Award-winning animation studio LAIKA has added another innovation notch to its belt, creating the first stop-motion animated digital magazine cover. The unique collaboration with Empire sees their popular character Coraline (from Henry Selick’s 2009 Neil Gaiman adaptation of the same name) open a new door to another world, leading viewers through her boarding house tunnel into the Impassable Wilderness, where Prue — the heroine of LAIKA’s sixth feature film, Wildwood — is waiting. Both films are set in Oregon, where the studio itself is based.
“Empire magazine clearly loves movies, as does LAIKA,” said LAIKA’s Chief Marketing and Operations Officer David Burke. “A stop-motion Empire cover seemed the perfect way to introduce fans around the world to our newest leading lady, Prue. Wildwood is a love letter to LAIKA’s hometown of Portland, Oregon. As Coraline is celebrating her 15th anniversary this year, it felt right for our first female film heroine to pass the baton to Prue. We approached this cover with the same dedication and creativity as we do our films, enlisting the studio’s top artists and craftspeople to make it truly special. We hope Empire fans love the result as much as we do.”
This “first” builds on LAIKA’s pioneering history: Coraline was the first stop-motion animated film ever shot in stereoscopic 3D, and LAIKA was the first animation studio to win an Oscar for its innovation in rapid prototyping.
The stop-motion digital-only cover took 120 days to make, and was worked on by over 160 LAIKA team members across 15 departments. A newly restored Coraline puppet was enlisted for the shoot with, new sets and costuming created specifically for the cover production. You can read more about the project here.
Wildwood is slated for release in 2025.
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