Coraline 3D - A Nightmare After Christmas

Children have an odd knack for getting lost. OftenFabulous fame. The two women relish their pack of
times, it's because they want to. This is the case forScottish Terriers, enough so that they have each
Coraline Jones (Dakota Fanning), the young heroineone stuffed once it passes on. Equally as strange is
of Henry Selick's Coraline. Adapted from the 2002the upstairs neighbor, Mr. Bobinski (Ian McShane of
sensational fantasy/horror novella by Neil Gaiman,Deadwood), a Russian acrobat who is training a
Coraline is a miracle in stop-motion animation. Selick,mouse circus that isn't quite ready to show yet.
who animated A Nightmare Before Christmas for TimEventually, even the oddities of her daily surroundings
Burton, worked with LAIKA Entertainment House foraren't enough to appease Coraline's thirst for
3 years, breathing life into thousands of handcrafteddistraction. Here, the film shifts gears from innocent
puppets and creating dream/nightmare landscapeschild musings to something sinisterly amiss when
that waver between kid stuff and creepy, matureCoraline finds a small secret door in the living room.
entertainment. A dazzling 3D treatment is the way toAt first, the hidden passage is bricked up, but when
go for those lucky enough to have $12 to spend onCoraline falls asleep later that night, mice, presumably
a movie ticket and access to a theater that offersfrom Bobinsky's circus, waken her and lead her back
this burgeoning medium. A warning: if you do see thisto the secret door, which now reveals a long purple
film in 3D, your eyes will be spoiled, and you'll nevertunnel. There's no apprehension as Coraline shuffles
settle for two dimensions again.down the intestinal chute and emerges in an alternate
Coraline has just moved into The Pink Palace (justreality where life is opposite, and seemingly improved.
one of many veiled adult allusions in the film), aOn this eerily bizarre other side, her Other Parents
three-story Victorian mansion recalling a cake-likeare extremely attentive and charismatic. Wybie is
version of the Deetz house in Beetlejuice. Hercomfortably mute, but his cat can speak. Bobinski's
parents, plant catalogue writers, are too busymouse circus is a great success. Misses Forcible and
working to even unpack, much less pay attention toSpink lithely put on an astounding stage performance,
their lonely daughter. Frustrated, Coraline relies on hermixing Shakespeare with Botticelli's The Birth of
young imagination and exploratory tendencies to fillVenus (animated pasties, anyone?). Initially, the only
the rainy hours indoors and out of her new, eccentricthing off-putting is that everyone here has dead,
surroundings. She begrudgingly befriends ablack buttons for eyes.
mischievous boy, Wybie (short for Wyborn), and hisSomewhat predictably, the doting affections of her
feral, mangy cat. Wybie's grandmother owns TheOther Mother (Teri Hatcher) become smothering. The
Pink Palace from afar and is constantly calling himsubtleties of a child's relationship with their parents
home for fear that he'll be in danger. Disbelieving, asare the root of what becomes a nightmare for
kids do, any hints of ambiguous 'danger,' CoralineCoraline. Other Mother is really The Beldam, a
goes about meeting the odd tenants of the othermonstrous spider-woman who is intent on building a
two apartments in The Pink Palace. The basementdoll collection out of any child's soul she can get her
dwellers are two British old maids who are formerlong spindly fingers on. The film builds speed towards
stars of the stage. The impossibly busty Miss Forciblea videogame-like puzzle that Coraline must solve in
and the gimp-legged Miss Spink are hilariously voicedorder to save her kidnapped Real Parents and free
by Dawn French and Jennifer Saunders of Absolutelythe souls of The Beldam's former child victims.