An adventurous 11 year old girl finds another world that closely mirrors her own but, in many ways, is better. She rejoices in her discovery but may be saddened when she realizes she wont be allowed to return to her family.
This dark edge will be the biggest test of the film as a commercial prospect: it may be too terrifying for the target audience. But for braver kids - and parents - this is a thrilling, even challenging ride.
The movie, though, dares not go below the surface. Could the problem be its use of 3-D? Did the filmmakers think that to offset this additional, illusory visual dimension they had to remove all depth from the story itself?
All involved in this production deserve praise for turning Coraline into a triumph of storytelling and cinematic technology. Whether you're young, middle-age or older, you'll adore it.
It would be difficult for any filmmaker to mimic Gaiman's seductively amusing and imaginative writing, and Selick, who also wrote the script, should be commended for not falling back on some golden-tongued narrator. But his Coraline could use more spunk.
Peter Rainer
Christian Science Monitor
February 09, 2009
Neil Gaiman's hugely popular 2002 children's horror novel Coraline has been given the animated 3-D treatment but you may want to keep the toddlers away from this one.
You know from the very first sequence that Coraline is an extraordinary movie that is going to rattle the bejeezus out of young audience members and -- the truth be told -- their fathers as well.
Employing stop-motion animation that renders human beings with the distinctive characteristics evident in both The Nightmare Before Christmas and James and the Giant Peach, Selick finds the perfect look to bring Gaiman's vision to life.
It's the stop-motion figures themselves who steal the show. They're so vivid and expressive, in both body and facial movements, that they cease being mere puppets and take on a life all their own.
