Gothic Animation

Rating: 8/10 (21 May 2009)

What do you get if you mix together the Wizard of Oz, the Chronciles of Narnia, Spirited Away, Alice in Wonderland, The Amber Spyglass and Tim Burton? You get Coraline, a big screen adaptation of Neil Gaiman's novella.
The last film based on the work by Neil Gaiman made the very enjoyable Stardust. Whilst Coraline has a similar theme, it is so very different at the same time.
Coraline Jones (Dakota Fanning) is a young adventurous girl who has just moved to the rainy state of Oregon. Her parents (Teri Hatcher and John Hodgman) are writers and are too busy to spend time with their daughter or do the activities she wants to. Her mum is cold and irritable at times whilst her dad is kind-hearted but a bit hopeless. The neighbours include a local boy Wybie (Robert Bailey Jr.), the formers actresses Miss Spink and Miss Forcible (Jennifer Saunders and Dawn French) and the gymnast Mr. Bobinsky (Ian McShane) who training mice to do jumping tricks. Coraline is bored, frustrated and ignored, but she discoveries a magic door to another world. There it seems perfect, with her parents doing anything she wants, like cook nice meals and see magical performances by the neighbours. But every time she wakes up in her own bed and she has to face to reality of her own world. She longs to go back to the Other World, but she gets warned by the black cat (Keith David) that the world was not as it seems, and she soon discovers that it a very dark place indeed.
The animation is beautiful, with fantastic puppet, stop-motion which can rival Aardman Animation. There are lovely subtle touch and the designs of sets and characters which makes the film worth seeing in itself. It clear that by the style of storytelling and animation that the director Henry Selick was from the Tim Burton school. Even the opening is like a Tim Burton film. The story itself is wonderfully original, but because it Gothic feel and be scary at places it is not advised for young children to see this film. It is a good to see a young girl as the lead protagonist.
The voice acting is good. Dakota Fanning shows why she is one of best child actresses around. Teri Hatcher is good and shows her range in this film. It's good to see French and Saunders in an American film and carrying on her double act with a love-hate relationship. I also enjoyed Keith David as the cat. But the performance I enjoyed the most of Ian McShane who had excellent comedy skills and very different to his role in Deadwood. His character's appearance also reminded me of Dr. Robotnik.
I saw the film in 3D which made for increasing viewing and was stylist, but the novelty worn off because of the power of the story-telling. It would easy enough to watch it in 2D.
This is the first animated film I have seen in the cinema since The Increadibles, and it was a good choice. It good to see an animated film made out of love and not just a cheap cash-in.
A lovely, 4 out of 5.