The brief
A fifth birthday at a garden restaurant in Ubud, thatched pavilions and palms, late afternoon into dark. Anastasia wanted Miraculous — and at five, with that particular show, one character is not enough. Ladybug on her own is only half the story.
What we built
Her own comic panel. A red set carrying <i>ANASTASIA 5 YEARS</i> in a comic burst, a wall of gold sequins that the children could not stop running their hands down, hand-cut ladybirds, the mask painted at child height, and a balloon garland in red, black and white. A red carpet laid straight onto the grass to sit on, and a red satin table for the cake.
How the day went
Ladybug and Cat Noir arrived together and the group folded down onto the carpet in front of them without being asked — circle games, a microphone passed round, the two of them working the crowd off each other. A face painter gave every girl her own red mask across the eyes, and half of them had come dressed in spots already. When the light went, the gold wall started to glow and turned into the best photograph of the evening.
What the parents got
The complete version of the thing their daughter watches, not an approximation of it. And a set that photographs as well after dark as it does in daylight — which, for a party that starts at five in the afternoon in Ubud, is the whole game.
