TV & Film Review

Coraline

Feature Film | Henry Selick
By Eric Schneider

An enchanting and eerie pairing of Gaiman's storytelling and Selick's visuals.

A rare case of a film significantly improving upon its literary source, Henry Selick's Coraline is a visually stunning expansion of Neil Gaiman's creepy and concise children's tale. Opening with a sinister sewing sequence, the fantastical stop-motion movie follows the restless Coraline Jones (voiced perfectly by Dakota Fanning) as she explores her family's drab new home, and discovers a seemingly ideal alternate reality behind a small hidden door. Initially fascinated by the magical realm of her Other Mother (Teri Hatcher), Coraline begins to realize that the black buttons on her host's eyes aren't the only ominous things about this bizarre mirror-like world. A delicately handcrafted film down to the tiniest of details, Coraline pulls off the hat trick of being bright and colorful and eerie and unsettling, with Selick's masterful hand expertly guiding every gloriously strange scene. Solidly in the lineage of Alice in Wonderland, Spirited Away, and, of course, Selick's own Tim Burton collaboration, The Nightmare Before Christmas, Coraline is nothing short of a new cinematic classic.

TAGS: Adventure, Alternate Reality, Cats, Family, Fantasy, Fathers, Ghosts, Literary Adaptation, Mothers, Stop-Motion Animation, Young Heroines,

FACTS: Released: February 06, 2009 (Focus Features); MPAA: PG; Cast: Dakota Fanning, Teri Hatcher, John Hodgman, Keith David

Coraline trailer