Delightfully bizarre Coraline a must see

(The following article appeared in the Piedmont Post.)

“Handmade” is an adjective that’s increasingly inapplicable to American animated films. Coraline bucks the computer generated trend popularized by Pixar for a more palpable medium, stop-motion animation. You might even be tempted to reach out and touch the snapdragons, dancing mice or bat-winged Scottie dogs because everything is presented in eye-popping stereoscopic 3D, fusing high- and low-tech with stunning results.

Coraline, based on the novel of the same name by fabulist Neil Gaiman and directed by stop-motion maestro Henry Selick, doesn’t rely solely on visual spectacle. It’s an endlessly creative and inventive film populated by outlandish characters and powered by a post-modern fairy-tale plot. It’s also one of the most delightfully bizarre films to appear on the big screen since Selick’s seminal film The Nightmare Before Christmas and a must see for kids of all ages.

Coraline Jones (Dakota Fanning) is a hip and intelligent single child, but she gets fed up when her blasé, workaholic parents (Teri Hatcher and John Hodgman) relocate the family into the Pink Palace apartments in rainy, muddy, sunless Ashland, Oregon. She soon meets her new oddball neighbors. First there’s Wybie Lovat (Robert Bailey Jr.), a strange, talkative boy who lives nearby and collects banana slugs for fun. Sergi Alexander Bobinsky (Ian McShane), a svelt-legged, barrel-chested and towering Russian acrobat, trains a troupe of dancing mice in the upstairs apartment. Downstairs live Miss Forcible (Dawn French) and Miss Spink (Jennifer Saunders), aging bordello dancers who appreciate the finer things in life, like vintage saltwater taffy, their Scottie dogs and, strangely, taxidermy.

Coraline soon discovers that the Pink Palace’s strangest inhabitants exist in a parallel world on the other side of a small hidden door in the living room. In the this bizarro world are her “other” mother and “other” father, who outwardly resemble her real parents but never work, endlessly dote upon and entertain her and actually take the time to decorate the house and cook delicious meals. Oh, and one other thing: they have buttons for eyes. In fact, everybody in the “other” world has buttons for eyes, except Coraline.

In the beginning, Coraline is unsure whether the alternate world exists only in her dreams, but it soon becomes apparent that it’s no dream. In fact, it might even be a suitable alternative to her dull real life and boring real parents. But there’s a steep price to pay for moving into the “other” world: her “other” mother demands Coraline sew buttons into her eyes. Things gets even frightening when she learns the “other” mother is actually a witch who feeds on the souls and love of children and that she’s imprisoned Coraline’s real parents. With the help of a talking cat and a trinket from Misses Forible and Spink, brave Coraline sets everything right.

As entertaining as it is, Coraline does have a few snags. For one thing, the plot can be difficult to piece together in a single viewing. Some scenes late in the movie might frighten younger viewers, but there didn’t appear to be any terrified youngsters at the showing this reviewer attended. Apart from those concerns, Coraline is a fantastic, magical journey through the looking glass, and the slew of computer animated films that are churned out annually can’t compare with it for creativity.