MPAA Rating: PG/ Genre: Animated Fantasy-Horror/ Voices of: Dakota Fanning, Teri Hatcher, Jennifer Saunders, Dawn French, Keith David, John Hodgman, Robert Bailey Jr., Ian McShane/ Runtime: 100 minutes
I feel that it must be said that when it comes to creating quite the visual spectacle that will entrance audiences of all ages, one name that should most certainly come to mind would have to be Henry Selick. Indeed this is because, in addition to being gifted with the ability to bring entire worlds to life, but also because it really feels like this kind of movie making magic just seems to find him all on its own as can be seen by his previous endeavors of James and the Giant Peach and The Nightmare before Christmas. Indeed through the utilization of both stop-motion tech as well as 3-D, Selick has proven himself to be a perfect maestro of ensuring that the proper mood and tone of a particular narrative be brought vividly to life in an animated format. Suffice it to say then that his first movie in 8 years at the time of its release was no exception to this if not a downright masterpiece. Indeed this is one film where the usage of 3D is top-notch, but even if it wasn’t present this film would still be absolutely phenomenal. Indeed, thanks to a fantastic set of characters, a compelling plot, and a wonderful soundtrack, Coraline is a wonderful movie for families to enjoy and be chilled by for years to come.
The plot is as follows: Coraline tells the tale of a young woman by the name of Coraline. She and her family have just moved to a new house in the middle of nowhere and, suffice it to say, she is most certainly stricken with that common ailment known as boredom to the 10th degree. Indeed not only does she have no friends in this new area to spend time with, but her parents are also workaholics to the umpteenth degree and seem to have no time for her. Plus, to make matters worse, the only kid that is even remotely close by is absolutely annoying thus leaving Coraline with no one to spend time with, but her dolls. However, shortly after the kid nearby offers Coraline a doll he found that creepily looks darn near identical to her, odd things start occurring. Things that eventually culminate in our intrepid young heroine finding a tiny door that leads her to an alternate version of her world where her parents dote on her non-stop, and everything else is vibrant and full of life with the only odd distinction being that everyone in this world is that, instead of eyes, everyone has buttons. Yet while Coraline starts spending more and more time in this alternate reality, it isn’t long before she comes to learn a terrifying truth about her haven that will quickly turn it from the paradise she always wanted into a horror beyond her worst nightmares…
Now as I said before: Henry Selick has always been about making his films a true feast for the human eye to take in. Indeed I believe that it was “The Nightmare Before Christmas” that first showcased for audiences that his true talent was in what their eyes beheld upon the screen. Yet I think it is quite extraordinary to say, but I actually think his skills in both animation and style has actually managed to evolve in quite a few ways. Indeed I say this because Coraline is honestly just as majestic in terms of how it looks as any of Selick’s previous filmography if not more so, and the animation has quite plain and simply managed to look even more incredible than ever before. Indeed every single set piece in this film as well as every member of the intriguing cast of characters are designed brilliantly to fit into this quite extraordinary and surreal world. Indeed in truly amazing due to how novel and captivating it is, Selick manages to breathe life and bring to the screen a truly captivating modern fairy tale in the same vein as the original Grimm’s fairy tales of yore. Yet more than any of those traditional fairy tales, I would honestly say that this film is more similar in nature to Pan’s Labyrinth from Guillermo del Toro not only in its dream-like style, but also in its intriguing approach to the bizarre and how phenomenally fleshed-out this world truly is.
Now while doing my research into this movie, as I have been known to do for every movie that I review, the primary objection that people really seem to have with this movie in particular is that there doesn’t seem to be a significant emotional component to it. To be fair though, there is the emotion of love. I say this because even though Coraline does not have the best relationship in the world with her real mom and dad, she does love her “other” father and mother quite a bit. However there isn’t a whole lot more emotional development for the characters beyond that and perhaps terror and unease because this wasn’t meant to be an emotional piece of animation. Rather, its main purpose was to bring this truly bizarre narrative set in this truly quirky world quite vividly to life and suffice it to say that in that regard this film manages to succeed magnificently.
Now the music in this film is brought to us courtesy of both Bruno Coulais, and briefly, the band known as They Might Be Giants. With that being said I feel that Mr. Coulais here does an immensely wonderful job with the music in this film. Indeed that is because the score in this is gorgeous, odd, but most important, it actually feels like it fits this film like a glove. Indeed this soundtrack is most certainly how music in this film should sound and it’s truly wonderful to listen to all on its own. Indeed it feels like a close cousin to the work that was done by Danny Elfman for the film “The Nightmare Before Christmas” as both scores are addicting, slightly melancholy, and also diverse all mixed into a singular score that proves to be instantly iconic. Now that is not to say that the work contributed by They Might Be Giants to this film isn’t wonderful work; to the contrary in fact. It’s just that the lion’s share of the work being done in this department is solely done by Mr. Coulais.
Finally I would also like to add that the voice cast in this film is simply phenomenal. Indeed Dakota Fanning was perfectly cast as our young heroine as she manages to brilliantly showcase a brilliant mixture of teenage rebellion, and frustration, but also initial fascination and subsequent terror upon finding out the truth about the alternate reality and Fanning delivers on all counts. We also get wonderfully twisted work from Teri Hatcher as both Mothers, one of whom is infinitely more deadly than the other, a terrific goofiness from Ian McShane as one of Coraline’s neighbors, and finally a wonderfully sassy performance from Keith David as a cat who is able to flirt between both worlds yet is only able to talk in the alternate one. Yet even with these stand-out performances in play, the rest of the cast all manage to follow their lead, and everyone does wonderful work with the material that they are given.
All in all it may astonish you to find out that in quite a few ways this movie actually did frighten me more so than a lot of live-action films have been able to anyway. Actually “frighten” might be too strong of a word; a better word that I think would work here would be creepy. Indeed I say that because this is the kind of film that can and will provide plenty of goosebumps to go around. Yet even with all of that being said, there are people out there who have felt that Coraline should not have been rated PG let alone for kids. With all due respect I would like to politely disagree. That’s because I feel that kids enjoy these types of movies. Indeed when I was a kid, I would watch such movies as “The Nightmare Before Christmas” and “James and the Giant Peach” and these were films which terrified and unnerved me. Yet even with this fear in play, I still found myself loving these films to this very day. Thus I think not only is this why kids like movies like this, but also just why they will adore this movie as well. Indeed this is a movie that needs those spooky moments to not only keep kids interested, but by doing so a kid can come to relate and see themselves in that situation as well. Indeed the world of film especially kids movies can’t always be light and whimsical, take The Secret of NIMH for example. Indeed in a situation like Coraline what we are viewing is a cautionary fairy tale, but a fairy tale all the same and I have often found that the best fairy tales are the ones which by their very distinct nature are dark. This is because not only does this make the world within the film that much more magical than you could ever imagine, but in a weird way it also makes things significantly more beautiful as well. On a scale of 1-5 I give Coraline a solid 4 out of 5.
