The voice of Caroline is none other than Dakota Fanning, who hass starred in movies like War of the Worlds and Charlotte’s Web. Coraline’s parents are given voices by Teri Hatcher (“Desperate Housewives ), and John Hodgman.
Coraline is upset with her parents about moving from her home town in Pontiac, Michigan, and becomes tempted by this world created for her by her other mother. In this deviated alternate world, everything seems to be very wonderful and pleasant at first glance. All this allure is aimed to tempt those who are unhappy in reality to a place that appears good on the surface. This other mother then provides the children with whatever their hearts desire. Once they decide to stay in this world by exchanging their eyes for buttons, they essential have their souls taken and become homeless ghosts—pretty intense for a kids’ movie, right!
The movie really doesn’t get moving until about 45 minutes in. For the first 15 minutes you’re really confused as to what the movie is even about. It shows metal hands that look like scissor hands fashioning a doll. You see this doll go from a typical one into one that looks exactly like Coraline. There’s an eerie feeling you get during this scene. From a child’s perspective, to see your doll completely dismantled and then turned inside out, might be something that leaves you scared.
Something unique to the film was the stop-motion animation filming technique. This depicts the imagery of puppets without the stringy mess. Two other films that employed this method were Tim Burton’s The Nightmare Before Christmas and James and the Giant Peach. The director for both of these films is synonymously Henry Selick.
This stop-motion filming is like technological sculpting, and can be interesting, though I find traditional animation films that employ realism both superior in aesthetics and more appropriate for children.
Taking young children to see this movie may not be the best way to spend two hours with the family unless you want to spend the next five hours explaining the movie. Anyway, Coraline opens in theaters everywhere on Feb. 6.
