Review: Coraline

The story begins as a young girl named Coraline Jones (Dakota Fanning) moves into a new place with her mom and dad (played respectively by Teri Hatcher and John Hodgman). As any child would know, moving is not an easy thing to do, especially in your early tweens. You have to say goodbye to all your friends and somehow start over again. For Coraline, it is especially difficult because her parents are much too busy with work to pay any attention to her. Her father suggests that she investigate the house, and as bored as she is, it seems like a good idea. As she moves throughout, she discovers a secret door that is just big enough to crawl through. After pleading with her mother to open it, she finally gets her way, only to discover it leads to a brick wall. But looks can be deceiving, especially in a fairy tale.

One night, a couple of mice lead Coraline to the door, which now opens to a mystical looking tunnel. It is there she discovers her “perfect family”. This includes a loving mother, a doting dad and even the one “friend” she made in the real world, who seems much better here. But of course, there is a very dark side to this dream world, one which wouldn’t leave the young lady living happily ever after. While this is a common theme for movies and books of this ilk, I found CORALINE to be immensely unique. You could say there are elements of ALICE IN WONDERLAND, even the doorway to the other world reminded me of WES CRAVEN’S NEW NIGHTMARE. But with all that, it still felt fresh and original and yes… scary. In fact, this film would have been a perfect horror film. It certainly is creepy and suspenseful, but again, if you know your child is frightened by the monsters on “Sesame Street”, then this is definitely not the movie to take them to. But for most children, they will probably come out unscathed.

I saw CORALINE in 3D and I am really liking Real3D more and more. While this spectacle doesn’t quite leap out at you as much as say, MY BLOODY VALENTINE 3D did, I enjoyed the experience. But was it necessary? Not really. Actually, the person I was with felt that it diminished the color palette of the film. While I cannot agree or disagree being I never took my glasses off, I did find that it made for an impressive theatrical experience. It is only occasionally that the effects “jump” out at you, but it works rather well in the final sequence. This is one film that will be just fine in its regular 2D format, because it will look fantastic either way.