Coraline is a collaboration between author Neil Gaiman and master animator Henry Selick. Big names in their respective fields, these stars come together here to create one of the most startlingly different pieces of animation I have seen in years.

Selick perfected his animation skills at Disney before moving on to freelance work. He would later team up with Tim Burton to concoct the highly coveted, Goth-nouveau The Nightmare Before Christmas as well as James And The Giant Peach. Known primarily for his dark and lurid children’s films, it is no wonder that he jumped at the chance to collaborate with author Gaiman on his fractured fairytale.

Coraline is about a young girl transplanted by her writer parents to a new home in a subdivided pink house. Feeling alone, bored, and unheard, Coraline begins to explore the house at her father’s request. During her investigation she comes across a small door that has been wallpapered over. This door leads to another version of her world, the “other” world. Once in this other world she begins to feel more and more at home, her “other” parents more available to her and her “other” neighbors less dull. That is until she is faced with a choice that threatens not only her life, but the lives of her parents as well.

The film cultivates a growing sense of menace that lurks just below the surface of the plot. There is a certain dream logic that informs the mechanics of the “other” world, as well as Coraline’s entrance into that world, where though the forms of that world, the people, places, objects, are borrowed from the real world, their function and interaction are decidedly askant, uncanny. The strange feeling of familiarity with something new permeates the film in a way that seems to, as Tom Gunning said of the uncanny, “threaten surface consciousness with repressed fears and desires.” The viewer is reminded how quickly a dream can become a nightmare. But more than that, how strange the seemingly familiar can be.

On the outside, Coraline seems the next logical step toward the cult of the childhood macabre. It is a film that will feed its fans’ morbid childhood images that can be printed onto t-shirts and sold at Hot Topic stores. Nike produced a limited edition shoe for the premiere of the film that was one of the most exceptional pieces of crossover branding I have seen of late. But that is of course very much only on the outside.

On the inside, Coraline is a masterful piece of animation that holds ties to Czech surrealist Jan Svankmajer, the Hudson River school of landscape painting and a variety of expressionist painting techniques, as well as Japanese artist Tadahiro Uesugi, and very clearly Lewis Carroll’s ‘Alice In Wonderland’. The film makes no attempt to hide its preoccupation with the grotesque, made most obvious in Coraline’s bawdy actress neighbors. There is a nervous, Brothers Quay-like quality to the animation brought on by the use of stop-motion as opposed to the very clean CG seen in most contemporary children’s films: Pixar, Dreamworks, et al. This attention to the tactile comes across, producing a truly tensile quality that adds to the uncanny properties of the film.

Coraline is a film that you will be able to enjoy alone, or with your family. The film succeeds in operating on many levels, offering time for artistic contemplation, as well as a plot that is sure to entertain. Coraline finds a home in the new school of children’s films aimed at adults. Yet unlike the Pixar films with a similar agenda, rather than impart a political or social message, Coraline speaks to the aesthetics of childhood remembered.

P.S- As far as the 3D version of the film is concerned, it is not worth your time for a serious viewing, but if you want to see a slightly effective gimmick, give it a shot. Muted colors and motion blur brought on by sub-par formatting ruin the viewing experience, as well as cause headaches, nausea, and disorientation. As for the Blu-Ray release, this is a must own, showcasing the format’s ability to accurately present a multitude of colors and lighting effects. Animation has always looked fantastic on Blu-Ray, but this gives Akira a run for its money. – [DVD] [Blu-Ray]

Animation/Adventure/Family/Fantasy

Rated PG

DVD Release Date: 7/21/09

[review revised 7/29/09]

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