Thou art alive!

Rating: 9/10 (17 February 2009)

Even though the soundtrack includes a children's choir and a They Might Be Giants song, please don't bring toddlers to this movie, unless they are into hating their mothers and burning their dollies. Coraline excels at the bizarre and grotesque, and touches on the scary, even for us grown-ups. While I applaud most movies with "facial structure supervisor" and "puppet wrangler" in the credits, the 3D mastery and attention to detail in Coraline make this film visually orgasmic, from the dust on a car to the elaborate psychedelic garden to the drunk neighbor's billowing repulsive gut you can almost smell. A subtle theme, as one character in the film articulates, is in the realm of "thou art alive; thou art still living" but the real take-home message is this: Even though your parents may be neglectful and mean, at least you're not threatened with eternal damnation in a home with a woman claiming to be your mother who really just wants to steal your eyeballs and sew buttons in their place.