Review

Review Date: 15-February-09
Spoiler Rating: Medium
Juju Judgment: Juicy

Coraline (2009)

Surely a lot of ink has been spilled as to why children's stories are often creepy, but not having read any theses on such, I still sometimes ponder this question. Neil Gaiman's creepy book Coraline offered an answer in its very plot. The book suggests that given the choice between parents who ignore you and parents who smother you, the sensible child would prefer the former because the latter is unnatural and therefore disturbing. At least neglectful parents allow (or force) you to explore the world independently and face down its challenges using your own powers and those of your friends.

This notion and the adventures that give rise to it are brought to the screen by Henry Selick using stop-motion animation (which is wonderful) and 3D technology (which does not add much). Here is the young heroine Coraline, innocent, irritable, and utterly herself (and voiced by Dakota Fanning), who moves into a big pink house in the vicinity of nowhere. She is horribly bored, and her parents won't help. Her ramblings outside their first-floor apartment uncover a deep well, a black cat, eccentric neighbors, and a boy who was not in the book but resembles most of Gaiman's male characters in being a nebbish. These are not enough to hold her interest, so Coraline becomes intrigued by a miniature door in her living room. On first inspection it opens onto a brick wall. On second inspection (at night, attended by mysterious mice) it opens onto a tunnel and another world.

The other world into which Coraline crawls looks much like the normal one. It is made up of her new home including the black cat, the boy, and the neighbors, to whom the freedom of Selick's medium is lavishly applied. However, here she finds an Other Mother and Father who are only too glad to make her the center of attention. What model parents they are, their button eyes notwithstanding! The Other Mother (voiced by Teri Hatcher) cooks huge meals and makes fun clothes for Coraline with her own hands. The Other Father completes the domestic picture by agreeing to whatever the Other Mother says and growing a fantasy garden in the shape of Coraline's face. When Coraline goes to sleep in the other world, she wakes up back in the normal one. The life she left behind seems too good to be true, which of course means that it is.

On her third or fourth trip through the door the Other Mother tells Coraline she can stay forever if she will only replace her eyes with buttons using the needle and thread provided. This, along with a few warning signs thrown her way, puts Coraline on the alert. But will a woman who wants to devote herself to fussing over a little girl let that girl get away? No, she won't, especially if she is not a woman at all. When Coraline shows resistance the Other Mother reveals her true nature, which I reckon could produce nightmares in tykes. A battle of wills ensues in which Coraline, aided by the cat, must save herself, her real parents, and other poor souls who have fallen victim to the enemy. She is up to the task and also, one assumes, to absorbing the lessons it contains. With its eerie and bewitching atmosphere, the movie Coraline confirms that what appears sinister probably poses a threat, so a child would do well to trust her instincts and good sense.

Copyright © 2009 The Jujube (M. I. Kim). All rights reserved.