In an age when A.D.D. is as frequently diagnosed as the common cold, a premiere party for a children's movie had better provide abundant stimuli in order to hold guests' attention. Caravents offered its young attendees and their grown-up escorts more than enough to see and do at a party following the Los Angeles premiere of Disney's latest animated feature Teacher's Pet at the Annex in Hollywood.
A duo of stunt jump-ropers greeted the arriving crowd at the entrance to the party, where chalk drawings and brightly colored tallboys added cheer to the venue's outdoor terrace. In keeping with the grade school and mad science themes that pervaded the film, Caravents mixed gerbera daisies with pencils and rulers or test tubes and beakers for unusual centerpieces inside and outside the space. Elaborate systems of scientific-looking glassware, brimming with primary-colored liquids and steaming with dry ice bedecked the stage at the center of the party space, where a costumed mad scientist conducted interactive mock experiments with the kids.
Myriad activity stations kept the young crowd entertained. At the "Morphing Madness" station, a lab coat-clad staff digitally manipulated photographs of the kids, recalling the plot of the movie in which a dog transforms into a boy. Crafty kids had a variety of activity choices: They made puppets at the "Paperbag Pets" station, decorated cookies at "Bone Appetit," and beaded jewelry at the sandy "Beach Baubles" area, a nod to the movie's Florida setting.
Wolfgang Puck, the Annex's exclusive caterer, supplied school cafeteria-style food. Caravents set up the hot food bar like a lunchroom, complete with costumed lunch ladies and a chalkboard announcing the menu: baked macaroni and cheese, mashed potatoes and gravy, meat loaf and green beans. A cold food bar offered brown bag lunches, complete with sandwiches, carrot sticks and juice boxes, as well as Jell-O shooters. One glance at the dessert table surely sent a bolt of horror through any parent present: A chocolate fountain beckoned kids to dip marshmallows and cookies on sticks (there was fruit too, but no one seemed to notice). Overflowing bowls of king-size Snickers and Hershey bars made little eyes pop out of little heads and undoubtedly led to some sugar-fueled fits of excitement.
—Alesandra Dubin
