4.5 out of 5 Stars
I am so close to giving 'Coraline' 5 stars. A few small details hold me back. I was pleasantly surprised that Henry Selick not only kept my favorite images from the book (the never ending theater with the dog audience, the carnivale-esque mouse circus, and the walking through fog and mist into a space where everything disappears - only to walk back to the house), but created such stunning, scary, haunting and beautiful images of these scenes. The entire movie was so visually appetizing that I am eager to see it again in the theater. Selick managed to stay mostly true to Neil Gaiman's beautiful story. With two major exceptions. 1) I wish he would have set the story in England. Dakota Fanning gave an excellent voice to an 'American' Coraline -- a bossy and petulant 11 year old transplant from Michigan (yes, the young Southern Ms. Fanning even has the midwestern accent absolutely perfect!). It's scary just how realistic of an 'American' 11 year old Coraline actually is. But had Selick decided to stay true to Gaiman's original English setting, I have no doubt Dakota Fanning would have done an equally wonderful job. 2) I was extremely perturbed by the addition of the character 'Wybourne'. I thought this was extremely unnecessary -- in the book Coraline manages just fine on her own and does not need a boy to 'help' her out. But other than those two minor qualms, I thought this was a perfect film. Keith David as the voice of the Cat exceeded my highest of expectations. And even Terri Hatcher held her own as 'The Other Mother'. But even without such great casting, Henry Selick has trumped Tim Burton in every way imaginable, and reminded his loyal audience just how pivotal a role he was in the brilliance of Burton's earlier films (before they had the fallout after Nightmare and before James and the Giant Peach). Burton is a strong storyteller -- I do think that there was an emotional content to the character of Jack in Nightmare Before Christmas that Coraline lacked. But image wise? It's all about Henry Selick. It's no coincidence that the house in Coraline is a direct homage to the house in Beetlejuice. The ghost children, the garden, Coraline's bedroom, the highlights in Coraline's hair, the subtle gleam of the buttons in 'The Other Mother's' eyes -- Selick is an animation genius. I'm eager for him to find another dark childrens' tale to adapt into a film.
