Very unique and interesting, but I'd hesitate to say it is a "good" movie, still I am glad I saw it.

Rating: Null/10 (12 August 2009)

I get all these new DVD releases from my public library so I watch everything, finding the enjoyment of each. This one comes in both 2D and 3D, on either side of the DVD. The package also came with 4 pairs of 3D glasses. I watched the first 15 minutes or so in 3D with the glasses, but didn't find it satisfying viewing, and watched the rest of it in 2D without glasses.
Here we have an animated movie using small puppets primarily, with facial movements that reminds me of the claymation of the 'Wallace and Gromit' movies.
Dakota Fanning voices Coraline Jones, an intelligent and active girl of about 10. Her mother and father always seem too busy to pay attention to her. When she notices a small baseboard-level locked door in the new house they are renting, she finds the key to open it. Behind the door she finds an interesting, shimmering, moving circular tunnel seemingly made of fabric. Undaunted she goes right in, only to emerge right back in her house. Or so it seems.
In this "alternate" world she finds her mom and dad, her "other" parents, who treat her very well. She gets the attention she doesn't seem to be able to get at home. Plus everything else she craves. But these "other" parents have buttons where their eyes should be. Coraline is certainly curious about this, but it does not scare her off.
Teri Hatcher is good as the voice of both her mother and her "other" mother.
The reason I can't pull myself to call this a "good" movie is because it becomes more than a bit unclear what was going on in this alternate reality, why some kids were already trapped there, and why the "other" mother wanted Coraline to stay with her permanently. Maybe it was just because the "other" mother wanted a child to love her, but still it never hit home with me. Not like "Monsters, Inc", for example, which I consider one of the better animated movies.