Beautiful, Haunting and Memorable

Rating: 9/10 (5 February 2009)

"Coraline" makes a nice companion piece to "Mirror Mask," with the stop-motion film skewed to younger viewers than its live-action sister, but with no less bite, or visual flourish. There's no question "Coraline" should be viewed in 3D if possible; it's stunning, although digital animation has come so far recently that it makes one wonder if anyone notices that this is puppet stop-motion work--for all the incredible, painstaking artistry in "Coraline," would anyone but a professional know the difference between this and digital, or care? It would be a shame if not.
Matters of plot seem to be a mere inconvenience to the film's authors (try describing it: "A little girl finds an alternate world where people have buttons for eyes and there are these dogs with wings, but you have to collect magic balls so the kids can go to heaven because the witch, who is sort of like a spider, is your Other Mother who lives in a world through a tunnel in the wall. But the neighbor upstairs is an acrobat!), but the plot is secondary to the jaw-droppingly beautiful set pieces, and fortunately doesn't get in the way of the overall experience.
The universe of the film is visually splendid, oddly familiar while at the same time feeling alien. After an obligatory set up concerning a discontent little girl with a strong personality and singular point of view, we're thrust into a breathtaking alternate reality where All Sorts Of Things Happen and Problems Must Be Solved, with a host of memorable characters, human, animal and otherwise, along the way. Like "Silent Hill," which "Coraline" resembles in some places, the film is something like a hybrid between a video game that one plays and a movie that one watches...there are clues the protagonist needs to pick up and something like a "big boss" character that needs to be defeated. It's a style of film storytelling that was ahead of its time when it premiered and even now may not be for everyone, but is definitely unique and worth checking out.