Fear is a great motivator, especially in Hollywood. The threat of radio begat the talkies and the rise of television led to the dominance of widescreen formatting and color film. Now that the industry is once again quaking in its boots, this time about the Internet and who knows what else, Hollywood has decided to give another piece of fancy technology a do-over — 3-D. It did not catch on in the 1950s, but the studios are willing to try it again. This time, though, 3-D is not just about cheap thrills and novelty gags. If Coraline — a visually stunning and awe-inspiring film that is funny, frightening, and thoughtful — is any indication of how this technology will be used in the future, then audiences have a lot to look forward to.
Coraline Jones (Dakota Fanning) is an adventurous, young girl who loves to explore. She has just moved away from everything she knows to an apartment in the middle of nowhere with her mother (Teri Hatcher) and father (John Hodgman), who spend most of their time working on computers and ignoring their daughter. Coraline discovers a small door in an unused room and one day, when the boredom becomes too much, she decides to go through it. On the other side of the door, Coraline finds a world quite like her own, only infinitely more interesting. She meets the Other Mother (Hatcher) and the Other Father (Hodgman), who want to spend all their time with her, as well as parallel versions of her kooky neighbors. Soon, however, Coraline learns that this magical world is not as wonderful as it seems. The Other Mother’s intentions are not as pure as she pretends, and Coraline may find herself trapped in her Other Mother’s web forever.
Coraline is based on a 2002 novella of the same name by Neil Gaiman. Gaiman recently won the Newbery Medal for children’s literature for The Graveyard Book, though he is best known for his comic book series The Sandman and his novels Good Omens, with Terry Pratchett, and American Gods. No matter what the age of his intended audience, Gaiman creates fantastic worlds and vivid characters that are fully realized and utterly convincing. Gaiman’s novella was adapted for the screen by director Henry Selick, who also directed The Nightmare Before Christmas.
Even though they were directed by the same person, Coraline does not look like Nightmare or any other animated film. The stop-motion animation is as smooth and expressive as the best Pixar creation. Vibrant colors, original figures and imaginative settings make every scene memorable. The 3-D technology is used in a way that isn’t gimmicky or heavy-handed; it instead serves to involve the audience further in Coraline’s world. Throughout the film, which ran slightly more than an hour-and-a-half, I could only think of two adjectives to describe Coraline, one of which was “beautiful.”
The other word was “slow,” which sums up the only real flaw of the film. A break-neck speed would have caused the movie to miss its point entirely, but a quicker pace would have been nice. The slow tempo, though, is a relatively minor issue, especially when considering the sense of wonder that fills the film. Coraline is a treat for audiences of any age.
Read More
The best albums of 2014
By Noah Zeidman | December 4, 2014Across genres, it has been a pretty great year in music.
Top 10 movies of 2014
December 4, 2014This has been an excellent year for film, offering everything from gripping blockbusters to innovative personal films.
Iggy Azalea is “Reclassified”
December 4, 2014It has become common practice among music artists to repackage their albums in an effort to simultaneously boost single sales and dish out new content by slightly renaming the album or slapping “Deluxe” onto the title.
