Coraline: An Instant Animated Classic

Handmade, frightening, beautiful, and full of wonder, Coraline is one of the best movies you'll see this year. Like a much gentler Pan's Labyrinth, it is a horror movie for children, one which does not soften its chills with laughter, but never stoops to cheap thrills. It is a simple story told simply, stop-motion animation which does not hide its own seams.

Based on a story by the prolific (and now Newbery Medal-winning) Neil Gaiman, the film is set in an isolated house into which young Coraline Jones and her workaholic parents just moved. Her parents have little time for her, and so she is forced to go exploring. She discovers eccentric neighbors, a nearly bottomless well, and a nosy neighbor boy, as well as a secret door to a house just like hers, but better, nicer, entirely for her. In the other world, though, everyone has buttons for eyes, like a life-sized doll, and Coraline has to avoid being turned into a puppet herself, as she finally learns to appreciate the life she already has.

The story is very similar to the Gaiman-scripted MirrorMask, which was made into a visually stunning movie in its own right, as both share young female protagonists, parallel worlds with evil parallel mothers, an emphasis or obsession with puppets, toys, keys, and the pageantry of the stage and circus. It also recalls Hayao Miyazaki's mature work, Princess Mononoke and Spirited Away, animated films with young women at the lead that contain a gentle moral in their fantastic fairytale visuals.

These days, animated children's movies fall fairly neatly into two categories: Pixar movies, which are terrific, and everything else, which usually falls short. (In America, there are rarely any animated movies that aren't for kids, South Park and Team America excepted.) The reasons for Pixar's success are rather simple: their movies don't talk down to kids, but rather focus all their attention on telling their stories well, with no need for distractions like pop culture jokes, incongruous A-list talent, teenybop soundtracks, or any other of the other pitfalls shared by the Ice Ages and Shreks of the world.

Coraline works because it understands this. Director Henry Selick also helmed The Nightmare Before Christmas, so he knows his way around a scary children's story, not to mention stop-motion animation. Unlike Nightmare, Coraline doesn't leaven itself with laughs, and Tim Burton's beloved carnival of death and Halloween is replaced by Gaiman's love of the dark side of fairy tales. But it isn't too frightening. It's spooky, rather than genuinely chilling like Pan's Labyrinth. Though Coraline is rated PG, there's almost no actual violence. Instead it's the atmosphere itself that creeps, and the spider-like witch Coraline meets in the other world. The horror is more implied than explicit, and it wouldn't be inappropriate except for the very young.

The voice cast is small, but quite good; the actors are known, but not so well-known that the recognizability of their voice detracts from the character. In keeping with the Pixar theme, Pixar sculpter Jerome Ranft (and Nightmare Before Christmas collaborator) has a bit part in the voice cast. The parents are played by John Hodgman (the Daily Show contributor, restrained here) and Teri Hatcher; Keith David is a talking cat; and the eccentric neighbors are played by British actors Ian McShane, Dawn French and Jennifer Saunders. Less well known in this country, French and Saunders are a long-running British comedy duo, and their chemistry translates well.

The character models are incredibly detailed; someone watching the trailer could think the whole movie was done in CGI. But the slightly herky-jerky movements of the characters, whose motions are created by painstakingly setting every miniscule movement, moving every finger and whisker by hand, for every object in the shot, and photographing it frame by frame, remind the viewer of their earthbound origins. Though there are occasional CGI flourishes, the tangible feel makes the visual spectacle all the richer. And the action setpieces, in a garden shaped like Coraline's head, in a miniature mouse circus, in a gigantic theater, and in the house itself, are simply stunning.

The reward of animation is a world in which anything is possible, in which the fantastic and the mundane look equally real because they are made out of the same material. Few movies make better use of that promise, or of their medium, than Coraline.

Comments

[NewDem08]

An absolutely incredible film and a must-see - especially for anyone who thinks it's "only an animated film" and perhaps just for kids. It's just gorgeous and the soundtrack is fantastic.

Coraline speaks to every kid's bad dreams - and is genuinely frightening! Somehow, you forget that you are watching animated characters - even the facial expressions are so very real.

I would suggest a visit to the http://www.coraline.com/ website before you see the film. It won't spoil the story, and it provides a cool chance to see how this magical film was created. The miniature work is just not to be believed! Just a suggestion to parents - I think the film is a little intense for anyone under 7 or 8, but I guess it depends on the individual child. This is a scary film! ENJOY!

[SaucyB]

I keep reading this movie may be too scary for the 'very young'. my son will be 5 next month & when we saw the previews he kept saying 'I wanna see that' but...

[Alex Remington - Huffpost Blogger]

There's nothing in this movie much more scary than, say, Maleficent from Sleeping Beauty or the evil Queen in Snow White. The only distinction I would draw is that stop-motion characters, because they're made from real three-dimensional models, rather than lushly drawn and inked two-dimensional cels, can sometimes produce a slightly more visceral reaction -- a spider looks a little more spindly, a claw a little sharper and more gnarled.

Again, though, the real horror is a bit more psychological. A mother who isn't a mother, who appears to be kind but turns out to be evil, who wants nothing more than to make Coraline a puppet of her own, and to replace her eyes with buttons, is a rather frightening prospect no matter how little violence there is. If your son has no problem with the standard Disney villains, he may well be up to this movie. If he's prone to repeated nightmares after seeing a movie with a scary scene, it might be worth holding off.

[bonafideinla]

It's really refreshing to see movies like Coraline, it is thoroughly enjoyable especially in its 3D version.
A simple story told in an amazing way.
Kudos to everyone involved in this movie, hopefully it will gather enough steam to guarantee a decent run in theaters and motivate producers and animators to keep making movies that make one happy to pay the price of admission.

[MajorKong]

An amazing movie. My wife and I loved it.

[getoffthecross]

The "Coraline" song by They Might Be Giants was a pleasant addition as well. Plenty here for adults to enjoy (although it doesn't hurt that my wife and I have been fans of Gaiman's work since his run on Sandman).