Yeah, it has been out for three weeks now and has already made more than $50 million at the box office, but let me tell you about a movie called "Coraline."
Based on the children's novel by British author and equally British screenwriter Neil Gaiman, "Coraline" is the latest production from the eye-popping, jaw-dropping, belly-flopping, hip-hopping, stop-motion works of animation master Henry Selick. As with his previous portfolio, including a little-known holiday movie that you might have heard of, "The Nightmare Before Christmas," as well as "James and the Giant Peach," and that simian-looking guy in "Monkeybone" (no not Brendan Fraser; the other one), "Coraline" exudes that same animated visual elegance and majesty.
The basic story revolves around the independent and all-around spunky Coraline, voiced by everyone's favorite precocious child actress Dakota Fanning. Donning a raincoat and her trademark blue hair, she is left to her own devices after a recent move to the Pink Palace Apartments. Neglected by her wonderfully caricaturistic parents (Teri Hatcher and John Hodgman), who are consumed with catalogue writing about plants, she explores her new surroundings and neighbors. There is Wybie (Robert Bailey Jr.), the apartment owner's talkative grandson; Mr. Bobinsky (Ian McShane) the beet-loving Russian acrobat who is developing a mouse circus; and two bickering elderly stage performers, Miss Forcible and Miss Spink (Dawn French and Jennifer Saunders), with their pack of Scottish terriers. Despite their simple friendliness, she dismisses them due to their self-absorption and constant mispronunciation of her name.
Fortunately for Coraline, this is no ordinary house, and as in other fantasy tales, it contains her perfect escape: a portal to a magical realm. Instead of a wardrobe, it is a small, sealed door in the wall. Instead of containing "Narnia" beavers, Coraline finds an alternate universe where she is the center of attention and her wishes come true. In a "Wizard of Oz" sense, all the characters of her reality have an enhanced persona on the other side of the door with one minor physical difference: buttons for eyes. Her Other Mother prepares her a magnificent feast; her Dad shows her a wondrous garden; Mr. Bobinsky, Miss Forcible and Miss Spink put on entertaining shows. But is it all too good to be true? Spoiler alert: Obviously.
With the help of a feline friend (Keith David), Coraline recognizes the trap set up by her evil Other Mother, saves herself, and rescues a few others along the way, ultimately learning to appreciate what she has and realizing that things are not always what they seem - a good lesson for children to learn early, especially when dealing with toupees and transvestites later in life.
Despite sitting in the theater among what seemed like Ms. Pennyknuckle's third-grade class field trip to the movies, "Coraline" maintains appeal not only to the kiddie demographic, but its stunning scenery and shadowy spectrum of symbolism support a mature audience as well.
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Through Selick's signature style, the inanimate are imbued with a vivid sense of life that's so good it borders on necromancy. While the movie composites a mixture of CGI and old-school stop-motion animation, it's the latter that adds a deep organic feeling. In addition to the lush lighting and colors, the rich textures of the sets and characters are palpable, giving the viewer a more tactile sense of realism than that of a solely CGI production. Selick creates powerful portrayals of duality that enhance the visual storytelling.
As Coraline revisits these same people and places between the two realities under different contexts, their characteristics and tones shift. The transformations from the ebullient to the diseased in the alternate world and from a drab to a brighter reality are masterfully reflected in environmental imagery. Backing up the pretty pictures is a solid cast of defined and memorable characters driven by talented vocal performances. Hatcher stands out as both the distant mother and the maniacal, and mechanical, poisoned honey Other Mother.
Overall, "Coraline" delivers as a magnificently stimulating story and screening experience for a wide-ranging audience, reminding us, like that monkey dude in "Bedazzled" (this time I do mean Brendan Fraser), to "be careful what you wish for." I suspect "Coraline" will go down as another cult classic, or at the very least provide an increase in the sale of blue wigs this Halloween.
