Coraline

Coraline tells an old story in a new, highly arresting visual style. Stop-motion animation has been around for a long time, but it has rarely been used to make a feature-length motion picture. And, even rarer, the visual stylization of this film is something that has never truly been seen before. The mechanical/skeletal hand intricately weaving a doll in the opening credits signifies that this movie is going to be the stuff of nightmares, and an eye-popping experience. It lived up to that opening credit sequence in my mind, in fact, it exceeded those expectations. As much as I adored Up, Coraline has stayed with me much more as a whole. Yes, I am hoping for an Oscar upset even though I know it will never happen.

Coraline, voiced to bratty perfection by Dakota Fanning, is smart, bored and smart-alecky little girl. I loved the fact that we had a heroine in a fairy tale/fantasy story who didn’t need to be rescued by Prince Charming or be so saccharinely sweet and good-natured that you think she secretly deserves a few of the bad things that happen to her. But once you get a glimpse of her home life you’ll understand. Her parents, both writers trying desperately to finish up a gardening catalogue, continually hunch over their computers typing away for, what looks like, days on end. They’re not inconsiderate, just strapped for time and very busy. Coraline is about to blossom into her teenage years, and they probably believe that she can entertain herself. Which she does, but her parents are terribly distracted and always on-edge with her.

If you were relocated to a large apartment home and your parents were distracted constantly by work, wouldn’t you go exploring for anything odd or out of the ordinary in the house? I might have. I’m not quite sure I shared Coraline’s sense of adventure, or is that boredom? Anyway, she finds a door that has been covered up by wallpaper. And so begins the mystery, the fantasy and, oh yes, the horror. You see, Coraline takes its time in actually telling children (ha!) a story which features a recognizable personality type going against Freudian psychology. I scoff at this being a children’s film because children under the age of eight will have nightmares for days on end about buttons, rats, dog-bat hybrids, taffy people and all sorts of other incendiary things. Not too say that is a bad thing, but this is proof that not all animation is for all ages.

I can’t say how faithfully this adheres to Neil Gaiman’s original work, but I know that the Other Mother’s descent from normal looking woman to mechanical humanoid-spider has his demented stamp all over it. I also loved Teri Hatcher’s vocal work in the dual role. As Coraline’s regular mother she sounds like anyone’s mom: loving, tough and just a tiny bit annoyed with your attitude. As the Other Mother she must go through a complete transformation and do it all with her voice. To combine that with the several different puppets which comprised that character made it stick with me long after I saw it in theaters. I could close my eyes months after my first viewing and vividly remember the scene where Coraline and the Other Mother face off for the last time. That is the power of this film’s storytelling, visual invention and vocal cast. I have only spotlighted two of them, but across the board the work is first-rate. Normally Pixar produces by favorite animated work in a given year, but there are exceptions. Here is one. And in a year filled with strong animated features, I still rank this as the best one of 2009.