Coraline Movie Review - Story and Art together
Nightmare Before Christmas Director Henry Selick Goes 3-D
Feb 6, 2009
Not only does it have great story but the characters are as engaging as the art work itself. She, Coraline is a child whose parents are all too typically engaged in making a living. After moving into the Pink Palace Apartments – a converted house – she discovers a small door that takes her to another world. Where there is the Other Mother, who makes fabulous meals and cakes that say Welcome Home.
Coraline's Other World is Not All That
If you have ever been to a movie involving children who wish their parents were better cooks, kinder, more attentive, you will know that Coraline’s Other Mother isn’t exactly what she appears to be.
Coraline is voiced by Dakota Fanning with Teri Hatcher playing her mother. The talented actors infuse the characters with amazing depth and emotional range
The visuals of the film are stunning. It would be easy to get lost in the 40 handmade trees, the ping pong ball flowers, the popcorn hand-painted for cherry blossom except that the characters keep pulling you back in to the story. Neighbour Mr. Bobinsky trains performing mice and the two ladies downstairs must have been quite the showgirls when they were younger. Dawn French and Jennifer Saunders, the English comedy duo, give them such pizzaz that even in their elder years, they exude a risqué sense of fun.
When Coraline goes through the door, Mr. Bobinsky’s dancing mice form Coraline’s name with their tails to her delight. The ladies put on a show for 248 Scottie dogs, Coraline and the other Wybie. Everything is over the top and a delight to the eye.
Button Eyes
You will never look at buttons in quite the same way. All the people on the other side of the door have button eyes. Don’t ask for an explanation as to why buttons or how Other Mother gets her power or why is there a Wybie on both sides of the door. You don’t need to know the answers to enjoy the film.
Other Mother doesn’t want Coraline to return to her real world - instead wanting her to stay where dinner always smells delicious and bedtime is fun. By turns frightful and enchanting, this is obviously director Henry Selick’s love child.
Selick wrote the screenplay from Neil Gaiman’s novel and you might see a similarity to Selick’s previous directorial work, The Nightmare Before Christmas or Gaiman’s adaptation of the Beowulf legend.
The film is kinda creepy for younger kids, but still scary enough for adults, Coraline is a strange fusing of stop-motion animation, 3-D technology, strong action and characters. Rated PG, it is 101 minutes long but you will want to see it more than once to absorb all of Coraline.
Fun Facts from Focus Features:
- The Ranft Bros. moving company is named after real-life animation artists Jerome and Joe Ranft.
- The image of Jack Skellington from the Nightmare Before Christmas is revealed in the egg that Other Mother cracks into a bowl.
- The voice of the dragonfly is Teri Hatcher’s daughter, Emerson.
- George Selick, the director’s son voices one of the ghost children. Harry Selick, the director’s other son voices one of Coraline’s friends in a photo that comes to life.
- It took an entire week of production with a crew of over 300 people working on 52 stages to complete 74 seconds of footage.
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