Coraline

If you compare Selick's Coraline and Burton's Alice in Wonderland, the winner is clear. The fantastic stop-motion animated Coraline wins. The film is visually almost unbeatable, it offers ten ideas for every minute, the few songs that are played are pleasantly crazy, the music is good, the characters are humorously bizarre... The problem is in the story, which is not uninteresting, but it gets boring at times, especially in the second half. But what the hell, I tell myself, it's a fairy tale. And a good one. Too bad it's not as adult as The Nightmare before Christmas... (18/08/2010)

The film features an Alice theme, a script for a short at most, and Selick's eccentric fantasizing. After half an hour it simply doesn't do anything and comes ever closer to the desperate cry "Let something start happening, for God's sake!" Ironically, what I enjoyed the most was Dakota, who intones perfectly and literally "acts" in the vocal positions of a nasty brat, a scared little girl, and a brave girl. The rest of it was terrible and didn't even need the assistance of Tim Burton. (31/12/2009)

I made myself watch it and I feel like it's matured a little bit. I don't always let Gaiman get to me. There's still the contrast between genuine horror and pleasingly button-grotesqueness, but it's still great regardless. The stop-motion animation is also incredibly rich and imaginative. So why not? (24/09/2009)

One of the most interesting animated films of recent times, which is mainly based on the quality book by Neil Gaiman, currently one of the most interesting creators of alternative worlds. Coraline can satisfy both children, except perhaps the smallest ones, as it contains dark motifs and scary scenes, as well as adults, as it has a very clever story with interesting characters and a significant message, it is filmed dynamically, with a sense for visual art, and it almost deserves five stars. Paradoxically, in my eyes, it is harmed by what current animated blockbuster productions are based on, i.e., typical computer graphics, which makes it lack a certain exclusivity characteristic of classic drawing and animation. Overall impression: 85%. (30/04/2010)

At first glance, there were a lot of scenes that reminded me slightly of other films. The well where the key was thrown was reminiscent of The Ring, the metal hand was reminiscent of Freddy Krueger, and as a whole it felt at times like a mix of Alice in Wonderland and the gloomy atmosphere of Corpse Bride. But whatever! I enjoyed it. In terms of running time, it was adequate. The music fit the passages perfectly, and the characters were interesting to the point of bizarre (especially Mr. B and the other mother). I was thinking 4*, but I'll round up because this animated film was indeed my cup of tea, full of colourful bleakness and great moments. (13/02/2010)