Storyline fails to fulfill its potential despite excellent animation

Rating: 5/10 (16 February 2009)

Coraline is a film that employs computer enhanced stop action animation. So visually it's sort of a combination of the old and the new. What's more, some theaters show it in 3-D and it was neat wearing the special glasses and occasionally being startled as images seem to be jumping out right off from the screen itself.
Coraline, a young girl, who seems to be around eight or nine years old, has just moved into an old house with her parents, who can best be described as workaholics. While Coraline doesn't really dislike her parents, she feels a bit disconnected from them. The old house they've moved into is connected to a few other old houses which are occupied by some older neighbors who are flaming eccentrics (there's Mr. Bobinsky, a retired circus master and Miss Spink and Miss Forcible, elderly and rather plump opera buffs). Also in the mix is a local kid, Wybie, who Coraline finds exceptionally annoying (mainly because he talks too much).
Coraline is very similar to Alice in Wonderland since there is a secret portal in the house which leads to a different worldan alternate universe. Coraline follows a mouse through the portal and discovers her "other" mother and father. They look exactly the same except they have buttons for eyes. At first, Coraline is seduced by everything the new parents have to offer. She's treated to sumptuous meals and given a tour of a garden outside the house which is full of fantastic creatures which Coraline finds enchanting.
The Coraline story loses quite a bit of energy and focus in the first hour when she enters the secret world and then goes back to her ordinary world more than once. Contrast that with a story such as the Wizard of Ozwhen Dorothy enters the fantasy world of Oz , she remains there until the climax of the film. By remaining in the new extraordinary world, the protagonist now has the opportunity to be tested and go up against an evil opposing force. From the beginning of Oz, there is an arc of increasing tension which culminates in the final confrontation with the all powerful Wizard.
In contrast, the tension in Coraline doesn't really become palpable until the second half of the film. That's when the 'other' parents suddenly become malevolent and attempt to imprison Coraline in their world for the rest of eternity. Where Dorothy has three charming sidekicks (The Scarecrow, Tin Man and Lion) to aid her in her battle against the wicked witch, the 'other mother' in Coraline has taken Wybie's power of speech away from himwhich deprives Coraline from having a sidekick to battle the forces of evil in the other world (instead, a talking cat is substituted but we feel no emotional connection to that character). I would have liked the real Wybie to have somehow made his way through the portal and helped Coraline in her quest to escape or defeat the other mother.
There also didn't seem to be enough of a contrast between the eccentric neighbors in the real world and the fantasy world. Mr. Bobinsky seemed to be contorting himself all over the place BEFORE Coraline finds him leading his group of dancing mice in the alternate universe. The same goes for Miss Sprink and Miss Forcible who seem equally weird in both worlds.
In the Wizard of Oz, Dorothy's alienation from her family occurs after Auntie Em is unable to prevent Miss Gulch from taking Toto away from her. In contrast, the alienation between Coraline and her parents is only vaguely defined (somehow, the parents' preoccupation with their own work doesn't seem to be a strong enough reason for Coraline to be alienated from them). Somehow, there needed to be a much more compelling reason for Coraline to initially consider accepting her 'other' parents'. In other words, the stakes simply aren't high enough.
In the end, Coraline suffers from a lack of originality. It's a story that we've seen too many times before without enough new twists. Furthermore, the characters (including Coraline) aren't CONSISTENTLY charming enough to engage us emotionally. Coraline has some great special effects and art design and I would recommend seeing it on that basis alone. But unfortunately one must also focus on the story, which clearly has not fulfilled its potential.