Coraline (2009)

CORALINE is a "be careful what you wish for" picture that lacks nothing in the visual department and quite a lot in pacing, narrative push and heart.

Everyone who talks about this movie goes gaga for the visuals. They have a right to. It IS stunning. But for some people that's good enough...that and the fact that hipsters probably relish the concept that CORALINE is an animated film - perceivably for kids - but it's a "kid's" movie with rats and cobwebs and a scary lady who wants to gouge out your eyes and sew buttons in place of them. Take that, kiddies!

I tried to fall for it. I agree that CORALINE looks fantastic. It's the story of a little girl (voiced by Dakota Fanning, who's advancing age is quite noticable as you listen to her here) who is, frankly, a pain in the ass. Her parents, writers/editors (best we can tell), are too busy for her, and for that we feel bad for her. They've moved far away from their old home and rented an apartment in an old house near a creepy forest. The house's other occupants are straight out of the wonderland Alice walks into.

And funny I should mention that, because you can't watch CORALINE without a tinge of an empty feeling, a feeling that you've seen a lot of similar things before. This is not the fault of Henry Selick, the film's clever director (and the director of "Nightmare Before Christmas," "James and the Giant Peach" and "Monkeybone," three films you probably thought Tim Burton directed but, in truth, only produced). Rather, it is the work of Neil Gaiman, a rockstar in the graphic novel world. I don't criticize Gaiman for the story of CORALINE, but it IS a rehash of "Alice in Wonderland," "The Lion, the Witch and the Wardobe," and even "Pan's Labyrinth."

Here, Coraline is sick of being isolated and neglected, so she pursues a small door in a wall of their apartment that has been locked and wallpapered over. The door leads her to an alternate version of her life that contains most of the same elements, but seems better. To return to her real life, Coraline needs only to go to sleep in the much prettier version of her bedroom in her other universe.

Gaiman and Selick throw the macabre curveball, as you'd expect, and then bring Coraline to the realization that this other world isn't so great after all. Eventually, she gets trapped there, and the sacrifices required of her to stay are too great for her to make. Terrified, she can no longer go to sleep to wake up in the real world again. This doesn't sound like a kid's story anymore, does it?

Though a huge fan of not only the incredible visuals used to show the two worlds of Coraline but the concept of a deliciously wicked and twisted story itself, I nonetheless was not so totally charmed by this element to be allowed to overcome what were, to me, glaring deficits in pursuit of cinematic perfection. I thought the opening of the film was too slow and ordinary (not including the visually jarring opening credits), and the pace never really shifted much for me as the film went on, keeping it from kicking into a higher gear even as the plot demanded it.

Missing most of all for me was any kind of heart. Coraline is a jerk of kid who escapes her negligent parents for ones that seem much more loving. When that turns out to be the case, (is there no such thing as loving parents?) and she finally gets back to her real parents, they're not improved enough...they don't seem to care what she's been through.

I'm not saying that every animated film needs to provide a warm, fuzzy feeling. But CORALINE needed some more heart. It was visually satisfying but stuffing at its core, just like the dolls that are a part of the film's plot.

3.0 out of 4