Sweet Coraline (Coraline (DVD))

Member Name: dididave

Product:	Coraline (DVD)
Date:	15/05/09 (89 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Excellent animation, great characters, dark and edgy.

Disadvantages: Scary for little ones.

Coraline Jones is bored out of her mind. Her parents don't have time for her and she has left her friends behind to move into a dilapidated Victorian house in the middle of nowhere. Feeling lonely and unloved why wouldn't she follow the mice through the little door into a strange world? However, all is not as it seems as Coraline slowly realizes her other mother might just want to love her a little too much, and why does everyone here have buttons were they should have eyes?

I absolutely love "Coraline". It is a brilliantly eccentric piece of film making that sits the just the right side of creepy. Forget the fact this is a kids movie. This is undoubtedly a creepy horror film that builds suspense and is intensely unsettling. Neil Gaiman is an author who never dumbs down for a younger audience and this film re-working of his children's novel is a perfect example of this. It is rare a film gets a PG rating nowadays with filmmakers opting for overly safe family fare or the comic book violence of the ridiculous 12A rating. I find "Coraline" refreshing as it is a film that refuses to fall into cliché or go down the Dreamworks/Pixar route of animation.

If you thought Roald Dahl's menacing child flicks like "The Witches" were dark they have nothing on this. Gaiman and Director Henry Sellick clearly understand that children love to be scared. They like magical realities were anything can happen good and bad and the alternative reality Coraline finds herself in when she goes through the little door is certainly that. Unsettling and amazing in equal measure you find yourself feeling equal parts of awe and disgust as magical mice are revealed to be rabid rats and Coraline's "other mother" slowly reveals herself to not be quite as lovely as she appears.

The magic of the whole thing is undoubtedly helped by the use of stop-motion animation which is rarely seen in film making but has proved itself to be effective in movies such as Tim Burton's "The Corpse Bride". "Coraline" certainly benefits from being filmed in this way, feeling a lot different and more eccentric than the modern trend of CGI animation and the Gothic feel is certainly reminiscent of a Burton movie.

Macabre to it's very core, "Coraline" has a rich and vivid cast of characters that engaged me throughout. Every single one of them is unique and their counterparts through the little door offer a stark contrast to their often jovial personalities. Dakota Fanning once again proves herself to be an exceptional actress in the role of disgruntled teen "Coraline" and it came as a great surprise to find Terri Hatcher in the dual role of mother/other mother. An actress I have previously considered as vapid, she excels in her roles bringing a subdued yet menacing performance. Equally impressive are French and Saunders in comedy roles and watch out for Ian Mc Shane weirdly cast as a Russian acrobat.

More disturbing than anything even the great Lewis Carroll managed in "Through the Looking Glass", this film is a perfect antidote to the current crop of family friendly animal movies churned out by Hollywood. It is a bold and hugely entertaining movie that kids will love for the magic. I can well imagine children screeching with equal amounts of fear and delight but nuts to them, as an adult I thought it was brilliant. I saw it in 2D and I honestly think the 3D option while the new craze, will add nothing. This is a great film in it's own right. Easily the best film I have seen in 2009.

Summary: Best film of 2009 so far!