| T O P I C R E V I E W |
| BaftaBaby |
Posted - 05/09/2009 : 15:34:56
I rarely witness an audience of children reduced to total silence. I think the last time was Wall-E. But with this often quite sophisticated moral tale of Coraline, I think it was the combo of surprising images, a sometimes brutal storyline, and characters that challenge the notion of what's proper that captivated the kids.
The film follows the adventures of a pre-pubescent girl trying to reconcile the painful but desired transition from comforted baby to determined adult. Coraline's tale can only begin when she's discovered a parallel world. Many fairy tales adopt similar patterns: Alice and that mirror, the wardrobe portal to Narnia, even Potter's �-way rail platform.
In Coraline's case she emerges on the other side to find what she believes is a perfect world, one to ease the pain of parents who, while not actually rejecting her, are too engrossed in their own lives to pay her the attention she craves.
The beldam is a sardonic title for a witch or hag ... belle dame implying a beautiful woman. In Henry Selick's stunning and assured version of Neil Gaiman's Coraline, the shape-shifting beldam assumes the form of Coraline's Other Mother who is the Empress of Control.
And however triumphant are the surroundings, in this world everyone with eyes has had them replaced by buttons. Sewn on buttons. Sewn onto the eyes. Bunuel or what!!
How Coraline eventually discovers who really means well and who's on the dark side provides the plot.
Frankly I was a bit surprised at the way this ambiguous tale captured its audience. Then I remembered how bleak our legacy is of kids' stories. Somehow we like to imagine that children need to be spared the elements of an unknown and scary future. But as folk and fairytales have proved through centuries, it's the dark tales that not only stimulate imagination, but prepare us to face our demons.
Selick, of course, made The Nightmare Before Christmas, and you'll find a similar technical brilliance and strangeness in Coraline. Selick's script might have been a tad sharper, but it serves the story well enough. The actors even more so. This is a tale where you might like some characters, but nobody's actually ... nice.
Go see.
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| 3 L A T E S T R E P L I E S (Newest First) |
| Salopian |
Posted - 05/18/2009 : 19:16:59
That's the trouble with these 3-D films. They go all out in that direction and it's all wasted on me (and about ten per cent of people, I believe). If anything, they conversely make less effort to give not only the story but also the picture less depth in other ways, so they end up looking even flatter to me.
I think the characters will be enjoyed by children, but it's not as if dark characters are a rarity in their fiction. I think some reviewers have taken those here to be more original than they are. |
| demonic |
Posted - 05/18/2009 : 18:37:12
Same. I liked the relative darkness of the story but wasn't particularly sold on the design of the film, any of the characters or their respective voice acting. However I did see it in 3-D - my first of this new generation of three dimension films - and that really made it a genuinely captivating experience watching all the clever trickery with depth of field. Without that though I feel I might have been less involved than I was. |
| Salopian |
Posted - 05/10/2009 : 20:37:36
I liked it but wasn't blown away like a lot of other people seem to have been. Only 4/5 from me. |
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