What if they made a beautifully original children’s movie and it wasn’t necessarily appropriate for children?
That’s the case with “Coraline”: It’s animated. It’s about a little girl, voiced by underage icon Dakota Fanning. And it’s based on kid lit.
But though geared to tempt little ones, author Neil Gaiman’s eponymous source material is a horror story about a mother from hell. And because the stunning goth images are so effectively in your face, thanks to the idiosyncratic imagination and 3-D stop-motion stylings of director-screenwriter Henry Selick, the film’s dark themes come hauntingly to life.
So, consider this film critique an endorsement of filmmaker Selick (“Nightmare Before Christmas,” “James and the Giant Peach”) as visual artist and a warning notice to parents of children younger than, say, 9.
The rest of us will find fascination in this first-ever combination of the rare, logistically daunting stop-motion animation method (in which each puppet character and every other handmade bit of set minutia is incrementally fashioned, positioned/repositioned and filmed) and the recently improved stereoscopic 3-D technology.
About half the theaters scheduled to open the film nationally today are equipped to show “Coraline” in 3-D, the only way it should be seen. The film seamlessly uses the effect as enhancement rather than cheap stunt. It gives an ethereal quality and colorful intensity to the “other world,” which eventually becomes the plot’s centerpiece.
Unfortunately, Selick isn’t as successful as a writer as he is an animator. His erratically paced adaptation of Gaiman’s book takes an inordinately long time to gain speed and arrive at that captivating, frightening parallel universe.
The disaffected title protagonist goes through a secret door of her ramshackle apartment — shades of Alice through the looking glass — to find devoted replicas of her apathetic real-life mom (indelibly voiced by Teri Hatcher) and eccentric neighbors (including Jennifer Saunders of “Absolutely Fabulous” and Ian McShane). But in Coraline’s initially ideal dreamland, where Mom actually cooks and adorable circus mice appear to frolic just for her, the people have buttons in place of eyes. And the “other mother” turns out to be a witch with sinister plans for the eyes — and, by extension, the very soul — of the lonely child.
Even this anti-establishment, anti-Disney cartoon falls into the old trap: Mother figures must be either dead or evil in fantasies written by men for children. But at least “Coraline” looks cool.
Quick Info
“Coraline”
3 out of 5 Stars
Voice Stars: Dakota Fanning, Teri Hatcher, Ian McShane
Director: Henry Selick
Rated PG for thematic elements, scary images, some language and suggestive humor
Running Time: 100 minutes
