CORALINE
US, 2009, 100 minutes, Colour.
Voices of: Dakota Fanning, Teri Hatcher, Jennifer Saunders, Dawn French, Keith David, John Hodgman, Robert Bailey Jr, Ian Mc Shane.
Directed by Henry Selik.
Audiences may remember an idiosyncratic animated film from the early 1990s, The Nightmare Before Chistmas, which was re-released in 3D in 2006. Henry Selik was the film-maker responsible for this strange mixture of the serious and the comic, the gentle and the frightening. Selik also directed an animated version of Roald Dahl's James and the Gian Peach in 1996.
Selik has spent some years writing, directing and supervising the animation for Coraline. It is an adaptation of a children's book by British Neil Gaiman (the author of the book and director of the film fantasy, Mirrormask).
The animation here resembles that of The Nightmare before Christmas, many stick characters, but also some large and buxom characters, two singers voiced by Dawn French and Jennifer Saunders.
The setting is a remote building in the country side, apartments where Coraline's mother and father have moved. Coraline has not settled and wanders around, befriended by a cat and the grandson of the former owner. When she opens a door, she finds and enters an alternate world with a kindly Other Mother and Father as well as different versions of the neighbours.
Coraline is in the tradition of Alice exploring Wonderland or Dorothy on the road to Oz. She has to find her path, be deceived by the Other Mother, in the vein of Alice's malicious queens or Dorothy's witches. When she finds that the Other Mother and Father want her to stay but she must sew buttons over her eyes, Coraline draws the line and begins a struggle to free herself, rescue her parents who are trapped in this other world. The young boy is her ally and helps. The cat (who is able to talk in the alternate world) helps as well.
The youngest girls in the audience might find it all a bit frightening but older girls should enjoy it (probably not most of the boys). Parents and adults will find much to admire in the skill of the animation as well as the use of 3D.
Dakota Fanning is the voice of Coraline and makes her a rather demanding, strong-minded and strong-willed child (along the lines of the precocious little girls Dakota Fanning used to play some years ago). Desperate housewives Teri Hatcher voices both mothers. An entertaining oddity.
1.The impact of this film? For children, for girls, for adults? The credits and the focus on the doll, its being undone, the buttons?
2.The tradition of Alice in Wonderland, Dorothy and the Wizard of Oz, Coraline and her journey?
3.The quality of the animation, the stop-motion style, the fluid action, characters? The design, the house, the terrain, the dingy atmosphere? The colour of the Other World? The effectiveness of the 3D techniques? What did it add? The musical score, the songs?
4.The voices, the blend of the American and the British?
5.Coraline’s story, her age, a determined young girl, severe in her approach to life yet impulsive, welcoming dangers? The encounter with Wybie? Learning, loving, experiencing tolerance?
6.Coraline’s parents, going to the Palace Apartments, their remoteness, the odd neighbours, the ladies, the Russian? The background of the grandmother and her owning the apartments? Their dinginess? The parents’ preoccupations, work? The cat, Coraline’s fears, wandering? The importance of Wybie?
7.The entry into the Other World, the visits, the attraction, the look, home, the theatre?
8.The Other Mother and Other Father? Nice, welcoming her, changing, urging her to stay, the information about the buttons sewn into the eyes? The Other Mother and her transformations? The mantis? Their taking the actual parents? Wanting to possess Coraline, the pursuit?
9.The Other Wybie, his friendship, saving Coraline, the explanations? The cat, its initial appearance, scary, in the Other World and its being able to talk? Coraline dependent on Wybie and the cat? (Rather than being more independent?)
10.Miss Spink and Miss Forcible, French and Saunders and their voices and characterisations, their appearance, talk, buxom, performance, splitting and their thin inner characters coming out? The contrast with what they were like in the real world?
11.Ian McShane?, Mr Bobinsky, his eccentricities, background, gymnast?
12.The dangers in the Other World, the cat, the key, the amulet, the tunnel and the door, the lock? Coraline’s escape?
13.Coraline’s real parents, lost, her quest to get them out, her strong determination? The issue of the souls of the children, the back-story about them, the grandmother, the eggs, their visual appearance, talking with Coraline at the end? Their liberation?
14.Coraline’s decision, to go to sleep, the eggs under the pillow, the children appearing? Her parents returning – but without memories?
15.The end, a group of happy people?
16.The sinister world, the world of nightmares, imagination? Adults and children? Animals? Safety? And a learning experience?
