Artists, sponsors and supporters showed up on a hot Friday morning at a plaza outside the OHSU South Waterfront to officially launch “Coraline’s Curious Cat Trail,” a collection of 30 feline statues inspired by the movie, “Coraline,” and decorated by artists who put their own distinctive touches on their creations.

“Coraline’s Curious Trail” consists of statues installed at various locations in Portland. The cat figures are inspired by the Cat character in “Coraline,” the 2009 feature that was the first release from Laika studio, in Hillsboro.

The installation is a joint effort from Laika, the Visit Downtown Campaign, OHSU Doernbecher Children’s Hospital, and Wild in Art, a U.K.-based art installation producer that has worked on such projects as public art trails for the London 2012 Olympics and Paralympics.

The cat trail marks the 15th anniversary of “Coraline,” the Oscar-nominated stop-motion animated feature that tells the story of Coraline, an 11-year-old girl (voiced by Dakota Fanning) who comes across a portal to another world, one that at first looks ideal. But as the Cat character (voiced by Keith David) helps Coraline discover, that supposedly perfect world is far more dangerous than it seems.