Surprisingly one dimensional...

Rating: 6/10 (7 February 2009)

Let me frank here: I love Neil Gaiman (his work, that is), I love Henry Selick, and I love animation. Coraline was the first Gaiman novel I ever read, and when I found out they were making a movie, I literally leaped for joy!
Then I saw the clip online and thought it was weird for Coraline to have blue hair -- okay, not bad. Then I heard she was going to be voiced by Dakota Fanning (Ew), that they rewrote the story so that some kid named Wybie would be in it, and that They Might Be Giants would supply the soundtrack. My hopes were fading...
I'll sum it up for you right now: this movie has the BEST animation Henry Selick has ever done -- bar none! The visuals are breathtaking--no, spectacular! The music was catchy, the jokes were good, and the acting first class. The problem is that the pace of the story moves too quickly and none of the characters, except for Coraline, are given any kind of development.
Coraline obviously proves to the most engaging character throughout the story, but everyone else feels sorely misplaced. Her parents are mean to her one minute, then nice to her the next; Wybie is zero one minute, a hero the next; and the cat goes from being a sarcastic freak of nature to being Coraline's best friend. What happened here? There is virtually no character development.
And what about the plot holes? Yes, I'm sorry to say that even in a film as beautiful as this there are plot holes. Such as, why on earth did Wybie give Coraline the doll in the first place? Why didn't the Other Mother just give it to Coraline herself? Why isn't Coraline the least bit scared when she sees the Other Mother for the first time? Would she really be courageous enough to eat there after just having eaten in the real world? How come Coraline's parents can't remember what happened after they've been released from the snow globe? And why does Coraline act like nothing is wrong when the cat suddenly begins talking to her in the tunnel. Obviously, I'm over-analyzing things here, but many of the film's faults are glaringly on the surface.
Overall, I have to say that The Nightmare Before Christmas still remains my favorite Selick film. Coraline is GOOD, but at least ALL the characters in Nightmare were one- dimensional, whereas Coraline is the only three-dimensional thing going.