Spring Break
'Coraline' is delightfully bizarre
4 and a half out of 5 stars
Eric Nigosanti
Issue date: 2/10/09 Section: Focus
Does parental neglect encourage risky behavior in a child? Can a perfect world ever be good enough? How safe is it really to eat one-hundred-year-old taffy? All of these important questions and other issues are raised in the new animated feature "Coraline." Of course, a lot of fun is to be had while doing so, and fun is all Coraline, the pint-sized, blue-haired heroine of the movie, wants.
Having just moved into a creepy old house, Coraline (Dakota Fanning) is looking for adventure and growing frustrated that her parents (Teri Hatcher and John Hodgman) are more concerned with getting their new garden catalogue written than her well-being.
Coraline finds a secret magic door in the house which leads to a parallel reality. Beyond this door, Coraline enters a world where birds sing to her, cats talk to her and her "parents" shower her with extraordinary gifts, keeping her the center of attention.
Over whelmed by this new world, Coraline overlooks the unsettling oddity that her new parents have buttons sewn over their eyes. Yet like all too good to be true parallel worlds, this one comes with an underhanded secret agenda, leaving Coraline to fight for her real life, the one she was originally all too willing to throw away.
The big anticipation coming into this film involved director Henry Selick's ("The Nightmare Before Christmas"), stop motion animation, and how it would be adapted to 3D. With scenes involving a dazzling high flying trapeze show and a wacky jumping rat circus, there was little disappointment there.
This was also the best use of 3D in a film in a long time. Instead of resorting to the typical 3D tricks (objects flying towards the audience), Selick uses it to add depth to Coraline's world. Still, all this craziness had to be backed up by an equally crazy story, which was a given since "Coraline" was based on a graphic novel by legend Neil Gaiman ("Stardust," "Mirrormask").
Although originally a children's book, Gaiman includes lessons for both children and adults, allowing the story to reach a varied audience. The one blemish on the movie was once the ulterior motive of the parallel world was revealed, the choice Coraline would have had to make between worlds became too easy. Despite this, "Coraline" provides enough captivating scenes and bizarre fun for an audience of any age.
Having just moved into a creepy old house, Coraline (Dakota Fanning) is looking for adventure and growing frustrated that her parents (Teri Hatcher and John Hodgman) are more concerned with getting their new garden catalogue written than her well-being.
Coraline finds a secret magic door in the house which leads to a parallel reality. Beyond this door, Coraline enters a world where birds sing to her, cats talk to her and her "parents" shower her with extraordinary gifts, keeping her the center of attention.
Over whelmed by this new world, Coraline overlooks the unsettling oddity that her new parents have buttons sewn over their eyes. Yet like all too good to be true parallel worlds, this one comes with an underhanded secret agenda, leaving Coraline to fight for her real life, the one she was originally all too willing to throw away.
The big anticipation coming into this film involved director Henry Selick's ("The Nightmare Before Christmas"), stop motion animation, and how it would be adapted to 3D. With scenes involving a dazzling high flying trapeze show and a wacky jumping rat circus, there was little disappointment there.
This was also the best use of 3D in a film in a long time. Instead of resorting to the typical 3D tricks (objects flying towards the audience), Selick uses it to add depth to Coraline's world. Still, all this craziness had to be backed up by an equally crazy story, which was a given since "Coraline" was based on a graphic novel by legend Neil Gaiman ("Stardust," "Mirrormask").
Although originally a children's book, Gaiman includes lessons for both children and adults, allowing the story to reach a varied audience. The one blemish on the movie was once the ulterior motive of the parallel world was revealed, the choice Coraline would have had to make between worlds became too easy. Despite this, "Coraline" provides enough captivating scenes and bizarre fun for an audience of any age.
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