Review: Coraline

'Coraline' is an example of how a film designed for children can succeed in so many ways that a conventional, adult film cannot. The experience, from start to finish, is completely imaginative, with plenty of little nuances that make the story fresh and original.

The tale itself, can be boiled down simply: Coraline is a girl moved to a new place, is lonely, and doesn't like her parents. She then discovers a portal to an alternate world, and eventually realizes her life back home was not so bad. We've seen this tale before many times, but 'Coraline,' based on the Neil Gaiman book, has dark undertones that--if I was a kid again--would give me serious nightmares. The price to pay to live in this alternate reality is giving up your eyes, which are replaced by buttons, which are sewn in their place. Everyone has them, but when Coraline finds out she must give up her own, she's had enough. But by this point, getting back is not quite so easy.

Coraline is voiced by Dakota Fanning, whom I typically dislike, but here she does a superb job. Coraline's family has moved to the middle of nowhere from Michigan, and Fanning does a great job of capturing the Michigan accent. From the very beginning Coraline is a lovable girl, despite her bratty behavior and sarcasm. Children stories always portray the parents in a negative light, and for that reason we immediately side with the children. Coraline, however, isn't as kind to her new neighbor Wybie, who has plenty of gadgets and knows the folklore, but Coraline accuses him of being a stalker. It's true, he kind of is, so wouldn't Coraline be relived that in her alternate world Wybie cannot speak? She is at first, until she needs what he may be able to say.

The story borrows elements from all sorts of stories, some obvious, some a bit more obscure. There is a cat bearing a striking resemblance to the Cheshire Cat (sans stripes), and every time Coraline crawled through the tunnel to switch worlds, I felt like she would end up spending fifteen minutes inside the head of John Malkovich. The originality of the story far outweighs anything else, though. The film thrives on small comedy that would fail in a live action, normal film, but because it is done in stop motion and aimed for a younger audience, it seems more appropriate.

This is a film that has a crucial involvement with its own atmosphere. Some films exist to tell a story, but here the music, the motion, the sickness of the characters, as well as a small dab of black comedy, make a wonderful journey that should be taken this weekend.

Rating: 6.5/7