Coraline

I had no intention of seeing this, but my friend and I were bored on a Friday night and I had free tickets to a movie theater. The only movie playing at 9:30 at night was Coraline. I had heard of the book before, but I never read it so I didn't know what to expect.

The animation was amazing. Every character looked awesome and had so much detail to them. With the 3-D, nothing really popped out of you, but it just gave it an extra depth that made it more real. I think it was so cool.

The movie was really cute. If you haven't read the book, it'll keep you in suspense. I really enjoyed the movie and recommend you see it. :)

The Movie Coraline is an animated film well worth watching more than once. SPOILER ALERT The movie starts out introducing Coraline, voice actor Dakota Fanning, who is new to the Pink palace and is soon introduced to the black cat, voice actor Keith David, and Wybie Lovat, voice actor Robert Bailey Jr., who both are stalking Coraline. We then meet her mother Mel Jones, voice actor Teri Hatcher, and her father Charlie Jones, voice actor John Hodgman. Corallines' new life is shown to be less than wonderful as she meets her other tenants and is unable to realize her dream of gardening. Soon she discovers another world, which is much better in every way tailored specifically to Coraline based on information gathered by a spying Coraline doll carried by Coraline unknowingly. The other mother quickly turns villainess, as she is unable to get Coraline to do what she wants. With the help of the black cat, Coraline is able to escape the other mother and return home saving other children's souls who were less fortunate than she was. As well as her parents who were trapped to lure Coraline back to the other world.

The movie end with Coraline now happy with her real world and realizing she had everything she needed there all along. The theme of wanting more than what you already have and not seeing how good you have it is common among films today. However, the creative imagination of Coraline takes a spin and makes a very unbelievable situation seem plausible. The motif of the movie is seen often as the theme is drawing on what is real and what is too good to be true. When the sound and lighting are as controlled as in Coraline the Director can really impress upon the viewer a believable world that you can see yourself involved. The songs used make the world's first the regular world and then the other world seem like a place of dreary and boring plainness and then a world of pure imagination yet also terror. When the other world is dissolving the technique of fading the edges into white is pure genius.

The angle also helps you see through a subjective viewpoint in the majority of the scenes, even though it is not truly the camera angle but how the slides are drawn to show certain angles. The theme is so crucial in Coraline because few people would think the way Coraline is acting at the start of the movie might even be bad but as the movie progresses you see how she is flawed in her original outlook and judgments of her parents and new neighbors.

Feisty eleven-year-old Coraline walks through a secret door and discovers a parallel reality. That reality is sort of similar to the life she already knows yet deeply unsettling in a number of ways. Coraline (voice of Dakota Fanning) begins a journey of adventure and self discovery when her parents (Teri Hatcher and John Hodgman) relocate the family to Oregon from Michigan. No one in this new space has time for her so she spends her time exploring her new neighborhood with an talkative local boy named Wybie Lovat (Robert Bailey Jr.). After discovering the odd neighbors all of whom are true characters, she is still bored somehow.

All of this immense undertaking is courtesy writer and director Henry Selick, director of Nightmare Before Christmas, and the well crafted adaptation of Neil Gaiman's international best-selling children's novel. To Selick's credit this is the first 3D stop motion ever made; stereoscopic 3D. Selick himself worked on the film for three years. The style is stunning and the story is an unwavering fairy-tale nightmare that has some genuinely scary moments. is a masterful movie and an exciting tale of mystery and imagination.

In the rotting nooks and crannies of Coraline's new home the real story begins and where she discovers a hidden doorway behind the wallpaper. Inside is her alternate space where there are doubles of her distracted parents now lavish loving attention on Coraline, the oddball neighbors are friendlier, and her pesky friend long longer speaks. Only her parents' eyes now black buttons give a clue that something isn't quite right.

Selick has created a world as much for adults as children as there are references dotted throughout that the young won't understand. The imagery, however, is very child like. Both talents live side by side and bodes well for Selick's previous work in Nightmare before Christmas, James and the Giant Peach and even Monkeybone. His work has always been fascinating. Gaiman is to be credited with the story for sure, but this is Selick through and through. This film is sure to become an instant classic and as well executed as this movie is it should be.

