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Review published by Boydesy on 18th Apr 2009. 1 Comment.

Coraline (2009)

Director: Henry Selick

Screenplay by: Henry Selick

Based on the novel by Neil Gaiman.

Producers: Bill Mechanic, Claire Jennings, Henry Selick and Mary Sandell

Line Producer: Harry Linden

Lead Animators: Travis Knight, Trey Thomas, Eric Leighton and Phil Dale

Original Music by: Bruno Corlais

Running Time: 101 Minutes

Cast (Voice):
Dakota Fanning - Coraline Jones
Teri Hatcher - Mother/Other Mother
Jennifer Saunders - Miss April Spink
Dawn French - Miss Miriam Forcible 
Keith David - Cat 
John Hodgeman - Father (Charlie Jones)/Other Father 
Robert Bailey Jr. - Wybie Lovat 
Ian McShane - Mr. Bobinsky

Content Rating: PG (MPAA)

Ben Barrett 07/29/2009 

I consider stop-motion animation to be a rare treat these days. With CGI virtually taking over the market of animated films, few studios are willing to put up with the extensive time and effort that goes into the procedure. A stop-motion feature takes years to produce and therefore requires a great deal of patience and effort among the crew, as the voice cast members usually having to pop in and out of the recording studio between roles in other projects. It is a painstaking and tedious process but one that has an intrinsic beauty to it. The characters on screen are not drawn or rendered by a computer, but are actual physical objects. It can be fascinating to examine them if you have the time. Some parts of the models and set are made of clay, others plastic and glass, and still others from yarn or fabric; all hand crafted and animated step by step. A film made in this form can take up to four to five years to bring to fruition therefore relatively few are made.

Henry Selick is a veteran of stop-motion films, directing The Nightmare Before Christmas (1993), Tim Burton's iconic form of the medium. He also collaborated with Burton in James and the Giant Peach (1996), a film adaptation of the classic Roald Dahl novel, and later in the part animated, part live action Monkeybone (2001). It is probably because of this that Selick's name is relatively unknown to the average moviegoer, as it has taken a back seat to Burton's. This time around, Selick has stepped out on his own and given us his version of the short Neil Gaiman novel, Coraline.

Moving can always be rough on children as they are usually taken from their friends, their school, and everything they've grown used to. Such is the case with 11-year old Coraline Jones, who has been transplanted from her hometown of Pontiac, Michigan to Southern Oregon in the middle of the wet and dreary Northwest winter. Even worse is the fact that her parents seem to have little time for her. While it's clear that they love her, they are stressed and overworked to meet a deadline for a gardening catalog they've been commissioned to write. There's also references to a recent automobile accident (Coraline's mother wears a neck brace.) that has left the family in an even tighter spot. The only would-be playmate she can find comes in the form of Wybie Lovat, the grandson of the Jones' landlady, who seems to spend his time tearing around the surrounding woods on his customized moped. Coraline largely dismisses him, however, as she considered him a "stalker" and "know-it-all". The only other people around for her to interact with, are the other tenents in the triplex in which she resides. The downstairs neighbors, Miss Spink and Miss Forcible, are two bickering former actresses, who Coraline's mother bluntly considers to be 'dingbats'. They appear to have performed in some decidedly more adult versions of Shakespeare, collect vintage taffy and keep their former pet Scottish Terriers stuffed and mounted on shelves. The upstairs resident, Mr. Bobinsky, is an eccentric Russian who claims to, but may or may not, be training mice to perform in a circus. Coraline, needless to say, is a bit underwhelmed by their company as well. Even her name becomes a point of contention and frustration as everyone around her, save for her parents, continues to call her 'Caroline' by mistake.

