Twixt and tween
‘Coraline’ can run but not hide from the two worlds she inhabits
By Lisa Miller 02/12/2009
Henry Selick’s stop-motion animation transports the viewer into a world unlike any other. His muse is Neil Gaiman’s graphic novel, “Coraline,” a frightening fairy tale darkly related to those of the Brothers Grimm.
In “Coraline,” Gaiman examines the period of unrest known as the tweens, a time when kids look longingly toward their teens but still depend on adults to meet most of their needs. Storytellers Gaiman and Selick want kids to know that bad things happen to tweens, also known as halflings, straying too far from home. It isn’t that Coraline Jones (voice of Dakota Fanning) doesn’t love her parents; it’s just that she goes looking for attention in all the wrong places.
Before moving to the isolated Oregon countryside, Coraline had close friends to help occupy her time, but now she feels alone and neglected while her parents (Teri Hatcher and John Hodgman) toil long hours writing garden catalogs. Told to amuse herself quietly, but prohibited from making a mess, Coraline tries to befriend: neighborhood boy Wybie Lovat (Robert Bailey Jr.), elderly, eccentric actresses (Jennifer Saunders and Dawn French) living in the basement apartment and an extremely odd circus ringmaster (Ian McShane), residing in the upstairs flat of Coraline’s large Victorian home.
Coraline makes an instant connection to a neighborhood cat (Keith David) and is drawn to kangaroo mice that lead her into an alternate version of Coraline’s world. Here, Coraline’s alternate mother is a kitchen diva whipping up the girl’s favorite dishes while the new father wrangles a garden filled with magical pumpkins and flowers. Basking in the home life constructed exactly to her many desires by these other parents, Coraline is told that she can stay forever, provided she just agrees to have buttons sewn over her eyes — buttons exactly like those worn by her alternate mom and dad. It is Coraline’s refusal to do this that changes everything and threatens her very existence in both realms.
Shown in 3-D wherever possible, the otherworldly visions of “Coraline” are breathtaking. Highly stylized animation creates people whose narrow shoulders give way to exaggerated hips and legs.
Tender loving care is lavished on every bug, costume and set — all handmade rather than created in-camera. Even in 2-D, the extra effort makes you instinctively want to stroke Coraline’s knit sweaters and fuzzy blankets, or try to grab a kangaroo mouse by its long tail.
Some may think the film a bit too frightening for little kids, but the subtle story is likely to go right over their heads anyway. Never mind. The astounding visuals are sufficient to engage minds too young to comprehend more than the snap dragons nipping at Coraline’s heels. Enjoy the ride.
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