coraline

Coraline is based on a book by Neil Gaiman.

I have to confess I’m not hugely familiar with Gaiman’s work.  I probably should be, but I dunno, I’ve never really had any exposure to his writing.  I also understand that the book is quite different to the film.

The film uses stop motion animation, which is something that I don’t gets enough exposure nowadays.  I think one of the main problems is that cgi animation tends to look a lot like a smoother, version of stop motion.

It’s odd, cgi is most identified as having very nearly killed off traditional animation (I’m talking Disney style films and western kids animation, obviously) but it also seems to have had a real impact on stop motion.  Even Aardman who were all abut stop motion produced a cgi film (the one about the sewer rats).

Anyway, one of the most popular stop motion films of recent years was the nightmare before Christmas.  For some reason, nightmare is very closely associated with Tim Burton, but he didn’t actually direct it.  It was directed by the same guy who adapted and directed Coraline.

You can see a lot of nightmare in Coraline.  There is a tonal similarity, both in terms of its direction and the story, though obviously the story is more influenced by Gaiman, but then as I understand it Gaiman’s work is quite gothical in style.

I have to confess I wasn’t a huge fan of nightmare.  The musical stuff felt too Disney and I found the story a bit predictable.

The Coraline story was a lot more imaginative, and the story themes are a lot more subtle.  Visually it was just as - if not more - inventive, and there’s some truly magical stuff in it.

It also puts in some nicely realised digital stuff, using it to really boost the film, rather than replacing it, like the rats film.

One of the real triumphs of the film is the characters.  They feel very real, being both beautifully animated, but also having surprising depth.  You can really feel Coraline is a real character - one you won’t necessarily always like, who is selfish as well as having a genuine cause for her behaviour.

Many of the supporting characters are quite fanciful and feel less real, but then that’s part of the point - we’re seeing them through Coraline’s eyes.

The switch into the other world is really well done and the bad guy of the piece is extremely cleverly handled - in particular with how it’s finally revealed and how that clicks several clever little visual clues into place when you watch it through again.

The DVD also had a really good commentary and some genuinely interesting documentaries.

You can hopefully tell I really liked the film.