Coraline

[rating:3.5]
Director: Henry Selick
Starring: Dakota Fanning, Teri Hatcher

Animation director Henry Selick (James & the Giant Peach, Nightmare Before Christmas) brings to life the creepy adventure story, Coraline, by Neil Gaiman (Sandman, Stardust, The Graveyard Book). That’s a pretty impressive combination, and it works as well as you’d expect—the movie is inventive, well-crafted and it makes excellent use of the silly 3D glasses they pass out at the door. It doesn’t feel like the “must-see” movie of the season, but you’ve got talented, solid storytellers crafting an inventive world that unfolds for a charming main character.

When Gaiman’s novel came out, nominally to be shelved in the children’s or young adults’ section, there was some discussion about whether it was too spooky for small children. A young girl discontented with her mildly neglectful parents falls into a magical world where alternate versions of her folks are doting and adorable, but for their button eyes. Eventually, of course, it turns out that the perfect sweet world is a dark trap and Coraline, our heroine, must escape back to the world she’d never appreciated. There are great themes here for a younger kid’s psyche; what kid hasn’t dreamed of living in some alternate reality with better parents and amazing delights around every corner? And in this hyper-busy and self-absorbed adult world, a lot of children might sympathize with Coraline’s desire for more “quality time.” The scary comes, to the degree that it does, when the evil monster impersonating Coraline’s mother goes all totally spooky and the girl experiences the small child’s ultimate nightmare, being separated from the parent.

For my theoretical money, the film isn’t quite disturbing enough. There’s something about the simplicity with which the story sets up, unfolds and resolves that somehow makes it less disturbing, less jarring, than its individual elements (such as the haunting, button-eyed version of Coraline’s one friend) would suggest. There’s no moment where you’re really terrified as Coraline methodically investigates and overcomes the other world. She’s a plucky kid who never hits emotional bottom, and that means the audience doesn’t, either.

I’m of the opinion that kids should always see things that are just a little scarier, deeper and more twisted than they’re quite ready for. An adventure story should blow your mind, expand your horizons, freak you the hell out. But then, I watched John Borman’s Excalibur at 11 and haven’t been right since. If your kid can handle the flying monkeys in the Wizard of Oz and is old enough to sit through a whole movie without squirming and squealing, he can probably handle this. If he’s still at the age where you have to explain what characters are doing and feeling, or if Nightmare Before Christmas has her sleeping with the lights on for a month, then hire a sitter and see it yourself.

Tags: animation, children, henry selick, horror, neil gaiman, stop motion