Wonderfully artistic with a strong story; but loses a little steam in the second half

Rating: 7/10 (4 March 2009)

Coraline, an animated adaptation of the Neil Gaiman book, appropriately directed by Henry Selick, who you might know as the director of similarly scary children's films such as The Nightmare Before Christmas and James and the Giant Peach. Coraline follows suit with incredible visuals and an interesting story, but there are still a couple story issues that keep it from fully matching the wonder of the visuals. Oh, and I watched it in 3-D and will have a couple things to say about that too.
First and foremost, the movie is a visual treat. All the imagery looks fantastic and imaginatively different from mainstream children's fare, clearly more in line with Selick and Burton's work. The combination of stop-animation and computer graphics is impressive, but more impressive is the art design, everything having such a cohesive look. I do have to put a note of caution in that the film does have a touch of minor grotesque/comical near-nudity in it and although I don't find it problematic myself, someone else might prefer that their children are not exposed to it. All the same, the visuals are spectacular.
Also, the stereoscopic 3D effect is pretty cool, I have to admit, even if the glasses are uncomfortable and make me feel funny in my head. It certainly adds a depth to the movie and while it isn't a necessity, I liked the effect. It didn't seem to be used in a gimmicky way in Coraline, so that was nice.
As for the story, it's basically about a girl who moves into a house with a mysterious door that leads to an "other" world where everything's super fun and nice, only that everyone has buttons for eyes. The first half is this wonderful cautionary tale about fantasy and then the story ends and a whole new story begins. This second story is where I find some fault with Coraline as Coraline has essentially overcome the major conflict of the story and so everything we watch is no longer all that thematically important. Also, the structure of the narrative hems very close to the flat nature of a fable and often had me thinking of a Mario video game, only less fun.
This lack of gravity to the second half (essentially a much extended ending) pulls a lot of the magic out of the film, but I still admit that the first half was so strong that it doesn't pull all the magic out of the film.
So, I have to say that Coraline is a decent flick, especially early on and I can say it's a decent film to catch on the strength of its visuals and the strong story in the first half. It does lose its way in the second half and whether that's an artifact from the novel or a matter of its interpretation, I don't know, but I don't think the let down is so great as to prevent a viewer from otherwise enjoying it. So, recommended, including for children. 7/10.
One note is that there is a little bit of exposition in the middle of the film and younger children will likely get restless. They certainly did in my theater.