Paladin
02-08-2009, 09:29 PM
Coraline, starring Dakota Fanning, Teri Hatcher, John Hodgman, Ian McShane, Keith David and Robert Bailey Jr. Directed by Henry Selick.
I'm a sucker for a good animated movie. It needs to have characters I like, an interesting story and ideally be something that wouldn't work nearly as well with live action. This movie hits on at least the first two points, and as for the third, you could do it in live action, but it would be a genuine horror movie. As an animated film, it makes it a fun, scary movie that is ok for (older) kids as well as adults.
Coraline is a young girl whose just been moved with her writer parents from Michigan to Oregon. The family moves into an old mansion which has been turned into apartments. The family has some eccentric neighbors. Upstairs in the attic is Mr. Bobinski, a Russian circus acrobat who is trying to recapture the circus glory by training a bunch of mice. Downstairs in the basement are Miss Forcible and Miss Spink, old burlesque queens who spend their days playing cards beneath shelves full of their old stuffed scottie-dog pets. Also living there is Wybie, a boy about Coraline's age who lives with his grandmother who owns the place. Neither one will set foot in the house.
Bored and ignored by her parents, Coraline explores her new home and quickly finds a hidden door which leads to another world. Everything in this world is better. Better parents. Better house. Better neighbors. Even a better Wybie. But everything isn't great, as everyone in this other world has had their eyes replaced with giant black buttons. Coraline must choose between going back to the real world and this other world, where everything is in her estimation "better".
This other world is spectacularly realized. The whole film is, really. While the real world is dull and gray, the other world is absolutely alive with color and strange creatures. It reminded me a lot of the ghost world in Beattlejuice. The animation is great, especially when you consider it was all done by hand. Like "A Nightmare Before Christmas" and "Corpse Bride", this movie doesn't use a lick of CG. This movie shows that old-school stop motion animation still has it's place (not that there is much doubt, as every few years masterworks like "Corpse Bride" and "Coraline" come along, not to mention "Wallace & Gromit").
Anyway, this is a really good movie, and definitely worth seeing. It's appropriate for older young kids, like 7 or older. Younger than that, the kids will probably be scared (plus the old gals get nearly naked in one scene, and it's really funny). But then, being a kid and being scared is what this film is all about, so maybe it isn't a bad thing. For adults, the movie is a treat as well.
The theater I saw it in showed it in 3D. It wasn't gimmicky (nothing flew out the screen at you). It just felt like you were there in the story. The 3D glasses were much improved. They didn't distort the colors of the film at all. Only when something was moving rapidly on the screen, like some of the dragonfly wings, did the 3D not work so well. They previewed 3D versions of "Monsters vs. Aliens" and "Up!" with the trailers, and they looked good too.
I'm a sucker for a good animated movie. It needs to have characters I like, an interesting story and ideally be something that wouldn't work nearly as well with live action. This movie hits on at least the first two points, and as for the third, you could do it in live action, but it would be a genuine horror movie. As an animated film, it makes it a fun, scary movie that is ok for (older) kids as well as adults.
Coraline is a young girl whose just been moved with her writer parents from Michigan to Oregon. The family moves into an old mansion which has been turned into apartments. The family has some eccentric neighbors. Upstairs in the attic is Mr. Bobinski, a Russian circus acrobat who is trying to recapture the circus glory by training a bunch of mice. Downstairs in the basement are Miss Forcible and Miss Spink, old burlesque queens who spend their days playing cards beneath shelves full of their old stuffed scottie-dog pets. Also living there is Wybie, a boy about Coraline's age who lives with his grandmother who owns the place. Neither one will set foot in the house.
Bored and ignored by her parents, Coraline explores her new home and quickly finds a hidden door which leads to another world. Everything in this world is better. Better parents. Better house. Better neighbors. Even a better Wybie. But everything isn't great, as everyone in this other world has had their eyes replaced with giant black buttons. Coraline must choose between going back to the real world and this other world, where everything is in her estimation "better".
This other world is spectacularly realized. The whole film is, really. While the real world is dull and gray, the other world is absolutely alive with color and strange creatures. It reminded me a lot of the ghost world in Beattlejuice. The animation is great, especially when you consider it was all done by hand. Like "A Nightmare Before Christmas" and "Corpse Bride", this movie doesn't use a lick of CG. This movie shows that old-school stop motion animation still has it's place (not that there is much doubt, as every few years masterworks like "Corpse Bride" and "Coraline" come along, not to mention "Wallace & Gromit").
Anyway, this is a really good movie, and definitely worth seeing. It's appropriate for older young kids, like 7 or older. Younger than that, the kids will probably be scared (plus the old gals get nearly naked in one scene, and it's really funny). But then, being a kid and being scared is what this film is all about, so maybe it isn't a bad thing. For adults, the movie is a treat as well.
The theater I saw it in showed it in 3D. It wasn't gimmicky (nothing flew out the screen at you). It just felt like you were there in the story. The 3D glasses were much improved. They didn't distort the colors of the film at all. Only when something was moving rapidly on the screen, like some of the dragonfly wings, did the 3D not work so well. They previewed 3D versions of "Monsters vs. Aliens" and "Up!" with the trailers, and they looked good too.