”
Coraline
”
offers visually stunning adventure
”
Coraline
”
with voiceovers by Dakota Fanning, Teri Hatcher and John
Hodgman
Stop motion animation is made for 3-D viewing. If the Halloween
release of Tim Burton’s
”
The Nightmare Before Christmas
”
didn’t prove it then
”
Coraline
”
certainly does.
“Coraline” offers visually stunning adventure
“Coraline” with voiceovers by Dakota Fanning, Teri Hatcher and John Hodgman
Stop motion animation is made for 3-D viewing. If the Halloween release of Tim Burton’s “The Nightmare Before Christmas” didn’t prove it then “Coraline” certainly does.
“Coraline” is in some ways a thriller for the ‘tween set. If it had been done as a live-action movie, it would surely have been too dark for most children. But stop motion animation allowed screenplay writer and director Henry Selick the chance to play with the suspenseful moments in the movie without going too dark.
There are few movies where it makes a difference whether viewers see it on the big screen or a few months later on DVD. But “Coraline” is one for the big screen, if you can handle wearing the 3D glasses for a couple hours. The characters pop off the screen and the color schemes change to match the mood of the movie – when Coraline is bored, the scenes are dreary and gray; when she is content everything is bright.
The story is based on a book by Neil Gaiman about a girl named Coraline (voiced by Dakota Fanning). She has just moved to a dreary, rainy place with her parents who write catalogues for a gardening supply company. They are so busy trying to meet an upcoming deadline that they ignore her most of the time. Like any ‘tween she quickly gets bored on her own and can find plenty of things to complain about in the new house. Her parents won’t let her go outside to play and she hates the food her father cooks, and the windows are leaky in some of the rooms.
The only kid nearby is Wybie Lovat (voiced by Robert Bailey Jr.) and his stray cat. They both get on Coraline’s nerves. Wybie is astonished at Coraline’s appearance at the pink apartment complex because his grandmother, who owns the building, never rents to people with children. Wybie gives her a doll he finds in his grandmother’s drawer that has Coraline’s same blue hair, yellow raincoat and wellie boots.
The neighbors are all eccentric and elderly people such as Mr. Bobinsky (voiced by Ian McShane) who is trying to train jumping mice for a circus act and Miss Spink (voiced by Jennifer Saunders) and Miss Forcible (voiced by Dawn French) who used to be famous actresses.
Coraline quickly loses interest in the neighbors and again ends up back at her own apartment. There she discovers a tiny door and asks her mother to find the key for it. But there is nothing behind the door except for a brick wall.
At night Coraline awakens to find the small door open and a tunnel that leads into an alternate world. This new world is everything she’s ever wanted. A woman who looks just like her mother appears in the kitchen cooking a feast. A man who looks very much like her father is playing the piano in the study and sings a song for Coraline. Even her bedroom is just a little more cool in this other world with all the stuffed animals in the real world brought to life. The only thing amiss seems to be that all the living things in this new world have button eyes.
When Coraline wakes up she is back in her regular world. But the dream world is so enchanting she can’t wait to get back to it again. She realizes, however that her “other mother” (voiced by Teri Hatcher) and her “other father” (voiced by John Hodgeman) may not be as great as she first thought they were.
The plot in the second half of the movie gets a little threadbare, but it is a kid’s movie. And the way in which Selick plays with the colors in the movie makes up for the loose plot at the end.
It is a story that offers a lesson for every kid who has ever wished to be part of a different family, or any parent who has ever distractedly sent their child away when they were busy with work stuff.
