Coraline (2009)

***Stolen Summary***

A young girl walks through a secret door in her new home and discovers an alternate version of her life. On the surface, this parallel reality is eerily similar to her real life-only much better. But when her adventure turns dangerous, and her counterfeit parents try to keep her forever, Coraline must count on her resourcefulness, determination, and bravery to get back home-and save her family.
imdb

***Rant***

Saw it last night, and unintentionally in 3-D (and what I mean by that is that my fellow attendee and I found that out as we were buying the tickets). Usually I hate the very notion of 3-D. I remember seeing Superman Returns: An IMAX 3D Experience (2006) and it irritated me. The 3D wasn't for the entire movie, and there was a "warning" on screen to put your glasses on before it came up. Which was completely distracting throughout the entire movie.

BUT, for Coraline...it totally worked! I am now a convert...but perhaps only for animated flicks. The stop-motion puppetry is certainly out of this world and must have taken a freaking long time to put together.
I think this is going to be one of those love-it-or-hate-it movies for people. I have read some comments on message boards that say that this story is nothing new, that it's just another Alice in Wonderland, or that it was pretty boring.

I must disagree. Even though Neil Gaiman's story does take certain elements from other well-read stories (The Lion, The Witch, and the Wardrobe came to my mind while watching the film), I still found it engrossing. And very surreal. And by that I mean that there was something very captivating but also very creepy about the film. Something Tim Burton is well know for--no coincidence that the director, Henry Selick, has worked with Mr. B in the past.

The story very much reminds me of an old fairy tale. Not the Disney kind, but the ones that were told to warn children from the dangers they may encounter (google fairy tale analysis). Nothing is ever what it seems...!

***Judgement***

It's hard to describe the wonderment of this movie, but your eyes will thank you later! Visually, it's stunning, and for that, you should definitely check it out.

It's like Neil Gaiman, Tim Burton, and a Cirque de Soleil choreographer got together to make a movie. And were all were smoking a little something while making it. And that's one crazy-ass threesome I definitely want to watch.