Coraline

Director: Henry Sellick
Cast:(voices of) Dakota Fanning, Teri Hatcher, John Hodgman and Ian McShane
DVD release: 9 December 2009
Rated: PG

Through Coraline's glass... darkly

Lewis Carroll's timeless books Alice's Adventures in Wonderland and Through the Looking Glass have proved consistent favourites with children since their publication in the 1860s and '70s. The idea of a child finding a magical world beyond the realm of the everyday is of course a powerful one, and it underpins many a story. Indeed, it's the basis for the wildly popular Narnia series. So it's not all that surprising that it has appeared in film again in the form of Coraline. What distinguishes this film however is the presence of writer-director Henry Selick and writer Neil Gaiman.

If you have children of a certain age, you'll be very familiar with Neil Gaiman. His books, which include Stardust, Neverwhere and American Gods, have considerable cachet among the 'all ages' reading set. His eponymous novel is the basis for the film. But the excitement of Gaiman fans will rise even further when they discover that Henry Selick, the mind behind the animated films The Nightmare Before Christmas and James and the Giant Peach, is helming this project.

Somehow, the combination of Selick's quirky stop-motion animation and Gaiman's singular vision come together to meld this story into a singular cinematic experience.

Our heroine is, of course, Coraline (voiced by Dakota Fanning); a girl who has moved to a rainy Oregon town from Michigan with her parents Mel (Teri Hatcher) and Charlie (John Hodgman). They're writers with a speciality in horticulture, and their latest project is a garden catalogue. The pressures of deadlines are weighing on Mel and Charlie, to the extent that Coraline is largely left to her own devices. She begins exploring the rather gothic apartment building the family have moved into. There are two faded actresses Miss Spink (Jennifer Saunders) and Miss Forcible (Dawn French), an eccentric Russian circus performer Mr Bobinsky (Ian McShane) and a boy around her own age, Wybie Lovat (Robert Bailey Jr). Wybie - short for Wybourne - has an unseen grandmother who has a secret that Wybie isn't keen to let on. When Coraline finds a doll that looks remarkably like herself, she's suspicious of Wybie. Then a series of events leads her to discover a small papered-over door in one room of the house. When she opens it during the day, she finds it has been bricked in. But at night, she discovers it has taken on quite a different form...

Coraline is a remarkable film experience for two primary reasons - the strength of the story and Selick's eye. Selick is credited with writing the screenplay, but it seems Gaiman had a significant hand in the production as well. The plot and its rendering are fine examples of the screenwriter's art - perfectly structured, nuanced and elegantly told.

It however is given real life by Selick's astonishing animation. Stop-motion may be something of a rarity in these days of CGI, but here it doesn't just flesh out the story; it transforms it into something quite special. I never even had the sense that I was watching "puppets" - the characters come across as entirely "real". Selick takes things even further though through a remarkable eye for detail. The logo on Mel's coffee mug, for example, appears in a shop window.

The detail in the sets is astounding, the animated people and other creatures who inhabit Coraline's world are finely rendered, and the animated sequences are at times spectacular (an evening in a theatre featuring Miss Spink and Miss Forcible is especially memorable).

Coraline is a real treat for kids and adults alike; although it has to be said that things do take quite a dark turn towards the end which very young ones may find disturbing. Rarely do we see a film that features such tight and compelling storytelling; much less one with the sheer visual impact of this movie. Coraline comes very highly recommended, and should be a must-see for anyone who loves the cinema.

David Edwards

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