ParaNorman Crew Gifts

On eBay, there is a gift that was given to the crew that worked on the Movie ParaNorman.

Three Norman rapid prototype animation faces, that are interchangeable, mounted on a laser cut plywood display box with original gift bag.

Auction Here SOLD $1,025.00

Here is another Production Crew gift that was sold on the PropStore.com

(Photos from Auction)

Boxtrolls Cube 3D Printing

Laika has uploaded 3D printable files for your cube 3D printer on cubify.com

Check them out

BoxTrolls Promo Figures

A rare set of Vinyl figures that were sent out to promote the movie. Some pop up on Ebay here and there if you have the funds.

BoxTrolls TrollStrikes Nike Shoes Contest

http://niketrollstrikes.theboxtrolls.com/

As is with tradition, Nike released a limited edition shoe for the movie release of BoxTrolls. I realize I am late in the game on this as the contest ended October 3, 2014.

A twitter contest where you had to create a piece of art from cardboard and post the photo to twitter with the hash tag #TheBoxtrollsNikeShoeContest. One per day, and a new piece of art with every entry.

I really like the look of these shoes much better than the ParaNorman ones. It's unfortunate that I wasn't more on top of things sooner, I would have loved to have won a pair of these shoes.

FAQ here
Rules Here
trollstrikes.theboxtrolls@wk.com.

BoxTrolls Little Review

I have to admit, I was not interested in seeing this movie. I avoided it all together after my disappointment with ParaNorman. That was then.

This is now. I eventually purchased the movie on Blu-Ray and watched it for the first time. I got to say that I really enjoyed it. It was much better than I thought it would be. I actually watched it twice in a row. It kind of starts off a little slow, but eventually picks up and moves at a good pace. The art, sets, and props in this movie are just gorgeous. Laika's 3D printing has come along way in developing their puppets since Coraline.

I enjoyed the movie enough to purchase the original book by Allen Snow, titled Here be Monsters. Wow, totally not the same story at all. These two mediums are too different animals all together. WARNING: SPOILERS. The things that are the same, include (but not limited to) Boxtrolls named Egg (not a human boy), Fish, Shoe, & Match. Snatcher is the villain who also plays Madame Frou-Frou. Cheese and its importance to the town. A character does explode at the end. Snatcher did ride a huge "monster" at the end that was designed to take over the town. Hmm, not sure what else... I did see a Boxtrolls movie adaptation novel, that is probably more like the book, but Here Be Monsters, is a story all on its own. Don't get me wrong, I did enjoy the book too. It was fun and really cute. All new characters, more underlings that live under the town, and more craziness.

If you liked Coraline, & ParaNorman, you'd enjoy Boxtrolls (If you haven't seen it yet).

Laika Auction Fundraiser

Heritage Auctions (ebay user "heritageliveauctions") was donated several original props and art by Laika to be auctioned off on eBay for one day only (February 12, 2015). A portion of the proceeds was to be given to The Art of Elysium. You had to sign up for approval to bid beforehand. The auctions included items from Coraline, ParaNorman, and Boxtrolls. A great oppertunity to own a piece from any of Laika's major films. The auction was a huge success and generated more than $1,000,000.

Unfortunately, every auction surpassed my little budget. Auction listings are still visible on eBay. Just do a search for completed/sold listings and use search terms "Laika", "Coraline", "Boxtrolls", "ParaNorman" with "Lot". Good reference photos if anyone is interested.

One of the Auctions that caught my attention, was the listing for the Moving truck from Coraline, Listed Here (temporary working link). Now, what is odd about this listing, is, I believe it was incorrectly labeled. While the moving truck is originally from Coraline, this one in particular, was not. Or at least, was not screen used.

 Moving Van From Auction (Original Photo from Ebay Auction) 48" long x 14" wide x 30" tall

Moving Truck From Coraline (Behind the scenes photo)

Two very different trucks. The truck shown from the auction, granted could have been a prototype. However, the style, wonky lines, paint, makes me think of pre-production art work. However, wouldn't it be neat if this van was built as an Easter egg for ParaNorman?

Star Wars Wampa stopmotion

Jim (aka Fantamation) from TheRPF started out re-creating a Stopmotion puppet of Luke Skywalker riding his Tauntaun from The Empire Strikes Back (shown here).

From there, he was inspired to film the puppet in Stopmotion, but needed to create a scene. So, he decided to recreate the scene of the Wampa killing the Tauntaun, but from a wide shot.

He set to work creating a armature, sculpting the face and hands for the Wampa, and padding a body, Jim had his new puppet. After a couple of days of animating his puppets and a couple of weeks of clean up and effects, he has a
Finished video = Vimeo.com password "fantamation"

Here is the clip inserted into the film: Empire Strikes Back Additional Wampa Footage

photos by Jim (Fantamation) and Kevin (OTnROTSfan)