Henry Selicks, Moongirl

I did a search at the IMDB for Henry Selick to become more familiar with his work. I new that he had done The Nightmare Before Christmas, James and the Giant Peach, and Monkey Bone, but I was not too familiar with his other works. That's when I learned about one of his short films, Moongirl. Seeing that it was another Laika film, I instantly picked up a copy of the book with the DVD off Amazon. It was cute. It had a nice story, kinda simple, neat visuals and over all enjoyable. The art in the book itself it really nicely done.

Other Mother Chicken Pot Holder

I thought that these where so neat. I have owned chickens since I was a wee little boy and think they are beautiful birds. I love chickens. In fact, my kitchen has a chicken/rooster theme to it. They give a nice country feel to your home. Anyways, when I saw that the Other Mother had chicken pot holders, I just had to have pair. I did notice that the pot holder the Other Mother Slides on in the film, isn't exactly the same as the one the 'puppet' is wearing being displayed for people to see. So, I will make both. This is my first attempt to get the pattern right and see how it all comes together. So this is my ruff draft. Already there are some things I am going to do a little differently for the next two holders. Otherwise, I am pretty happy how it came out.

Coraline Nike Dunks Contest

After the credits of Coraline there was a note to the audience that said "For those in the Know: Jerkwad". My wife and I both looked at each other with a curious question on our minds. What was that? We weren't in the 'know', but I wasn't going to stay that way. It actually happened by chance that I found out what it was for. I was searching eBay for Coraline stuff and I kept seeing these shoes. Finally, my curiosity got the better of me and I checked them out. That's when I found that they were a pair of shoes that were available through the Coraline Website. Like the fan that I am, I quickly went to the site, found the Contest and signed up. My wife did too. I love these kinds of contests and I was really hoping that either one of us would have won a pair.
I think that Laika did a great job with promoting this film. The dunks giveaway was one of those great ideas. There were only 2000 shoes made (not sure why everyone keeps saying 1000), the cast/crew got their own special pair, there were 50 that contained props from the film, 15 that where in wooden boxes, Some contained cotton candy, in circus shoe boxes, some came with reproductions of the button box, while others were just the shoes in a normal shoe box. Wow, what a variety.
It was interesting to see the demand on eBay for the shoes. Then I came across a couple of auctions of people trying to 'sell' the password: 'Jerkwad'. I couldn't believe that. With a quick search, the password was available online already, FREE. How could people be so greedy to try to cash in on the password? A password that didn't guarantee the buyer that they would win a pair of dunks?

Then it got me thinking about the shoes listed on eBay. The implication (in my opinion) is that the majority of those who won the shoes and are selling them were people who didn't want them, yet they signed up for them anyways. All those who are buying the shoes are the ones who really wish they could have won. The quote that comes to my mind is a line addressed to all the Mysterbox 'winners' that says "WE HOPE SOMEONE LIKE YOU WILL APPRECIATE THIS" - The Coraline Team. It's unfortunate that so many who signed up and won didn't appreciate them.

The Pink Palace Floor plan Ruff Draft

Did I mention that I was a drafter? Oh, well I am. I decided to draw up blueprints based on the Pink Palace in Coraline. I found as many reference photos of the Old Victorian home that I could. I then imported the files into Microstation and scaled the photos to 'scale'. Here is a ruff draft of the first floor layout plan. Here's my problem. I cannot get the ext. shots of the house to match up with the inside shots. The house just doesn't seem to match. I labeled where each room is as far as I can tell. The kitchen is seen with two extra windows from the outside, that are not seen on the interior shots. The scene near the beginning of the film, where Coraline comes in seemingly from the back door, and drops her raincoat on the hall floor, is also inconsistent to the layout, as that hallway does not exit to the outside of the house. Not to mention that the main room with the 'boring blue boy' and little door also doesn't match in overall shape and window layout. So, as far as I can tell, either the Pink Palace was redesigned since the reference photos where taken, or the intr. shots never where meant to match exactly with the ext. of the house. Or I am way off and totally misinterpreting what I am seeing. I think I am going to have to redraw the layout based on the interior shots later and post that so you can see the difference of that I am seeing.

Coraline Jones family 2007 Volkswagen new beetle

After some research online and looking at so many VW bugs, I believe that the Volkswagen seen in Coraline is a 2007. So, to continue my collection I wasn't going to go out and purchase a full scale car. Instead, I went with the next best thing and found this model. Unfortunately, it isn't a 2007 but I think with some mod'ing I can get it to look right. I will have to do some searching for some miniature luggage to put on top of the car. I think that railroad miniatures should work.
The only thing I am not sure of, is what the bumper stickers read. I was originally thinking that it may say 'I Heart Mulch', like the mug, but when I saw the movie again, it didn't appear to be that simple.

Nightmare Before Christmas Paint brush

I was told when I bought the brush that it was an original prop from The Nightmare Before Christmas. That it was in fact used in the scene were the vampires are painting bullet holes on the duck. However, with closer examination of the film, this particular brush isn't seen on screen, nor is the paint color the same. The brush did come with a signed sheet of paper from Jerome Ranft (as it was supposed to have been a sale from his personal collection) stating it was made for that particular scene.
So, to give benefit of the doubt, I believe that it is a pre-production brush, made as a concept to determine either the scale, style, or color (perhaps all three) of the final look.

When I first picked up the brush I had never heard of Mr. Ranft. However, since watching Coraline, I am now very familar with him and his contributions to animation. Now I have something in my collection that ties both Nightmare and Coraline!

The Nightmare Before Christmas Storybord art

I was able to pick-up an original storybord drawing from The Nightmare Before Christmas from Animation Collection. They have tons of original art from all kinds of Disney films. I wish I could afford to purchase the entire collection of NBC storybords. I am hoping to get this storybord framed along side a Hi-Res screen capture of the same scene. Should looks cool when it's done. Unfortunately there is no signature on it, so I can only assume that either Mike Cachuela, Jorgen Klubien, Steve Moore, or Bob Pauley, drew it, as they are credited as being the storybord artists. Joe Ranft is credited being the storybord supervisor.