"Coraline" is simply one of the best animated films ever made: The plots is brilliantly developed, the animation is detailed and beautiful to look at, the characters are fascinating and interesting, and the world created by Neil Gaiman and Henry Selick it's simply captivating, but mysterious and dangerous and well.

Clearly influenced by "Alice in Wonderland", "Coraline" is charming and macabre at the same time: At first "The Other World" seems like a dream come true, but there is also a constant sense of danger in the air.

Dakota Fanning makes a great work as the main character, and Teri Hatcher is flawless in her role of the Mother (And the Other Mother as well) of Coraline, not to mention the excellent performance of Keith David as the cat.

"Coraline" is one of the best movies of the recent years, and it is the best movie of Henry Selick as director since "The Nightmare before Christmas."

Almost 3 weeks ago, I attended a screening from Ain't It Cool News to see Henry Selick's latest film, 'Coraline.' I was excited because the screening would showcase the film in 3-D technology, and there was the chance to do a Q&A with Director Henry Selick (unfortunately due to bad weather, Mr. Selick did not make it to our screening).

Before going in to see 'Coraline,' I had read the book on which the film was based. While many acclaimed it for it's storyline, I found it rather dull and predictable. I've been surrounded by fans of Neil Gaiman's work, though so far had never picked up a book written by him (though 'American Gods' did pique my interest).

Going into the film, I was not quite sure what to expect. I had had tastes of the film from the trailers, but the general consensus was that Henry Selick had tarnished Gaiman's story, turning it into 'Disney fodder.' The truth is: the film manages to be both charming and creepy.

For those not in the know, "Coraline" tells the tale of Coraline Jones, who moves to a new town and a house with several strange characters. As well, Coraline's parents just seem to have no time for her, and so she takes to exploring her new abode by herself. In her exploration, she uncovers a small door in the house, which seems to lead to nowhere. But upon revisiting the door late at night, it opens onto a parallel world that is much more whimsical and fun than the real world.

The one difference is that in the 'Other World,' almost all the inhabitants have buttons for eyes. But still, the other parents in this world pay attention to Coraline, and the rather blasé atmosphere of the real world is electrified with color and interesting flights of fancy. It seems just so perfect...or is it? Henry Selick manages to take Neil Gaiman's story, and crafts a world that just seems to take great advantage of stop-motion in a world where the obvious choice would be to go for a totally computer-generated world. Seeing minute details such as Coraline's clothing made of actual material makes the world seem even more magical, where invisible giants manipulate the Lilliputians in this miniature world.

Dakota Fanning, Teri Hatcher, and a number of other vocal actors give voice to a number of wonderful characters, with Hatcher really doing double and triple-duty with her vocal talents. Fanning on the other hand, fleshes out a character that seemed rather dull in Gaiman's work. Her voice gives Coraline the life that I didn't think was possible.

One unsung hero (along with the countless animators who will be passed over in the press junkets) is the composer, Bruno Corlais. Mr. Corlais had never crossed my ears until the screening, but his music lends a touch of brilliance to the film, and makes it seem almost like a European production. Growing up in he US in the early 80's, I saw a number of stop-motion productions from Europe that played on the Nickelodeon show 'Pinwheel.' Corlais' music just transported me to that simpler of times when music didn't need to be 'commercial.' His score really helps to establish the world as well, and uses some instruments that may sound foreign to American ears.

And if anyone is questioning if the 3-D is worth it-it is! This isn't the fly-in-your-face #-D that was seen 2-3 decades ago. It's subtler, but gives dimension to the miniature world of 'Coraline.' I think if you showed this film to a child in 3-D, they'd go home dreaming of creating their own little worlds of stop-motion puppets.

For the year 2009, 'Coraline' so far (as of 2/6/09), is my first enjoyable film experience. I'm hoping my other upcoming film hopefuls (Watchmen, Up, Transformers 2) will also make me feel as positive.