Directed by:
Henry SelickScreenplay:
Henry SelickCinematography:
Pete KozachikComposer:
Bruno CoulaisCast:
Dakota Fanning, Dawn French, Teri Hatcher, Ian McShane, Jennifer Saunders, Keith David, John Hodgman, Emerson Tenney, Robert Bailey Jr., Christopher MurrieVOD (3)
Plots(1)
An unsettling parallel reality awaits a young girl when she crawls through a secret passage in this spooky animated children's fantasy based on the novella by Neil Gaiman. After moving into her new home with her work-fixated parents, Coraline Jones (voice of Dakota Fanning) teams up with new friend Wybie Lovat (Robert Bailey Jr.) to explore the neighbourhood. Deciding it's just as dull as she thought, she turns her attentions to her own house, where, after following a button-eyed mouse, she stumbles upon a hidden door. Crawling through the passage beyond, Coraline emerges into an eerie, parallel version of her own world. Initially bewitched by her strange new surroundings, where everything seems to revolve around her, Coraline soon has to fight tooth and nail to return home when her new mother (Teri Hatcher) tries to force her to stay. (Universal Pictures UK)
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Reviews (12)
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?
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A very pleasant island of stop motion imperfection in a sophisticated flood of silicon superhumans. Beautiful animation further enhanced by the 3rd dimension, very poetic decadent drollery and a very nice atmosphere. It's unfortunate that the musical accompaniment does not captivate as much as Elfman's songs once did. Coraline is more infantile than Burton's work and it doesn't have the sharp verbal humor, but despite all the plush, it is able bite nicely. I had a great time. [85%]
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It’s been a while since I last watched an animated film, and I was quite pleasantly surprised by this one. It wasn't exactly a masterpiece worth a five-star rating, but the animation was great. I really enjoyed the dark, almost horror-like atmosphere, which was strongest in the last third, but it had seeped out here and there even earlier. To be honest, the atmosphere could have been even darker. I wonder what the film would look like if it had been directed by Tim Burton. I'm sure it would be right up his alley. Either way, the story kept me entertained, and it did give me a chill from time to time. If you want to give your kids a good scare, make a little fake door in the wall, have your kids watch this film, and have a lot of fun while consoling them from their nightmares. Coraline definitely ranks among the better animated films, and I'm not opposed to rewatching it sometime. I'm glad to see that filmmakers are still making nightmare fodder for kids. / Lesson learned: It can always get a little worse.
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I was a bit worried when the film was slower to start and visibly tried to engage my imagination and some of my patience with its story, but after a few minutes the doubts were successfully erased and I became increasingly satisfied with the final form. Sure, it's no Miyazaki, it lacks Danny Elfman's catchy compositions and the story doesn't sound particularly likeable, but there's still the charm, the imaginative idea and the very original execution, which is always the most important thing in animation. The Oscar nomination, in my opinion, is well deserved and pretty much says it all.
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Selick’s Caroline, sorry, Coraline lacks one thing. And that is the “button phobia" which, unlike in the book, never sets in. Maybe it’s because I don’t share Selick’s vision as a whole. It’s not nearly dark enough. There’s nobody quite like Dave McKean. This Coraline is an excellent animated movie, but nothing more. But the potential for more was here.
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Gallery (101)
Photo © Universal Pictures
![Coraline - Photos](http://image.pmgstatic.com/cache/resized/w663/files/images/film/photos/160/542/160542388_0b23c8.jpg)
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