Coraline: Movie Review (2009)

Written and directed by Henry Selick, 100 minutes, rated PG.

Henry Selick’s beautifully rendered stop-animated film “Coraline,” from a script he based on Neil Gaiman’s popular book, is so masterfully realized, it already has staked its claim as one of the animated movies to beat at next year’s Academy Awards.

It's that good, so whatever animated movies follow it better bring it, because this film has the chops to crush all newcomers flat.

Available locally in 2-D and 3-D (I saw the 2-D version), the movie comes from the director of “James and the Giant Peach” and “The Nightmare Before Christmas,” but unlike those movies, it was not produced by Tim Burton. Nevertheless, his influence rings clear throughout and, as such, fans of “Peach,” “Nightmare” and Burton should have a solid idea of what to expect as “Coraline” begins.

And what an unsettling beginning it is.

The opening credits involve the ghostly unstuffing of a floating doll, which on paper doesn't sound too terrifying, really, but the way it's handled here, with the doll's foamy guts and button eyes being removed while needles pierce its deflated body and then stitch its gaping mouth shut, there's something undeniably unnerving about the visuals.

Once restuffed, the end product is a doll that looks a lot like Coraline Jones (voice of Dakota Fanning), an unhappy tween with blue hair and a bluer mood who recently has moved with her distracted parents into an apartment in the Oregon wilds.

The house in which they now live is a massive Victorian, with three other tenants sharing the two other apartments. They include two bawdy former burlesque performers (Dawn French and Jennifer Saunders), and Mr. Bobinsky (Ian McShane), a balloon-bellied ringleader of his own private circus.

In them, Coraline seeks escape from the uncomfortable truth of modern-day life--her mother (Teri Hatcher) and father (John Hodgmen) are working so hard to pay the bills, they don’t have much time or patience for her. Coraline’s mother is particularly grumpy and unloving--she’d rather blog about gardening than tend to her own flower. As for Coraline’s father, he’s a distracted mess who lives so deeply in his head, he has no eyes for Coraline.

From them both, Coraline longs to escape, and so when into her life comes an opportunity to do so, she pulls an Alice and slips through a small, hidden door. Through it is a tunnel that leads into a parallel world, where Coraline meets her Other Mother and her Other Father, who might have buttons for eyes, sure, but my, are these two ever nice to her.

Other Mother cooks and smiles. Other Father addresses Coraline with a directness she’s never known. It’s all good, too good, really, as Coraline comes to know with a growing sense of fear as she realizes she’s up against the dark and otherworldly.

Following the recent “WALL-E,” “Coraline” is a movie whose story doesn’t come before its superb animation--it matches it. This isn’t eye candy for the sake of eye candy--it’s a movie that unabashedly holds up a mirror to its audience and wonders how many children and parents are seeing themselves reflected back. This will be uncomfortable for some, but it is just this that deepens the movie and makes it relevant. “Coraline” is a fantastic tale sheathed in delight, mystery and wackery, but look into its bleak crevices and behold what for many the family unit has become.

Grade: A

View the trailer here: