Sea Odyssey: the verdict, and 15 of the best pictures

Spider? What spider? Little Girl Giant and her gang of mega-puppets invaded Liverpool this weekend, and made an impact on the city forever.

Alright. Listen. We’ll admit we were a little apprehensive about the Giant Spectacular at first. It’d be just a couple of puppets dusted off and bussed in from a French warehouse, right? Probably ride around on a couple of trucks or something for a few hours? Well, we were pretty much blown away by this past weekend’s event. By the sheer scale of the whole thing. By the thousands upon thousands of smiling, happy people from right across the world who came to our city witness it. And, ultimately, by the story itself.

Giant Spectacular was slickly done, but it felt human and engaging - it was, after all, based on a true story - a young girl who wrote a letter to her father, oblivious to the fact he’d already perished on the Titanic. In any other situation this kind of history-dredging might have felt mawkish and cheesy, but when it’s distilled into three beautifully crafted, beautifully performed giants weaving their way across the city it’s hard not to be genuinely moved. Their final journey into the Mersey, by boat on Sunday morning, was the ultimate blubfest.

It wasn’t all melancholy, and in fact the best thing about Sea Odyssey was that it felt so damn fun. The thrill of ducking out of work on Friday afternoon for a glimpse, the adorable mini-giant-dog Xolo (a masterpiece of puppetry and engineering), the Girl Giant’s occasional toilet breaks in the middle of the street, the Uncle having his helmet removed to have a drink from a fire hose. It felt like a real ‘watercooler moment’ for the city - pass through yesterday and it was the only subject on people’s lips. It far surpassed 2008′s La Princess spider which crawled its way across town, impressive at the time but absolutely nothing on the scale of this. This one even made its way up through Everton and Anfield - a canny bit of routing that meant it wasn’t just the city centre that benefited from it all.

What we do hope is that many of the visitors who came to see this had a proper delve into some of our homegrown arts, food and culture while they were here - and if not, plan to come back sometime to have a look. That it takes imported mannequins to bring vast swathes of people here, and that the puppets have been used before in different cities, is somewhat irrelevant. Because this felt smart, ambitious, emotionally connected to Liverpool’s history and personality and, despite its tragic Titanic storyline, the most celebratory thing we’ve witnessed in years.

- Above images via sw77, Flickr

THE PICTURES

One of the most enjoyable aspects about Sea Odyssey was catching up on Twitter with what our followers thought of it. It was unanimously positive, and the first local event where we witnessed the real impact of social media and picture-sharing: Twitpics and Instagram were on fire the whole weekend, with some really impressive images. Who says cameraphones can’t take amazing pictures? We’ve chosen 20 of the best ones we saw pop up on our timeline - here for your viewing pleasure. (All are credited)

We were there too, it was indeed giant & spectacular. RT @_wildrumpus: #giantspectacular

— CreativeTourist.com (@creativetourist) April 22, 2012

The best picture of #LittleGirlGiant #seaodyssey #itsliverpool @GiantSpectacle twitter.com/itsliverpool/s…

— it’s liverpool (@itsliverpool) April 22, 2012

#seaodyssey on her scooter @GiantSpectacleinstagr.am/p/JsH5odHGyr/

— Aaron Mcdonald (@aaronmcdonald) April 21, 2012

More north liverpool people getting involved! #seaodyssey #itsliverpool this is #littleLiverpoolGirl ! twitter.com/itsliverpool/s…

— it’s liverpool (@itsliverpool) April 20, 2012

Xolo the dog goes over to greet the children in the crowd #SeaOdyssey @GiantSpectacle twitter.com/graemelambmedi…

— Graeme Lamb (@graemelambmedia) April 21, 2012

Liliputians manoeuvre the Little Girl Giant into place for her exercises#SeaOdyssey @GiantSpectacle twitter.com/graemelambmedi…

— Graeme Lamb (@graemelambmedia) April 21, 2012

Giant uncle.instagr.am/p/JrrJa6QIsJ/

— Adam Irwin (@doodliciouslfc) April 21, 2012

Leaving the dock #seaodyssey #lpoolinstagraminstagr.am/p/JpJ3oBw-QV/

— clare curran (@Lpoolinstagram) April 20, 2012

#LittleGirlGiant with 2 #littleLiverpoolGirls playing! #seaodyssey #itsliverpool twitter.com/itsliverpool/s…

— it’s liverpool (@itsliverpool) April 20, 2012

#SeaOdyssey @giantspectacle is incredible! instagr.am/p/Jo3ZyxK5c5/

— Sammy - Sam-Pol.com (@sammy_lpool) April 20, 2012

Sea odyssey.instagr.am/p/Jo1RVTQIgk/

— Adam Irwin (@doodliciouslfc) April 20, 2012

And another #seaodyssey twitter.com/janeagallagher…

— Jane(@janeagallagher) April 20, 2012

Finally, Little Girl Giant and the Giant Uncle are reunited. Everyone cheers! twitter.com/GiantSpectacle…

— Giant Spectacular (@GiantSpectacle) April 21, 2012

@JuiceChambo #GiantSpectacular #SeaOdyssey twitter.com/Ashley_Garrod/…

— Ashley Garrod (@Ashley_Garrod) April 22, 2012

RT @GiantSpectacle: RT @SianDawson: They’re on their way! Goodbye! @giantspectacular #seaodysseyinstagr.am/p/JuEtLMnzw9/

— Simon Bamkin (@simonbamkin) April 22, 2012

Bye giants #seaodyssey #lpoolinstagraminstagr.am/p/JuH7alQ-S9/

— clare curran (@Lpoolinstagram) April 22, 2012