Review: Coraline

Review: Coraline

Rating: ***

Nonna's Rating: $$$

Rotten Tomatoes: 88%

Coraline is a stunningly beautiful animated work -- and I didn't even see it in 3D. The stop-motion animation is far beyond herky-jerky earlier efforts like Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer.

If there is any drawback to this film, it is that it's really not appropriate for children -- perhaps even nine and ten-year-olds. Coraline is a little girl whose workaholic parents basically ignore her -- they practice a benign neglect. Coraline wishes for a different sort of life, and, yes, she gets what she wishes for. And it's one scary world through that secret door. Like Alice, she moves through the looking glass into an alternate reality. At first, it's heaven. Super-attentive parents indulge her every whim -- and her "mother" actually prepares elaborate tasty meals. Coraline, however, chooses to ignore the fact that these dream parents have buttons for eyes. All turns very dark when Coraline understands that she is trapped in this new world, and that she, too, must have buttons for eyes. I don't know about you, but that really creeps me out. Needles. Eyes. Yuk.

But I loved it.

Nonna's Ratings:

$$$$ = Worth paying the Friday evening price
$$$= Worth paying the Matinee price
$$= Worth a rental
$ = Wait for cable
# = Skip it