Coraline: Review

Coraline is another of director Henry Selick's nightmarish fairy tales that he enjoys producing (The Nightmare Before Christmas and Corpse Bride also belonging to him), but this one has the added bonus of 3D. However, what this film lacks is pace.

Coraline (voiced by Dakota Fanning) is a young girl who moves into a strange old house with her parents, who don't give her the love and attention she craves for, and, after discovering a small doorway in one of the walls, she finds this leads to a parallel universe, where there is another mother willing to show her love and kindness, but who has eyes made from buttons. What Coraline doesn't realise, is that there is a much darker side to this near perfect world.

The animation is exactly up to Selick's standard. Brilliantly realised, and executed with care, you are transported to an imaginative world where anything is possible. Adding to the depth is the 3D, which does rely on you ducking and diving every five seconds, but is used to give the creation distance. The story itself comes across like a modern variation of Alice In Wonderland, but with a darker sting to its tail, and the finale is very impressive indeed.

The trouble is the film suffers from pacing problems. I felt it was far too long for a family film and could have done with twenty minutes being cut from it. It builds very slowly too before we get to the true point of the story, and in a time when youngsters suffer from concentration problems, this could push them to the limit. While the detail is extraordinary, it comes across as if the imagination has taken over far too much, and we are given lengthy scenes where it looks amazing but doesn't help with the plot (a trip around a colourful garden seem to go on forever).

It also could be regarded as far too dark and disturbing for younger viewers, especially the button eyes, which had me wondering how many kids would be suffering from nightmares after viewing this.

It is, by no means, a terrible movie, and has much more going for it than most children's films nowadays. It's good, just not great.