See Coraline or I will sew buttons on your eyes.

I am going to start by saying I LOVE Neil Gaiman’s works – From American Gods to Coraline to Stardust. I think he has a very unique style to his ideas. That said I had a lot of fears going into this movie. Why? Because I really love the book. I read it when it came out and it is a dark, dark story. Yeah, it was written for kids but have you seen Neil’s  OTHER kids books? My son LOVES The Day I Swapped My Dad For Two Goldfish. They are not your ‘traditional’ kids books. The trailers don’t really touch on just how screwed up the story really is. They kind of hint at it (very effectively I might add) but don’t really show it and I think that is going to be this movies downfall cause the truth of it hits you like a ton of bricks as the movie goes on and some parents may freak out over a witch trying to eat souls. My son really wanted to see this movie too. He’s three and even I was worried that it might be a much for him. for some reason he could watch JAWS at one year just fine but now gets scared easily. But he does love Nightmare Before Christmas….

So that said, I saw this movie. Took my son. We saw it in 3D.  It was excellent. All of my fears were unjustified. The movie was an excellent translation from the book with a few nicely added additions. And my son loved it. He hid his eyes at a few parts, but he was peeking between his fingers while doing so. Everyone in the theatre seemed to enjoy it as well. He was talking about button eyes all afternoon.  The movie is well paced and well framed. I was not real sure about the style when I first saw the concept pictures because I am used to the Dave McKellen style of Neil Gaiman, like Mirrormask. But once I got into the movie it seemed natural and felt like it was supposed to look that way the entire time.

So here are my reasons why you must go see this movie!

1- It’s stop motion! Talk about a dying art in the face of the computer apocolypse! There are some things that just can’t be done on a hard-drive. It’s nice to see something that is so lovingly made.

2- It’s Neil Gaiman! The man writes fantastic fantasy stories with dark edges.

3- It’s got a bad ass soundtrack! It perfectly accents the movie to the point that you do not really notice. It has a super creepy undertone that sets the mood of the entire film.

4- It has excellent pacing! The movie starts out innocently enough, but as it goes on the cracks start to show and you notice the tell-tale signs of danger.

5- It has an excellent voice cast! In movies like these, voice is everything. With the wrong voice, the character fails. Coraline’s mom is voiced by Terri Hatcher and she makes an excellent Other Mother.

6- It’s in 3D! I know a lot of people out there are all “So what?” People, this is not that shitty red/blue 3D that makes everything look ugly. It’s polarized and awesome. No color distortion. And it wasn’t specifically made for 3D like some other crappy movies (cough, cough journey to the center of the earth cough) so instead you are given the experience of being drawn into the movie instead of gapping at the “Oh look, another thing lunging at the screen, yawn” syndrome. 

The movie did not disappoint me. I fear, however, that it will fail over all. It is not a movie for everyone. It is a fairy tale. It’s not an action flick, nor a romance. It’s horror is subtle throughout and I think people overall will just expect something a little more. It is a shame. It falls into that category of not being entirely a kids movie and not being entirely an adult movie, but both sets can enjoy it. I hope I am wrong about it’s lack of success and that loads of people get out there to see it. I deserves it.

Go see this movie. See it in 3D if you can, you will thank me for it later. Tell us what you thought of the movie!