Film Review: 'Coraline' – 7.5/10

Coraline (2009)
Written by Joé McKen on Saturday, August 01, 2009

Coraline (Dakota Fanning) finds a strange tunnel leading to an even stranger alternate world in Henry Selick’s Coraline.

Coraline Jones (Dakota Fanning) (and not Caroline!) is not a happy girl. She’s cute with her blue hair and imaginative nature, she’s brave and adventurous, yet that is not enough to attract the attention of her eternally busy and distracted parents, Mel and Charlie Jones (Teri Hatcher and John Hodgman), who are far too busy working on a gardening magazine (of all things) to pay any attention to her or what she has to say. So, as with all children in such a scenario, she wanders off.

7.5/10 Coraline: Dakota Fanning (voice) “Wybie”: Robert Bailey Jr. Mother/Other Mother: Teri Hatcher Father/Other Father: John Hodgman Directed by Henry Selick. Written by Henry Selick; based on the original novel by Neil Gaiman. Original score by Bruno Coulais and They Might Be Giants. Running time: 100 mins. Rated PG.

In this case, she and her family have recently moved into a century-old house that’s been divided up into apartments, so there’s no shortage of house or neighboring land to explore. Along the way she encounters the weird yet friendly Wyborne “Wybie” Lovat (Robert Bailey Jr.), the mouse-circus-trainer Mr. Bobinski (Ian McShane), and Ms. Spink and Ms. Forcible (Jennifer Saunders and Dawn French), two old retired actresses who stuff their beloved terriers when they die.

As she explores the house, Coraline comes across a small door partially hidden behind wallpaper, but opening it only reveals a brick wall behind it. Soon however, the brick wall disappears and she discovers a (very) strange sort of alternate dimension where everything is, well, better. The house is renovated and beautiful, the food is delicious, the neighbors are interesting, Wybie is a mute (Coraline didn’t like his talkative side too much), and her “other parents” even spend time with her and make her happy – despite the quirk of having buttons for eyes. I dunno, but seeing people with buttons sewn into their orbits would freak me out a fair bit more than it seems to affect Coraline.

Coraline soon grows to prefer this strange alternate version of her life to her real life and even wishes to stay here forever – until she realizes she’d need to sew buttons into her own eyes to seal the deal. This turns her off a fair bit and she desperately tries to regain the normal universe … but things won’t be so easy anymore.

Coraline is a film shot entire in stop-motion, except for a few moments that couldn’t possibly have been other than CGI, and the effect is very entertaining. It’s not photorealistic, obviously, but the animation is excellent and smooth enough to avoid deterring even the most critical viewer. Perhaps it’s because I haven’t seen too many films in stop-motion (that were done well, that is), but the effect it held on me was one of charm.

I enjoyed the soundtrack, from Bruno Coulais and They Might Be Giants (who, incidentally, also supplied the music for The Daily Show with Jon Stewart). Comprised of quirky sounds, novel melodies and interesting vocals (though the words aren’t of any language I could detect), it fits the film like a glove.

The story is intriguing in a dark, fantastical sort of way, and is just the sort of thing you’d expect to see Tim Burton’s wonderfully twisted mind at the reigns of – though he had absolutely no involvement with the film. Although, the director, Henry Selick, also directed Burton’s The Nightmare Before Christmas, so birds of a feather …

For anyone interested in dark fantasies and the quirky realms of strange stories, Coraline is for you. It isn’t a masterpiece by any standards, but it does allow for a few chuckles, some bouts of wonder, and a fair amount of noggin-scratching as one wonders, “Were the writers on acid when they came up with this?”. (Or, should I say, “author”, seeing as it’s based off the original novel by Neil Gaiman.)

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