Director: Henry Selick
Starring: Dakota Fanning, Teri Hatcher, Jennifer Saunders, Dawn French
In Cinemas: 13 August 2009
Review:
How often have you returned home after a day’s work, collapsed on the couch and stared mindlessly at the TV? It happens to all of us. You sit there, letting these images flicker in front of your face but never taking anything in. For all you care the TV could be turned off and you wouldn’t notice anything different. You’d like life to be a little brighter, to offer you something more than the old get up, eat breakfast, drive to work, work, drive home, eat dinner, watch TV, rinse and repeat. Surely there’s more to it all, right?
It’s this issue which sits at the centre of Coraline, a surprisingly adult theme interwoven into a beautifully animated piece of art. What if you could escape to something more than your everyday life? What if you could travel to a world where everything was perfect, where you never had to worry about a thing? The initial thought is compelling, but to actually experience such a world might be more disturbing than you think…
Directed by Henry Selick of The Nightmare Before Christmas/James and the Giant Peach fame, Coraline is a modern day fairy tale which tells the story of the titular Coraline, a young girl who has recently moved into an old house with her work-addicted parents. With no one to play with and a slew of strange neighbours, Coraline quickly becomes fed up with her new home and life, wishing for more.
Her prayers are answered when she discovers a secret door – only a few feet in diameter – which leads to a parallel universe where everything in her life is perfect. Coraline’s parents don’t spend any time on their laptops, instead they cook delicious meals and play games all through the night. The strange neighbours are transformed into entertainers, staging shows made entirely with mice and performing death defying acrobatics.
It’s the kind of world Coraline doesn’t want to leave, there’s just one catch; to stay in this world she has to leave her real life behind forever and sew buttons over her eyes…no living thing in this other world has eyeballs, the first sign that something isn’t right.
Without giving too much away, Coraline discovers that there is something sinister about this other world, particularly her other Mother and sets out to make things right.
If you’re thinking it sounds a little eerie, you’re correct. This is the sort of Children’s film – a term I hate using and which simply means that it’s suitable for all ages – that would be produced in the 80s, before studios were afraid of upsetting people. It’s a true fairly tale, grisly elements and all. The last third in particular plays out like a horror film, with extremely bleak locations and harsh lighting, building up suspense and throwing a few jump scares at the audience every now and then.
This shouldn’t be seen as a deterrent though, as I attended a packed screening filled with kids under the age of 10 who didn’t make a sound the entire time. Coraline never gets to the point where the dark elements are over the top and it manages to keep a perfect balance of drama, thrills and humour. There are a couple of sequences, one involving a garden which comes to life, that are simply breathtaking with their attention to detail and beauty. Yes there are scares, but there’s a lot more than simply dark and twisted moments.
Then there is the animation. Characters and story aside, Coraline is worth seeing for the animation alone.
Coraline was created with a traditional type of ‘stop motion animation’. This involves physically creating everything that you see in the film, then posing and moving it one frame at a time. It can be an extremely painstaking process and if not conducted properly, can result in quite jerky and stiff animation…none of this is present in Coraline. In fact, there are some moments that almost feel as though they have been animated via computer, it’s extremely smooth. After only a few minutes into the film I forgot that I was watching an animated feature and was drawn into the world, a feat which most animators strive for.
As I mentioned earlier, there are moments in Coraline which overwhelm you with their beauty. It’s obvious that Henry Selick and his team have poured a ridiculously huge amount of time into the design and the results are breath taking. It’s one of the best looking films to come out in recent memory.
The voice acting too is above average, in particular Dakota Fanning as the strong willed titular Coraline and Teri Hatcher – proving she can act – as both Coraline’s real life and other Mother. There isn’t a huge array of characters in this film, but all of the cast give strong performances.
Coraline isn’t the sort of family film that you’re used to seeing. It contains a moral, yes, but it doesn’t throw it at you like so many animated films tend to do (Pixar excepted of course). It’s extremely refreshing visual style and strong story elements will keep you engaged from beginning to end. I find it hard to say anything negative about Coraline. It’s not a perfect film, but it achieves everything it sets out to do, and that’s quite an amazing feat.
It’s a film worth seeing regardless of your age, and one which – in my opinion – will be looked upon as a classic in years to come.
Three and a half stars.