Coraline

Coraline

Synopsis

A girl finds adventure in a whole new world away from her troubled home. But her new found world has sinister secrets.

Official Site: coraline.com

Singapore Release Date: 29th October 2009, Thursday

Running Time: 100 minutes

Ratings: Rated PG for thematic elements, scary images, some language and suggestive humor.

Genre: Animation | Adventure | Family | Fantasy

Cast: Dakota Fanning, Teri Hatcher, Keith David, Robert Bailey Jr., John Hodgman, Jennifer Saunders, Dawn French, Ian McShane

Crew: Director (Henry Selick), Producer (Claire Jennings), Writers (Henry Selick), Screenplay (Henry Selick), Novel (Neil Gaiman), Music (Bruno Coulais), Cinematography (Pete Kozachik) and Editing (Christopher Murrie)

The Trailer

The Review

Coraline is a stop-motion animation presented in 3D that is a mix of the traditional and the new. Apart from it’s novelty, the screenplay is pretty decent, and overall I love the originality.

The animation is based on the graphic novel by Neil Gaiman, where his creations are peppered with lovely quirky characters.

Coraline voiced by Dakota Fanning is a pessimist little girl that has always something to complain. Everything annoys her, from the boy living nearby, Wybie (Robert Bailey Jr.), the eccentric neighbors, to her boring writer parents.

One day Coraline found a mysterious door in the wall, which is a portal to another alternate universe. It seems things over on the other side are similar to her own, but seems better.

Her other parents gives her everything, they’re much more exciting, people are much more exuberant, almost to a point of annoyingly cheerful always. But being the pessimist Coraline is, can she follow suit like everyone else in the other world.

To me it’s a somewhat an adult animation, and it is fairly scary film by children’s movies standards. The underlying message in the animation is about the traditional moral warning of appreciating the parents you have.

The Good

• Excellent voice-over by Terri Hatcher who played two roles
• Wait until the entire closing credits, there’s a surprise
• Groundbreaking masterful animation

The Bad

• Some scenes are over the top
• Made for 3D, but some theaters don’t support such
• Leave your children home, it will be too dark scary for them

Editor’s Ratings