Technically immaculate, daring 3D adventure

Rating: 9/10 (7 February 2009)

Coraline Jones moves into an old, pink house with her neglectful, condescending parents and finds a door to another world - a world that seems insanely perfect, including the presence of loving, attentive parents with buttons for eyes. And then things get weird in director Henry Selick’s highly imaginative fantasy, filmed in dazzling 3D stop animation.
There’s so much to like about this movie, but if you weren’t a fan of The Nightmare before Christmas (also directed by Selick), you may as well stop reading: this is not the movie for you.
There are two other tenants in the apartment house: an elderly British couple, stars of the stage (played by Jennifer Saunders and Dawn French of Absolutely Fabulous) and a Russian acrobat who’s all limbs and belly (played by Ian McShane of Deadwood). All the tenants are oddballs who, one would think, would provide the bored Coraline with plenty of stimulation, but they’re a bit self absorbed - the actresses constantly competing with each other for any purpose, and the acrobat constantly working on his act with trained mice.
When Coraline stumbles upon a locked crawlspace door, she’s immediately intrigued, but unlocking it reveals only a brick wall. But then that night she’s awakened by a mouse under her bed who leads her back to the door, which, when she opens it, now shows a tenuous pathway to another, far-off door. Being the curious little girl she is, Coraline goes through the door, emerging in an exact replica of her own kitchen. Except different. The mother in this room is cooking, for one thing, which her real mother never does. And when the mother turns to greet Coraline, there’s another, even greater difference: she wears two black buttons for eyes. Gasp! Seems that this new world Coraline’s discovered is perfect in every way, with wonderful, caring parents who dote on her every whimsy. Not only can her mom cook, she cooks everything Coraline wants. And her dad is a musician - the piano plays him! Oh, it’s madness, I tell you, sheer madness. Then there’s outside! In the real world, it’s a desolate yard, unencumbered by plant life (the irony here is that Coraline’s parents are gardening writers), but here there’s a magnificent display, a visual cacophony of light and flowers and birds and bees. It’s astoundingly rendered in stop-motion animation, and it’s even more wondrous in three dimensions.
But things aren’t as they seem. The stark beauty of this other world and the kindness of the Other Mother are mere props in a greater play. The question posed is this: Will Coraline decide to stay in her new world, even if she must sacrifice to do so? Beyond the impressive cinematography (by Pete Kozachik, who was nominated for The Nightmare before Christmas), there’s also excellent voice work offered by Dakota Fanning as Coraline as well as Teri Hatcher (as Mother and Other Mother) and John Hodgeman (the IBM guy in those currently ubiquitous Apple ads). Fanning in particular was a good choice as the hurting, neglected Coraline.
Coraline is brilliantly conceived and stupendously executed. It has all the mystery and show-stopping magnetism of The Nightmare before Christmas, and it has even more heart. Know why? Because more so than Nightmare, this is a tale about love and redemption; you root for Coraline not only because she’s a psychologically lost girl but also because her antagonist is so hissably awful. The villain here is really a symbol for the feeling all kids have at some point of not being wanted or appreciated; Coraline must slay that dragon to survive.