Coraline

Viewer Rating:Emer Breen has rated Coraline rating: 4 Star

Coraline is a creepy, dark childrens fairy tale that is similar in many ways to Lewis Carroll's Alice in Wonderland. It is a wildly imaginative, wickedly creative and very well done film. On the one hand, it is strange and bizarre and on the other, it is undeniably beautiful and vivid. I think parents may want to be careful about taking the very young to see Coraline, as it contains some relatively scary, intense imagery - such as creatures with button eyes and ghost children trapped in this world. It's a tough call for parents on whether or not to let anyone younger than 13 check out this film. While the film isn't gory or excessively violent, in my opinion there are many scenes and images that are likely to give young children nightmares. The film creates an atmosphere that is creepy, wonderfully strange but full of curiousity and feeling. Having said that, it is certainly true that many younger viewers will be transfixed by the incredibly detailed, incredibly vivid imaginary world of secret passageways leading to evil parents .For children and adults who can appreciate the experience of a darker movie, Coraline is just fantastic, an unmissable fantasy treat! The film is centered on a curious but smart, brave and fiesty little girl named Coraline Jones (expertly voiced by Dakota Fanning) who has just moved from Michigan to an apartment in a big pink Victorian house in Oregon. Her workaholic, stressed out mom and dad (Teri Hatcher and John Hodgman), write about gardening, neglect her and barely look up from their computer screens when she's in the room. They never listen to her and are oblivious to her even existence. Sick of this boring world, Coraline sets out to explore her curious surroundings and seek escape. She is accompanied from time to time by a local boy (voiced by Robert Bailey Jr.) and a talking cat (voiced by Keith David) - this sarcastic cat is a wonderful counterpoint. Although a pest at times, Wybie clearly has his heart in the right place and the two form a bond that is strengthened throughout the film. Her neighbours are a collection of the most bizarre, wacky eccentrics whose physical peculiarities match their odd characters. Upstairs there is a Russian circus artist trying to train mice (with the rasping voice of Ian McShane) while below her, is a pair of aging burlesque performers who twitter and chirp in the giddy tones of Dawn French and Jennifer Saunders.They are all a pure joy to watch. Left to her own devices, Coraline is more than delighted when she discovers a hidden door in the house that opens, only at night, onto a rabbit hole that leads down to a parallel world which is eerily like her own. Coraline and Wybie soon find themselves led through a myriad of adventures, not all of them safe and fun…At first, this alternate world seems to fill her with excitement and surprises. The other versions of her parents who live there - a queen-bee and her mate, are warm and attentive and lavish her with treats. Dinner is fried chicken, there's cake for dessert, and the decor is perfect . The atmosphere is loving and caring. Everything in this other world is livelier and more exotic than the one upstairs. The other parents look and sound like her real parents, with one unsettling point of peculiarity - their active eyes have been replaced by large black buttons, like old-fashioned dolls. The pink house is a wild wonderland with glowing flowers and where gardens bloom in moonlight and 3D humming birds sing tunes.There is as a chorus of singing, dancing rats and magical toys. Every visit reveals new amusements and wonders. The oddball neighbours are there, in a different form - much wilder and crazier down here than in the real world, and they enthrall Coraline. Wybie is there as well, but he's a perfected Wybie: this one can't speak! Her new found world is deeply intriguing but she senses it may not exactly be the paradise she hoped for. She starts to feel unsettled as the Other World slowly reveals its dark side. Coraline comes to learn that there's no such thing as a free lunch, and this world is just a little too "perfect". Every time Coraline falls asleep in the alternate universe she finds herself waking up in her real world bed as the portal to the other world closes. What Coraline doesn't realise is that the one time she doesn't wake up in her own bed will be the one time she wished she did. As many previous inhabitants of magic lands have found out, there's no place like home :) Visuals/Techniques; The story is infused with a dark fairy-tale vibe - decayed apartments, dead children in a mirror, beetles, disembodied hands, monsters that cling to the wall with souls in their grip, and rats that sing curious tunes. There's something going on here, something true and odd and definitely not cheerful, and it gets under the skin. Coraline may even haunt you! It's in the thrilling other world that the stunning effects of 3-D really work. A jumping mouse circus has 61 mice on screen, and an entire audience of Scottie dogs, watches a theatrical performance. It's impossible not to be impressed by it all. It becomes harder and harder for Coraline to return to her real home, and the entire experience turns slowly into the kind of nightmare you can't wake up from no matter how hard you try. I think one of the huge achievements of the directo was to have made a movie that everyone will acclaim as beautiful, when perhaps the most beautiful thing about it is the sheer ugliness of it all….. Overall Without a doubt, "Coraline" is a remarkable feat of imagination, a magical, quirky tale with a genuinely sinister edge. In my view, the director has succeeded in creating a sheer technical marvel. The animation, voice cast, characters, set design, soundtrack, animation and effects are all wonderful in Coraline. I have even heard the film referred to as a sheer "carnival of wonders" - magical gardens, a charmingly choreographed circus of mice, a couple of old actresses who get together to put on a lewd but very funny variety show. Coraline herself is a wonderful little heroine - strong, sensible, self-sufficient but still fairly freaked out about what is happening around her. Coraline's is the story of a little girl's bravery in saving the day and arriving safe and sound by the end. It's a journey rich in delight and one that will enchant children even if it will have them shivering with the unsettled feeling you might get if you saw your mother had buttons for eyes! It is fun viewing for all and has a good hearted morale of mutual understanding between generations. It manages to show the imagination as something terrifying and self-consuming. That the movie does all this from within the confines of the children's-film genre makes it all the more eerie and evocative. You couldn't ask for anything more, really!!

Review published on the 19 October 2009 10:04