"Coraline"



This afternoon, J. suggested seeing "Coraline", a movie I hadn't heard of at all, since I don't watch TV to any real extent, and don't read children's books either. So, I said OK.

This stop-motion animated 3-D picture was directed by Henry Selick, who also directed "The Nightmare Before Christmas". The two movies share many common features, not least of which is that they both have a vast, almost-incalculable impact on impressionable kids (of whom I include myself). I described before the impact of "The Nightmare Before Christmas" and how it affected an entire generation of kids. This movie will do the same! What an excellent movie! Really, it's better than "The Nightmare Before Christmas"!

Lately, I've been having a dream, which varies from night to night, but has a common theme. My house is a large, rambling house. Underneath the house is a multi-level series of caverns, prone to breakdown and collapse. Almost like an anthill.

The source of the dream is easy to understand. The south side of the house has been undermined over the last century by pooling water, and is slowly slumping. Indeed, someday it might even collapse, say, if a tremor from a Napa or Tahoe earthquake were to coincide with a heavy rainstorm. So, the house has issues....

Indeed, the house is 100 years old. The County Recorder's Office lists its birth date as 1908. Bill The Carpenter reminds me, however, that construction stopped on a lot of Sacramento houses in 1906, when the San Francisco earthquake led to an immense demand for local carpentry labor. Sacramento construction virtually stopped for a time, as carpenters made a bee line for the Bay Area, so the house might even be a couple of years older, and date from 1906.

So, when Coraline arrived from Pontiac, MI to her new home in Ashland, OR, into a large, rambling house that was 150 years old, and when she discovered an alternate house through a tunnel through a small door in the wall, I felt like I had arrived in an animated version of my own anxiety dream.

Coraline is shown three wonders in her alternate universe: a circus of mice, a trapeze exhibition in a theater, and a garden. The theatricality of it all just heightens the dreamy aspect of the show (and I'm sure it's no coincidence they placed the story Ashland - the Shakespeare capital of the West).

I was particularly struck by the manner Coraline's alternate universe eventually unraveled - in strips of fragmenting pixels. Recently, I blogged about how physicists might be able to reconcile problems with certain physical laws if they assume the world we know is actually a hologram, consisting of blurred pixels, projected from a giant, distant cinema screen on the boundary of the Universe more than 13.5 billion light years away. "Coraline" makes explicit these underlying assumptions about the order of the Universe.

The audience had its special types. As soon as the first significant 3-D trick hit the screen, a guy 5 seats down shouted "Dope!" A baby started crying, and 'Dope' shouted "Why did you bring a baby in here anyway?" I shouted to 'Dope' to be quiet.

With the problems in the automotive industry, many kids will be leaving the Midwest - if they haven't left already, they will be leaving soon - from places like Pontiac, MI, and heading with their parents to unfamiliar places like Ashland, OR. "Coraline" speaks to their fears, and their needs.

A great show!

I like the comments over at imdb:

Author: SethGecko96

Henry Selick, the director of " The Nightmare Before Christmas" and "James and the Giant Peach", once again takes us to a world full of imagery and wonder...but this time...some of it is actually frightening. It was filled with such magic and enchantment that I completely forgot that it was a dark tale..until the occasional scares filled the air. It has some highly fun and amusing characters in it also, and that is the strongest thing of the movie. After viewing it, I came to the conclusion it was basically an "Alice in Wonderland" tale (girl entering new and strange world, plus the cat that talks makes it obvious) but this world has a dark twist. Filled with a great cast and terrific visionary, I feel this movie is fun for all ages (who says kiddos shouldn't be scared?)


Author: Greg Treadway

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.


Author: uruseiranma

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 3-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.