Coraline

[Guest CharlieRose]

Uh, WOW.

I went and saw this yesterday with my little sister, (it was really more of an excuse than a reason to see it. ) and it fulfilled my expectations tenfold. And I was expecting a lot.

I'm a HUGE fan of the original book, (it has the same name, written by Neil Gaiman about five or six years ago. Neil Gaiman also wrote Stardust, American Gods, and the Sandman graphic novel series if you've read any of those.) and I love the Nightmare Before Christmas (it has the same director, Henry Selick.)

For those of you wondering, yes, it is true to the book. It has some slight changes, for example, Coraline gets a friend she didn't have before, but all of the changes fit quite nicely into the story. It very much has the same spirit as the book.

Yeah, it is a kid's movie, technically, and it is in 3-D. But it's like no kid's 3-D movie you've ever seen. It's like a kid's movie, done horror-film style. (My little sister's 8, and she said she was scared in a couple parts, but they were over before she felt a need to leave or anything. She liked it overall.) There are a lot of subtleties and symbolism that only adults can appreciate, I think. There were parts my little sister didn't remember that made me go into conniptions. (So awesome! So creepy!) But it is in essence a story for children. The protagonist is probably ten years old, and she learns an important lesson by the end of it, for example. The 3-D aspect only adds to it, I think. It's stop-motion, so everything really is three dimensional, and they don't fall for any gimmicks. There's nothing popping out at you just for the sake of watching you jump. The animation is really, really good, too. It's total eye candy; the animators must have wanted to strangle Henry Selick by the end of it. There's a dance number with like fifty little mice, all jumping around and dancing at the same time. It was awesome, I almost clapped at the end of it. (And then I realized no one else in the theater was. )

So what is it about, you ask? Oh, yeah, I was getting to that, I suppose. For those of you (like me) who don't like the entire plot being summarized for you in an introduction, here's the short version.

There's a girl named Coraline. She finds a door. She opens the door, and crawls through it to... her house, the one she just left. Only... it's different. She goes into the kitchen, and sees a woman who looks like her mother who says, "Hello Coraline. I'm your other mother. This is your other father. We've been waiting for you."

Trust me trust me trust me, it's ridiculously good. I've heard "dark version of Alice in Wonderland," but it's much more original than that. Look up the song "Mice Circus" from the soundtrack; it's like the movie in music form. (As all soundtracks should be.) Imaginative, Bizarre, Creepy but cool at the same time? Absolutely. (I bought it the second I came home from the theater. )

So, yeah, I highly recommend it and will probably see it again within a week or so.

[Guest Elizabeth K]

OH MY

Neil Gaiman is one of my absolute favorites! THANKS

Lizzy

[Guest Zabrak]

I'll check it out.

[Guest Cody_T]

I saw this on tuesday... it was amazing. I knew I'd like it too because it's Henry Selick and my friend told me about the book (still haven't read it). I'm not gonna go into it (or how the suspense totally killed me... I'm such a lightweight about that) because I've been beaten to that, but it was sooo good! I love stop-motion.