Selick is right up there with Burton!

Rating: 9/10 (1 March 2009)

Coraline/2009/***1/2
Main Stars: Coraline: Dakota Fanning Mother/Other Mother: Teri Hatcher Wybie: Robert Bailey Jr.
They don't make movies like Coraline very often but perhaps that's a good thing. Why? It's simple. If shown too often, stop motion animation would lose its novelty. Only fourteen years ago the spectacle that was Toy Story was released and it received tons of attention and rave reviews not just for its very witty screenplay but also for its rare look. Not one film had looked like that and had a FEATURE LENGTH running time to it until Toy Story was released in 1995 by Pixar. Yes, Pixar had released fully and digitally animated films but they were all within the duration of ten minutes or less.
But now what do we see AT LEAST 5-10 times a year? An animated film. I'm not saying this is bad. It's alright if it's digitally animated by computer as long as the screenplay is very good. Pixar has absolutely no problem with clever screenplays in their animated films. Wall-E was sheer brilliance as was Ratatouille the year before. But I'm still partial to Toy Story more than any other film Pixar released. DreamWorks, however, might need to work a little on those screenplays, excluding their best work, Shrek.
Coraline is based on the graphic novel by Neil Gaiman about a bratty little girl named Coraline (Dakota Fanning) that finds a secret door in the family room/living room of her house that leads into another version or rather alternate version of her life. This alternate version you will find is quite different from her real life. Completely the opposite, in fact. It reminded me so much of the joyous atmosphere of the dead in Tim Burton's Corpse Bride and the completely dull life of the living. What an ingenious contrast.
Coraline is ingenious in itself as well but in a different way. Not only is the animation astounding, the screenplay decent, the originality brilliant, but there is a moral as well. One that's not too hard to find out but also one that is pretty important to keep in mind. The story is different and this moral has been used before.
Coraline is a pessimist, always finding something to complain about; whether it's her life or the situation she's in. Nothing seems to be going her way. Even the boy living nearby, Wybie (Robert Bailey Jr.), annoys her. But, she's curious and adventurous and gets her nose into every little thing. As she's browsing around the house to pass the time she notices a door. It has to lead somewhere. She manages to unlock it after a bitter argument with her mother but nothing's there. This doesn't stop her. Finally, following some mice, she enters this portal if you will. It reminded me of an air duct. She passes through it and arrives in the same house! Only this one is brighter, more colorful, smells of delicious food and features buttons for eyes. Her parents are much more cheerful. In the other world her mother (Teri Hatcher) is boring and so is her father (John Hodgman). The other mother and other father, however (played by the same people), are completely exuberant, almost forcing their smiles. The ringleader you could say is the other mother. There's also other Wybie and all the other neighbors in cheerful versions and if they're not, this is to be fixed.
Coraline loves it! At first. But she is pessimistic and pretty cynical and if something doesn't go her way or someone wants her to do something she doesn't want to do, she'll get ticked off. It's all a gradual process in the other world, kind of making her be like everyone else. Does she follow suit?
The whole button metaphor, or, at least the way I interpreted it, plays a major part in the story and is total genius as is the film as a whole. Like many Tim Burton films, this one has so much originality, vision and quirky characters, it comes to be one of the most entertaining stop motion films I've seen.
Movie written for the screen and directed by Henry Selick.