Translated from the dark kid-lit of Neil Gaiman into the hand-made (computer enhanced) 3-D dreamscapes of Nightmare Before Christmas’ Henry Selick, Coraline is the year’s most richly imagined Hollywood thrill ride.
Neil Gaiman's children's novel becomes an animated stop-motion fantasy that's both creepy and seductively beautiful.
Screened as part of NZIFF 2009
Coraline 3D 2009
Translated from the dark kid-lit of Neil Gaiman into the hand-made (computer enhanced) 3D dreamscapes of Nightmare Before Christmas filmmaker Henry Selick, Coraline is the year's most richly imagined Hollywood thrill ride. — BG
“Coraline is a young girl who discovers in her drab new home a tunnel leading to a parallel world of brightness and profligacy, where her parents are fun-loving instead of the workaholic drudges they are in reality. But there is a catch: Coraline's ‘Other Mother’ and ‘Other Father’ have buttons instead of eyes, and insist that their daughter undergoes an equivalent transplant if she is to remain in paradise... Coraline is the latest work in a vital tradition that dates back to a time before the Brothers Grimm began collecting their bloodcurdling tales. It's a fantasy that seduces its young audience, then scares the bejesus out of them. It is, in no uncertain terms, a horror film for children.” — Ryan Gilbey, The Guardian