Coraline
Is it just me, or has Henry Selick been away far too long from feature filmmaking? Sure, he produced some animation for Wes Anderson’s “The Life Aquatic,” but Selick has largely been missing in action since he directed the modern stop-motion classic “The Nightmare Before Christmas” from Tim Burton’s lovely and macabre story. Another Burton-produced effort- based on Roald Dahl’s “James and the Giant Peach”- followed shortly after, but he hasn’t been back in the director’s chair since his 2001 bomb “Monkeybone” (confession- it isn’t as bad as everyone says).
This year, Selick returns to the director’s chair and kick’s off 2009’s slate of 3-D animated films with “Coraline,” a beautifully-animated and designed stop-motion creation he adapted from the story by Neil Gaiman (“Stardust,” “MirrorMask”). The film skirts a little on the dull side, lacking in some of the adventure and entertainment that would make it a sure-fire hit with kids, but Selick’s vision is a wonder to behold.
Dakota Fanning gives probably her finest performance to date as the voice of Coraline, a young girl who moves into an apartment building named Pink Places in a small and desolate town. Mother (Teri Hatcher) and Father (John Hodgman) have no time for Coraline, as their busy and burned-out by their work on a gardening catalog. Fed up with her pestering, they give her a notepad to mess around with. While exploring, she finds an unusual door in one of the rooms. When her mother uses the key to open it, it looks bricked up. But when she’s alone- with a mysterious doll given to her by an unusual local boy (voiced by Robert Bailey Jr.) seemingly guiding her- the door opens up a portal to an alternate world where everything is the same, with a couple of odd differences. People’s eyes are replaced with buttons, and everything is pleasant where in the real world it is grim. At first, Coraline is excited by the possibilities of a nicer mom, an overjoyed dad, and endless possibilities within the imagination. But there’s always a catch with such worlds, and as Coraline will discover, the consequences are greater than she can take.
While his name is no where on the film, “Nightmare Before Christmas” creator Tim Burton’s fingerprints are all over the dark and deviously entertaining story, from its’ macabre production design (with Selick showing the same visionary eye for detail he displayed in “Nightmare,” which gets richer and more intriguing over the years) to its’ complex fairy tale story, which mirrors Miyazaki’s “Spirited Away” and Del Toro’s “Pan’s Labyrinth” by way of the Brothers Grimm to the circus-like elegance of the score by Bruno Coulais, which takes an early lead as the year’s best.
The same can be said for the film. As I mentioned earlier, “Coraline” goes on a little too long, but Selick’s remarkable visual design is a sight to behold. He makes stop-motion feel as life-like and thrilling as the most sophisticated CG-animated triumph and as artistically beautiful as the hand-drawn masterworks of years past. Stop-motion and claymation has been pushed off to the edges of the animation art form in recent years, which only makes those that venture into it (see “Corpse Bride” and Aardman’s Wallace & Gromit gems) stand out all the more. Selick proves himself a master of the process with his graceful approach to the idea of moving puppets inch by inch, one frame at a time.
But Selick also understands that all the technical wizardry in the world means nothing without story, and while “Coraline” sets the bar high for animated films to come in 2009 (not just in general but in the way it uses 3-D, arguably the best use of this new version of the process to date), it also tells an engaging story of a young woman- voiced with rich feeling by Fanning- forced to make tough choices and grow up fast in order to navigate around the fantasy world she’s discovered. Coraline is a wonderful animated heroine, and the world Selick creates around her is one you can’t help but get lost in.
