Totally stunning visuals and a strong story give this film high, high marks

Rating: 9/10 (25 February 2009)

Coraline (voiced by Dakota Fanning) is a young girl with less-than-perfect parents. Her mother (Teri Hatcher) and dad are work-from-home writers trying to put out a gardening catalog, giving very little attention to their pre-teen daughter. Dad does the cooking but meals are less than optimal, also, as shopping sometimes gets rushed or overlooked. Then, too, they have moved their household to a fabulous old Victorian mansion in the sticks and Coraline misses her friends and former city abode very much. One day, her parents, working feverishly on their catalog, encourage, er, demand that Coraline explore her new house, for it has many rooms, nooks, and crannies. Finding a secret door, Coraline is perplexed to discover that the wall behind the door is bricked up. Yet, at night, a mouse draws her to the doorway and, lo and behold, a secret entrance has appeared like magic. Crawling through a tunnel, Coraline finds herself in an alternate world, where her new mother and father shower her with terrific meals and fun things to do. But, strangely, both of them, while looking like their real world counterparts in most ways, sport "button" eyes. Since Coraline finds a mysterious doll in her room, who likewise has buttons for eyes and Coraline's features, this is a mystery. But, because her second set of parents are so doting, Coraline can't wait to get back to their world the next night, even though she receives warnings from the neighboring ladies, a young country boy, and the eccentric Russian man who lives upstairs. Is this really a perfect world that Coraline has entered? Not on your life! This is a great film with absolutely stunning visuals, enhanced by 3-D glasses, if you are so fortunate to see such a showing. It would be difficult, indeed, to find a more colorful or imaginative animated film in all of cinema. Most viewers will be oohing and aahing at every turn. The story, too, is strong, interesting, and, even a bit scary for the preschool crowd, without someone's hand to hold. All of the actors voicing their parts, from Fanning to Hatcher to Ian McShane as the Russian man, are very fine, also. In short, Coraline is a terrific film for virtually everyone, young and old, following in the footsteps of such movies as Fantasia or The Nightmare Before Christmas. It is well worth the effort to bundle up the family and march on over to the nearest theater, for it is a "big" screen film in the scope of its breathtaking animation and it will generate contended sighs all around.