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#278 - Coraline
Henry Selick, 2009
A girl who's just moved to a new house with her distant parents discovers a portal to a world that's a funhouse mirror of the real world.
I do have to wonder if I'm perhaps being a bit too harsh on a lot of the family-oriented animated films I've watched recently. They can't help it if they have to keep their plots fairly simple so that kids can follow along. Also, it's not hard to feel myself starting to get too used to the quality of contemporary animated features and how their tendency towards using computer-generated animation means that, while they are technically accomplished, they still tend to blur together a bit for me and not leave all that much in the way of individual impressions. As a result, Coraline and its stop-motion aesthetic come across as a breath of fresh air, even if the story itself does cover extremely familiar ground.
Selick and co. present more of the uncanny dark fantasy visuals that made The Nightmare Before Christmas so unforgettable, distinguishing the film through its unique character designs and the world-building for both the real world and the mirror universe. The mirror characters are distinguished by the fact that their eyes are black buttons and the mirror universe itself is full of weirdly colourful characters and things that start off enchanting but make for a very organic transition towards the nightmarish as Coraline realises that this seemingly ideal other world is not all that it seems. It is most definitely worth watching if you want to see animation that isn't completely dependent on CGI - the fluidness of the stop-motion is truly eye-catching and the film's atmosphere is strong.
Henry Selick, 2009
A girl who's just moved to a new house with her distant parents discovers a portal to a world that's a funhouse mirror of the real world.
I do have to wonder if I'm perhaps being a bit too harsh on a lot of the family-oriented animated films I've watched recently. They can't help it if they have to keep their plots fairly simple so that kids can follow along. Also, it's not hard to feel myself starting to get too used to the quality of contemporary animated features and how their tendency towards using computer-generated animation means that, while they are technically accomplished, they still tend to blur together a bit for me and not leave all that much in the way of individual impressions. As a result, Coraline and its stop-motion aesthetic come across as a breath of fresh air, even if the story itself does cover extremely familiar ground.
Selick and co. present more of the uncanny dark fantasy visuals that made The Nightmare Before Christmas so unforgettable, distinguishing the film through its unique character designs and the world-building for both the real world and the mirror universe. The mirror characters are distinguished by the fact that their eyes are black buttons and the mirror universe itself is full of weirdly colourful characters and things that start off enchanting but make for a very organic transition towards the nightmarish as Coraline realises that this seemingly ideal other world is not all that it seems. It is most definitely worth watching if you want to see animation that isn't completely dependent on CGI - the fluidness of the stop-motion is truly eye-catching and the film's atmosphere is strong.