Coraline (2009)

User Rating:

7.9/10   

Director:

Henry Selick

Writers (WGA):

Henry Selick (screenplay)
Neil Gaiman (book)

Release Date:

6 February 2009 (USA)

Genre:

Animation | Adventure | Family | Fantasy

Tagline:

Be careful what you wish for.

Plot:

An adventurous girl finds another world that is a strangely idealized version of her frustrating home, but it has sinister secrets.

Plot Keywords:

Secret Door | Parent | Young Girl | High Dive | Bicycle

Cast

Dakota Fanning	...	Coraline Jones (voice)
Teri Hatcher	...	Mel Jones / Other Mother / Beldam (voice)
Jennifer Saunders	...	Miss April Spink / Other Spink (voice)
Dawn French	...	Miss Miriam Forcible / Other Forcible (voice)
Keith David	...	The Cat (voice)
John Hodgman	...	Charlie Jones / Other Father (voice)
Robert Bailey Jr.	...	Wybie Lovat (voice)
Ian McShane	...	Mr. Sergei Alexander Bobinsky / Other Bobinsky (voice)
Aankha Neal	...	Sweet Ghost Girl (voice)
George Selick	...	Ghost Boy (voice)
Hannah Kaiser	...	Tall Ghost Girl (voice)
Harry Selick	...	Photo Friend #1 (voice)
Marina Budovsky	...	Photo Friend #2 (voice)
Emerson Hatcher	...	Magic Dragonfly (voice)
Jerome Ranft	...	Mover (voice)

Also Known As:

Coraline & the Secret Door (Australia) (promotional title)

MPAA:

Rated PG for thematic elements, scary images, some language and suggestive humor.

Runtime:

UK:96 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English | Russian

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Sound Mix:

DTS | Dolby Digital

Certification:

USA:PG (certificate #45001) | UK:PG | Finland:K-7 | Ireland:PG | Brazil:Livre | Portugal:M/6 (Qualidade) | Argentina:13 | Peru:PT | South Korea:All | Hong Kong:IIA | Mexico:A | Netherlands:6 | Sweden:11 | Iceland:L | Switzerland:7 (canton of Vaud) | Switzerland:7 (canton of Geneva) | Canada:G (Quebec) | Canada:PG (Alberta/British Columbia/Manitoba/Ontario) | New Zealand:PG | Singapore:PG | France:U | Australia:PG

Filming Locations:

Portland, Oregon, USA

Company:

Focus Features

Trivia:

In Quebec, the French version features the voices of Catherine Brunet, 'Genevieve Brouillette' and Jean-Michel Anctil.

Goofs:

Continuity: In the scene where Coraline falls asleep on the picture frame, at first it is facing down, but when the shot changes it has flipped to facing up.

Quotes:

[first lines]
Coraline Jones: [after hearing a creature while exploring the hills] Hello? Who's there?

Movie Connections:

References The Nightmare Before Christmas (1993)

Soundtrack:

Other Father Song

Imaginative story, amazing visuals and uniquely great music.

Henry Selick's latest movie, and his first in 8 years is a true treat. It was excellent in every way, except for the emotional punch, which wasn't even really necessary. The 3-D is very good, and without the 3-D, though the movie would lack the depth, it still would stand out. It is the visuals that make this movie so great, but the characters, plot and music are all top notch too, which add up to a fantastic film.

Coraline (Dakota Fanning) and her family have just moved, and Coraline is bored. She has no friends in this new place, and her parents are quite intent on ignoring her. The only other kid that lives close by, Wyborn (Robert Bailey Jr.), is irritating to Coraline, and she finds the dolls in her room to be better friends. After Wyborn gives Coraline a doll that looks like her, strange occurrences begin to happen. Coraline finds a small door leading to an alternate, seemingly perfect universe where her button eyed parents feed her good food and give her presents for no reason. This universe is not all that it seems, and Coraline learns this the hard way.

Henry Selick has always been about the visuals. His first film, "The Nightmare Before Christmas", showed that his knack was for the sights, and amazingly, his animation and style has evolved. "Coraline" is just as good looking as any of his past works, if not more so, and the animation has gotten better and crisper. Every little set, and every character is bizarrely designed to fit into this surreal movie.

The main critique for this film seems to be that it has no emotion in it. Though emotions aren't a prominent aspect of Coraline, there is emotion. Coraline doesn't have a clicking relationship with her mom and dad, but that's why she loves the other mother and father so much. Coraline as a character has enough emotion to be the lead to a film like this. This wasn't meant to be a tear jerker animation. It was clearly made to bring Neil Gaiman's strange plot to life with dazzling animation.

Doing the music is Bruno Coulais, and briefly They Might Be Giants. Mr. Coulais's score is beautiful, and strange, and most importantly, fitting. The music sounds how Coraline should sound, and it is a great listen. It is easily comparable to Danny Elfman's score for "The Nightmare Before Christmas". They both have catchy, sad and unique music all rolled into one. They Might Be Giants also wrote a song, which is nice sounding, though nowhere near as catchy or lovely as Coulais.

If I had any problem with this film, it would be that it didn't dive far enough into the alternate universe, but even that didn't lower the movie in my opinion. This was an excellent animated film, and is one that can actually be qualified as a family film, in that all members of the family can and probably will enjoy this.

My rating: *** 1/2 out of ****. 100 mins. PG for mild language, violence and mildly sexual animation.