Review of Coraline (2009) by James S — 31 Aug 2012

Such a simple premise of being careful what you wish for makes for a rich and dark fantasy piece. Coraline is not a film without its flaws but it's breathtaking production and underlying themes make up for the occasionally tedious song and dance routines.

Coraline is not an unusual girl and is not the first child to ever wish that her life was different and that her workaholic parents paid her more attention. Upon moving to a new home which comes with ominous warnings of the landlady not usually renting to families with children, Coraline finds her way into a parallel reality where everything and all is wonderful and bright........on the surface, at least.

Coraline's animation is fantastic and there's clearly a great deal of work gone into it. Some of the more horrifying sequences invoke memories of Fantasia. It's the animation that gives Coraline a lot of its horror movie style power as visuals that wouldn't be out of place in something from the mind of Clive Barker are presented on screen.

Coraline does betray its sense of terror and reminds you that we are watching a film that children can enjoy too with some unwelcome musical numbers, usually from characters that seem largely redundant.

What damage these do though can be easily ignored when considering the message that Coraline is delivering. This is the film for anyone that ever shouted at their parents "I wish I'd never been born!" and dreamed of being adopted by a king or something. Coraline finds that real life may be mundane but that fantasy can be a nightmare.

Coraline is packed with enough frightening moments and suspense to cover it's low points.