Coraline (2009) Review

Tagline: Be careful what you wish for.

Coraline (2009) Review

 

You might be wondering why I’m reviewing a kid’s movie. Coraline may be an adaptation of Neil Gaiman’s children’s book of the same name, but it’s quite a visually unsettling dark fantasy. I’m reminded of that dumb line from Jurassic World, about whether or not the Indominous Rex will scare kids. “The kids? This will give the parents nightmares.”

I love stop motion films, but let's be honest: sometimes stop motion can get a little creepy. Something about the inhuman designs and that jerky movement and the life-like qualities of characters and environments that should be inanimate. Coraline was the first major release from Laika studios, which specializes in stop motion, and I have to say right off the bat that it is exceptionally well done in this regard. The animation is incredibly smooth, the movements of the characters are unique, consistent, and satisfying, and everything exhibits high levels of detail—not just characters, but the environments, props, and even terrains, and all of it was created specifically for the film.

The plot starts out with Coraline and her family moving into a new house, which she’s not thrilled by, and her parents are not very attentive, always absorbed into their own business. She meets a neighbor kid named Wybie, an odd boy who talks too much, with a stray black cat that hangs around with him. One night, she finds a strange little door in the house leads to an alternate reality of the house and garden, occupied by button-eyed versions of everyone who she finds are nicer and more tolerable. But, there’s something sinister about her “other parents” and one day, instead of waking up back in her normal bed, she finds herself trapped in this alternate world, and the residents want her to stay…forever.

Coraline is certainly a unique film, at points feeling like a darker take on Alice in Wonderland, only without the whimsy. The title character could have come off as annoying, but she’s an endearing lead to follow on this peculiar journey. The supporting characters are all interesting, too, each with a different design, though some of them look really strange. The dad is kind and soft-spoken, yet looks exaggeratedly thin, tired, and almost sickly. There are two former burlesque actresses, and one of them has breasts bigger than her head. It’s stuff like this that makes it sometimes feel more for the adults watching with the kids than for the kids themselves.

I wasn’t aware of this when it first came out, but there was a whole generation of kids too scared to even see the movie based on the trailer, because of one simple, disturbing detail. Two words: button eyes. And I get it. It is super creepy looking just in concept, but seeing the characters walk and talk and smile, but stare at the camera with these black, featureless buttons for eyes doubles the creep factor. Even beyond that detail, though, there are many other weird visuals, from a skeleton tortoise to a mechanical mantis tractor.

Coraline looked completely off-putting to teenage me, but adult me found it a pretty well made stop motion feature. It’s probably too strange and disturbing for really young kids, but I think any adult horror/dark fantasy fans will find something to love about it, and any younger viewers breaking into either genre might want to start out with this one.