Wednesday, August 12, 2009

Blogorium Review: Coraline

I was looking forward to watching Coraline, having missed it in theatres (and in 3-D), so when the box I'd packed it in finally surfaced, that seemed like the best movie to break in the new apartment with. While it had been six years or so since I read Neil Gaiman's book, I still remembered the beats pretty well, and was looking forward to seeing Henry Selick (The Nightmare Before Christmas, James and the Giant Peach) adapt an atmospheric and at times creepy kids novella into his stop-motion magic. I was, with one or two reservations, not disappointed.

For those who haven't read the book, the story is pretty simple: Coraline Jones (voiced by Dakota Fanning) and her mother and father (Teri Hatcher and John Hodgman) move into a large apartment in and old house. The other apartments contain eccentric neighbors: two vaudeville actresses aging ungracefully, a man named Bobinski who trains mice for his circus, the nosy grandson of their landlord. Coraline is easily bored and her parents easily distracted, so she goes off exploring and finds a rather small door in the living room. At first the door appears to go nowhere, until one night she finds it leads to another house, just like hers, with "other" parents, just like hers. Everything seems perfect, except for the buttons people have instead of eyes...

What follows is a bit of Alice in Wonderland crossed with "The Monkey's Paw"-style "be careful what you wish for", in Gaiman-esque fashion. I was quite fond of the book and the film doesn't deviate much, if at all, which can be a plus and a minus.

The one drawback to the film I have is that it's never as creepy or unnerving as the book is. When things go bad in this seemingly perfect world (and they always do, so it's hardly a spoiler), I didn't feel concerned for Coraline, nor did her sense of mounting danger translate as it did in the book. Now it's possible that, knowing how the story ended, I simply knew things were going to work out and that softened much of the alienation she feels in the third act.

On the other hand, Coraline is not so different from other children's books with similar stories, and accordingly it's always clear that things are going to "work out" in the end. If reading the novel didn't sully my enjoyment of the wonder that Coraline meets when she first passes through the tunnel, then perhaps the film is simply missing - by PG rating or not - that essential component of "uh oh". I think of films like Labyrinth or The Dark Crystal, or even Alice in Wonderland, where things get very bad very quickly for the hero, and you're not entirely certain they can get out of it. If Coraline has a fault, it's that the film lacks that urgency when its needed most.

On the other hand, the voice work is excellent. In addition to Fanning, Hatcher, and Hodgman, you also have Jennifer Saunders, Dawn French, Ian McShane, and Keith David as the cat who walks between worlds. The design of the "other" mother is pretty disturbing, especially as it reaches the final stages, and I thought Wybie (Robert Bailey, Jr.) was a more interesting character in the film than in the book, particularly "other" Wybie.

sidenote: I did not watch the 3-D version, but rather the 2-D take, so as to get impressions of the movie and not necessarily be influenced by the "gimmick", so to speak. Even in 2-D, the promise of seeing Coraline Jones's world in 3 dimensions is worth revisiting the film.

The design work of Coraline is quite intricate, to the point that - if you so desired - you could stop following the story and pay attention to the marvelous sculpture, knitting, and animatronic work on display. There really isn't a set in the film where you couldn't hit the "pause" button and enjoy the craftsmanship. The expressiveness of the facial work is also impressive, and the level of individuality in the human characters was something I was glad to see. Rather than looking roughly the same with small variations, each puppet had its own distinct look, personality, and movement. As fantastic as the film gets, the animation is always naturalistic and quite distinct from the expressionistic Nightmare Before Christmas.

Speaking of which, one thing that springs to mind is how not like Tim Burton's Corpse Bride this film is. The comparison draws itself because Burton made Corpse Bride in the shadow of The Nightmare Before Christmas, and even though Selick directed Nightmare, Tim Burton is almost wholly associated with the film. My impression of Corpse Bride was that it tried so hard not to be Nightmare that the film doubled back onto itself and lacked any magic.

Coraline, on the other hand, is nothing like The Nightmare Before Christmas. It's not even like James and the Giant Peach. The film is, very loosely, reminiscent of Dave McKean's sketches in the book Coraline but in most respects is its own entity. While it doesn't hold together as well as it could story wise, I'd still say the Coraline is worth watching, and when I've seen the 3-D version I'll update you about that too.

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