Coraline (2009, PG)

Coraline the movie veers off from Coraline the book in a few places – the American-ness kind of weirds me out, there are a few criminal line omissions, and while I enjoy Wybie, his presence lessens some of Coraline’s accomplishments.  Overall, though, this is a pretty faithful, beautifully well-rendered adaptation of the Neil Gaiman book, done in gorgeous stop-motion by Henry Selick of The Nightmare Before Christmas fame (or rather, would-be fame, were it not for the fact that most people don’t realize that Tim Burton didn’t actually direct that movie.)

As in the book, Coraline Jones finds an escape to the doldrums of life in her new home via a mysterious door between her apartment and the next, leading into a fantastical world populated by her button-eyed Other Mother and Other Father.  Soon, however, the fun and instant gratification of that world take a sinister turn, and it’s up to Coraline to save her parents from the Other Mother’s clutches and get back home.

First things first:  the stop-motion is amazing here.  Full-on stunning.  I love the washed-out colors and apparent drabness of the regular world compared to the eye-popping vibrance of the Other World.  So many visuals are realized just perfectly.  I especially love Coraline and Wybie in the fog, the garden in the Other World, the passageway between the worlds, and the stunted, barely-sketched-out detail as Coraline ventures too far in the Other World.  Just fantastically well-done all around.  And the scary parts?  Majorly creepy – mission accomplished!

I kind of miss Coraline’s signature unflappability from the book, but I like how the movie makes her a bit brattier.  She goes back and forth between worlds more often before the penny starts to drop re:  the evilness, and you really get a sense of how she’s being seduced by the Other World.  Her relationship with a new character, her neighbor Wybie, reflects that as well.  Even as Coraline is bored and itching for some excitement, she turns up her nose at this obviously-eager potential friend, and it’s clear from her early interactions with the somewhat edited Wybie in the Other World that she mostly thinks of herself, not others.  In this way, the message of Coraline learning to be happy with the family/world she has rather than the one she wants comes through more solidly.

Like I said, though, I miss some of the book dialogue.  The name conversation between the cat and Coraline is sadly gone, as is Coraline’s wonderful little speech about getting whatever you want.  Plus, there’s the fun, random quirky lines that are lost, too, like “Everyone knows that a soul is the same size as a beach ball,” and, my favorite, “I’m on my own.  I think I’ve probably become a single child family.”  Who passes up stuff like that?

Dakota Fanning voices Coraline with spunk and aplomb.  Teri Hatcher is Coraline’s mother (both versions,) and she’s excellent – she has the alluring/sinister thing down pat.  The film also features the voices of Ian McShane (Silas from Kings,) French & Saunders, and Keith David (recently, Elroy on Community) as the cat.

Warnings

Scary images, a bit of suggestive humor, and kid-movie violence.

Coraline (2002)

I’ve seen a few of Neil Gaiman’s TV efforts now – Neverwhere and his Whoepisodes – and I’ve listened to the radio adaptation of Neverwhere, but this is the first book of his that I’ve read.  As with his TV work, I like Coraline’s slightly off-kilter, somewhat dark, very British fantasy.

Coraline Jones has just moved with her parents into a large old house divided into flats.  She spends her early days exploring, getting to know the eccentric neighbors, and wondering about the door in her living room, the one with the bricked-up passageway that once led to the empty flat next to hers.  One day, though, home alone, Coraline opens the door to find the wall gone.  At the end of the passageway is a twisted through-the-looking-glass world containing Coraline’s Other House and populated by her button-eyed Other Parents.  Gradually realizing that her Other Mother has malevolent intentions, Coraline sets out to defeat the villainess.

This is a really neat book.  It’s definitely pitched for kids but still greatly accessible for adults.  I like Gaiman’s calm, observational prose in the face of all the crazy, scary things that happen to Coraline.  Our heroine is similarly unflappable, though not uncaring.  There are huge stakes in this story and Coraline knows it, but she approaches her challenges with a cool, rational head and bravery that’s more decisive than innate.

I think this quiet, collected attitude, on the part of both author and protagonist, makes the creepiness of the Other World even creepier.  Coraline goes through the door to find a world that’s just a little bit “off,” but the sense of skin-crawling foreboding builds slowly, teasingly, until you can hardly imagine how she’s able to keep her head.  The Other Mother is particularly horrific, no surprise. 

Overall, it’s a fine entry to the “And We Read This to Kids?!?” collection, with lots of menace and scary images.  Those British, I tell you – after all, kids love Doctor Who in Britain, and even before they get to the “exciting” stuff in Harry Potter, he’s being raised by unscrupulous relatives who make him live in a closet.  Then again, I suppose I shouldn’t talk.  The U.S. gave us Lemony Snicket, who killed the Baudelaire children’s parents and destroyed their home in a fire in the first chapter of the first Series of Unfortunate Events book before shipping them off to living with an abusive criminal so covetous of their inheritance that he schemes to marry a 14-year-old.

One of my favorite parts of the book, however, is a secondary character:  the cat who can similarly pass between worlds and sort of ambivalently helps Coraline in her fight against the Other Mother.  (Just “the cat,” by the way.  As it explains to Coraline – in the Other World, it can talk – “Now, you people have names.  That’s because you don’t know who you are.  We know who we are, so we don’t need names.”)  In a way, it’s sort of a more even-keeled version of the Marquis de Carabas from Neverwhere:  clever, enigmatic, more than a little imperious, and usually nowhere in sight when Coraline wants it around, but still generally on her side.

Warnings

Some major scariness for kids and disturbing elements.