Coraline Movie Review

Coraline Movie Review By Cruz Salas

 
In the eerie and creative movie Coraline about a little girl ignored by her parents in Ashland, Oregon, starring Dakota Fanning as the voice of Coraline, Terri Hatcher the voice of the mother and other mother, John Hodgman as the voice of the father and other father. Coraline is a stop animation film meaning you take pictures frame by frame of manipulated objects like dolls and hand made from scratch scenery in the case of this movie so they look like they're  movie. It's a kids’ movie but there is some adult humor in this movie and the concept of this movie is more adult because I personally don't think they fully understand exactly what it's about and the details about the story line. This movie is also in 3D and how they do that is they film the movie from one camera taking pictures since it’s stop motion animation then move it the length of the doll’s eye to eye space.

In the movie, Coraline, about a little girl who moved to a new house, and ignored by her parents she gets bored and finds a little door leading to a new world where everything is perfect until things get a little weird. When Coraline first finds the door there's a brick wall behind it but at night it's a tunnel to an alternate world where her parents pay attention to her, her neighbors are are actually exciting and fun instead of boring and weird like Mr Bobinsky the blue weird gymnast with rats voice by Ian Mcshane, Miss Spink and Miss Miriam who are too old  washed up burlesque dancers voiced by Jennifer Sanders and Dawn French, and Wybie played by Robert Bailey, Jr. the awkward weird grandson of the owner of the house Coraline lives in, and the world is pretty and perfect. But her other mother and father want her to stay forever by sewing buttons over her eyes when Coraline has a worried look she plays it off like she'll think about it and walks up stairs to go back to sleep where when usually she does that she wakes back up in her real world but when she wakes up she's still in the other world so she tries to escape by heading out the door but when the other mother catches her she turns into this tall skinny creepy spider like creature but with the same face and throws her into a room where Coraline meets three ghost children who the other mother did the same too but the children let her sew the buttons to their eyes so the other mother could eat them to keep her youth and beauty so they warn her and ask if she can retrieve their real eyes they also tell her that the doll that Wybie gave to her from his grandma's trunk not knowing is the other mothers spy so she can create your perfect world to lure you in.  Coraline finds a way to escape but when she gets back her parents are no where to be found and realizes the other mother kidnapped her. So Coraline goes back to retrieve her parents but doesn't know how because the other mother controls the alternate world so Wybie's cat (voiced by Keith David) who can talk there told her that the other mother is a sucker for games but she plays dirty and even if you win she won't let you go so you have to play the game win and distract her to get back home safely.  

This movie is very creepy, but has a well thought out and put together story line. It was also very carefully planned because they used this movie with full stop animation in everything from the scenery, to the dolls, the dolls clothes, and each character had multiple outfits they all were hand sewn and had wiring inside them like the dolls so they could be one hundred percent manipulable, to the furniture that moved, everything was one hand made and two shot frame by frame to make them look like they're moving. It's ridiculous how well they made the movie, how they made it, and how it all came together it must have taken a very long time to make and I am impressed I'm sure that if you decide to watch this. movie you too will be very impressed since you will know how they made everything. I'd say for a "children's" movie it was very good from the story line, to the animation, to the voice actors, to the kinda weird trippy vibe of the movie it was very on point and well put together. All the voice actors for the main characters did a very good job at voicing characters who Daktoa Fanning who has played in other movies such as the Twilight series, Terri Hatcher who you may have seen in the show Desperate Housewives of Orange County, and John Hodgman who has written many books like "The Areas of My Expertise the way the voiced the characters was very natural and well put. 

Coraline is an interesting, creative, weird, eerie movie that relates to the idiom and question of "is the grass really greener on the other side. The story line is intriguing and full of twists and turns. I found it very fascinating how they did the stop animation for the scenery and the dolls alike. Overall it was a phenomenal movie and would give it a nine out of ten.