Coraline is a nicely crafted modern fairytale that can best be described as Alice in Wonderland meets Hansel and Gretel. Coraline is not a typical fantasy heroine, however. This is mostly because, in many ways, she is not a very nice person. She is purposefully sarcastic and impetuous to her parents, and sometimes is downright mean spirited, especially towards Wybie to whom she shows a great deal of contempt. Therefore, some might agree that she slightly deserves what she gets when she finds herself in a parallel world via a small door in her new home. On the other side she finds herself in a house identical to the one she lives in with some minor, and then major differences. She finds that she has an "other mother" and "other father".  This set of parents dotes on her, cooking lavish meals that are a good step above the slop that her real father hurriedly prepares every night. They seem to have all the time in the world for her, share her interests, and live in a world that is full fantastical displays that all seem to be tailored for Coraline's enjoyment. Even the neighbors, who she previously found boring, are capable of amazing feats designed to captivate her. The people she meets in this world are identical to their real world counterparts save for one majorly unsettling difference: Every person and animal she meets there have buttons sewn where their eyes should be. Personally, that alone would creep me out enough to leave. Coraline however, is in such a state of discontent with her life that, despite both subtle and obvious warnings that it is not safe to do so, continues to travel to the alternate reality she has found, partially just to spite her parents. Of course, it all ends up being all being a sinister ruse; a trap set by the Other Mother who wants to keep Coraline for her own as a perfect little daughter, trapped in the other world forever. Coraline learns to her horror, that her very survival depends on her escape.

The imagery in this movie is fantastic. Selick uses his signature style, that was seen in The Nightmare Before Christmas. The characters have a sort of gaunt quality, with limbs that a relatively much thinner than their torsos and heads. It's a style that worked in Nightmare and it is very effective in this film. Coraline has an eerie charm to it that is further accentuated by Bruno Corlais' simplistic but hauntingly beautiful soundtrack. This movie also has the distinction of being the first stop-motion feature filmed specifically for 3-D. Selick stated that his decision to opt for 3-D was based his desire to better display the details of the models. Unlike some films shot for 3-D that seem to go out of the way to create shots specifically to show the effect, it seems to work very naturally in Coraline, flowing almost seamlessly through the story.

The voice acting is well done and well casted. Dakota Fanning, who has been recently working her way up the food chain to more adult projects, is very effective as the snarky Coraline. The comic duo of Saunders and French are always a pleasure, but the real tour-de-force performance comes from Teri Hatcher who voices a double, almost triple role, of Coraline's Mother and Other Mother.

Avid fans of the Burton films might not like this movie as much. It doesn't have a frenetic pace or romping  musical score, but has a much more compelling story set to a far more minimalistic sound track. I believe, however, that this works fantastically for the plot, which goes from innocent at the beginning to downright frightening during the last third. And while Coraline will most likely never receive the fan base, acclaim, merchandising, and continued re-releases that The Nightmare Before Christmas has enjoyed, I believe that Selick has nonetheless created a lovely creepy masterpiece that can be watched and enjoyed again and again.

Final Rating for Coraline: (The coveted but rarely given) 5/5

On DVD and Blu-Ray:

Since the review of this film was written, it has come out for home viewing. Since I gave the movie such a high rating, and truly enjoyed it, it may be worth purchasing purely for the opportunity to view it multiple times at your leisure. Some of the subtleties of the dialogue are hard to pick up in the first viewing. As far as special features, there isn't much. The DVD comes only with commentary from Henry Selick and, at the end credits, Bruno Corlais. What's nice, is that Selick talks almost exclusively about the filming process, so anybody who has interest in the technique of stop-motion will find the commentary worthwhile. The other feature of the DVD is that it is dual sided, with one side containing the 3-D version and the other containing a standard 2-D version.  The 3-D effect at home will not be as good as was seen theaters, because the more effective polarized system is replaced with the standard anaglyphic dual color glasses at home. The effect still looks good, but the 2-D option is good for viewing it with on a non-high definition screen, or if there is a larger group of people watching it, as only four of the glasses necessary for the 3-D viewing come with the purchase. It's a wonderful movie, but the DVD should be purchased solely for the movie as not much else is offered.

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