The Grass Isn't Always Greener On the Other Side: Corline Movie Review

     We must always be careful of what we wish for. In the stop-animation film, Coraline, the director, Henry Selic, shows viewers what it means to get exactly what you ask for. Coraline, a young, colorful girl, played by Dakota Fanning, is forced to live in a jejune, grey community full of unusual neighbors like Miss April Spink, played by Jennifer Saunders, by her parents Mr. and Mrs. Jones, played by Teri Hatcher and John Hodgman. She seems to be thrown into a world drained of life and energy. Fog rolls through the looming, dark hills that she explores. Even the house she moved into fades into the boring background along with everything else. She is just a kid looking for some type of adventure and warmth in her cold, uneventful life. Coraline just wants someone to care about what she thinks she needs, and she goes to great lengths to make her wishes come true.

     Little Coraline spends her dreary days looking for an escape from her terribly unexciting reality once her parents moved her into the Pink Palace, a muted, empty house. She begins by passing time going from one room to the next in the large home, meeting neighbors, and walking around in the acres of land around it. After she's done just about everything she could to make her time more interesting, she stumbles on a small door behind the wallpaper. Unfortunately the hope of the ultimate adventure was crushed when she found nothing but a brick wall in front of her. Coraline loses interest and meets a kid her age named Wybourne, played by Robert Bailey Jr.,  who is just as awkward and creepy as the rest of the people she meets. Hour to hour she yearns for some sort of way to satisfy her hunger for having fun, but she is constantly denied by the barren landscape and neglecting parents. To her surprise, one night she is awoken by mice who lead her to that same door, but this time it has transformed into a mystifying portal to an unknown world. Of course she jumps, or better yet crawls, at the opportunity to leave her old life behind. Once she's passed through she see discovers a world the same as her own but enhanced in every way. The other mother pays attention to her and loves her unconditionally, and the neighbors are similar but the perfect version of those in her true life. Everything is finally starting to turn out like she wanted and more.

     Coraline has finally achieved what she has been asking for from the beginning, a new life full of adventure and love. However there is one flaw in this alternate universe, everyone in it has buttons rather than eyes. That factor didn't seem to matter to her until they asked her to stay forever, with the catch being that she'd have to have buttons sown onto her own eyes. In the blink of an eye everything seemed to change; this near perfect world was not everything she had hoped for. Bit by bit this incredible dream goes through an awful metamorphosis into a frightening nightmare. Coraline is trapped and must use her bravery and cleverness to get back to the life that she had left behind. It takes hard work and determination, but Coraline pulls it off and ends up right back where she started. She realizes that what she wished for wasn't what she really wanted; it is her real life that she truly loves and enjoys. It took patience and a near death experience to come to the conclusion, but Coraline finally figured out that what she already had is all she ever wanted.

     This stop-animation movie is very well made and is inspired by a hit children's book, however this movie does not seem to be made for children. For one, the score throughout the film keeps a generally consistent tone of creepy and frightening sounds, but it does help add effect to the dull colors of real life and the dramatic colors of the new life. The actors who created the motion of the puppets did a phenomenal job getting the characters to match the emotions of the actors' voices in the dialogue in order to create realistic scenes matching expression to tone. The filmmakers seemed to aim fir a more suspenseful, creepy movie, and they achieved that, in part, through their use of camera angles and scene length. For example, as Coraline fights back against the evils in the new world it gets close up so that the viewer feels like they are a part of the struggle. Something that really sets this movie apart is its use of unique character and costume design. Each character was not only unique in the way they looked physically, but they all also had their own wardrobes. Another big reason why this film is a hit is because of the decision to use almost all real effects rather than CGI. For instance, the fog that rolled through the hills and around Coraline was smoke from dry ice that they recorded and layered into the scenes. All in all they used various different elements for all audiences to enjoy.

     Overall, this average length film did very well keeping my attention from beginning to end. It was creepy and at times even awkward or racy, but there was never a moment when I drifted off into boredom. Due to the fact that it has puppets it draws in the younger audiences, but it also has much deeper, more meaningful parts that an older audience can relate to as well. This movie does more than tell an interesting story; it relays strong messages and themes like being careful what you wish for and being grateful for what you already have. On the other hand, this film does have its downfalls. The most prominent mistake that I can see is the odd scenes where they chose to have the old ladies almost entirely naked and the Russian man with the hairy, bulging stomach almost getting stabbed in the groin. Other than those moments I believe that this movie was a great success. I rate it with four and a half out of five stars, and I recommend this movie to all audiences ranging anywhere from kids to adults.