll just have to take my word for it. If you want celeb pics, Neil Gaiman linked to some from that evening: Celeb photos link

To begin the events, there were a series of speeches by Phil Knight, Travis Knight (who was also an animator on the film), Governor Kulongoski, and of course Henry Selick!

Henry talks with his hands a lot =)

The film began, the crowd cheered, I was surprisingly NERVOUS the whole time and tried very, very hard not to notice mistakes or silently recall shot numbers and the artist names for each shot (something I had to keep track of very carefully at work.) It was great to see the film with all the foley (sound effects) added in. I didn't realize how much they were missing in the earlier versions I'd seen - it really pulls you into the story more when paper crinkles, metal tings, doors creak...

I loved that the audience laughed at the right places, gasped at the right places, was generally amused at the right places... it was wonderful to see it in its final, polished form! Of course it was also a great thrill to see my name in giant letters! Hurrah! Kenneth gave me a high-five and a "woooo!" when it scrolled by.

A jubilant crowd emptied out of the theater and slowly meandered towards the after-party location at the Portland Art Museum. We used the time to take pictures on the red carpet!

Me and MJ on the ACTUAL red carpet!!


Kenneth and me on the red carpet! Are we glamorous enough?

We joined the crowd and followed the Coraline luminaries to the Portland Art Museum. We were given heavy, metal Coraline button keys as our admission into the party and had to wave them in front of the security guards. We got to keep the keys though!

Outside the Portland Art Museum.

Coraline luminary

Inside the room was lined with segments of actual workstations from different departments - in each segment an actual Coraline crew member was "working" on their respective projects! It was a bit like a petting zoo but they seemed to be enjoying the attention.

(I will apologize in advance for the photo quality of the following - it was dark and my camera has proven to be wonderful in well-lit situations but very poor indoors w/o copious amounts of flash. My next camera will have much better noise reduction, I hope!)

It was PACKED with people so you'll have to take my word on the petting zoo setup. Here are some other shots from the evening:

In foreground: pink popcorn cherry blossoms, in background: the Pink Palace, Coraline's home.

Coraline and Other Wybie in Other Bobinski's lair. Do you know where your popcorn's been, Coraline?!?!

Robert Bailey, Jr! (Wybie)

Kenneth is excited.

Workstation snapshot

Tiny sweater assembly line - all knits were handmade using incredibly small needles!

Yes, the heads are creepy.

Other Spink

Other Spink isn't wearing any pants!!!


Bobinski on the worktable

Closer shot of Pink Palace

Me and the Pink Palace!

Me with Spink and Forcible

Other Bobinski

The jumping mice! As a crew gift, we each got one of these (there were hundreds) in a glass case. I got a little drummer mouse!

Coraline and parents

Kenneth and part of the Fantastic Garden set

An early Coraline mock-up

*whew*! We had a fabulous night and early reports are that Coraline is doing better than expected in the box office. Enjoy the pictures and go see Coraline!!!