http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0327597/

I am a big fan of Henry Selick, his work on Nightmare before christmas seems to go unnoticed by many. Most people I talk to have never heard of him, yet they all know Tim Burton. This film shows that Selick is much better at animation that burton. Coraline has a fantastic look to it that is unrivaled this year. I have never seen stop motion look so weird and surreal yet strangely beautiful. I want to praise the voice cast of this film, Dakota Fanning really adds a lot of charm and personality to a character who could be annoying and unwatchable. Teri Hatcher also stands out as the mom. My favorite voices though were Dawn French and Jennifer Saunders, not only were their characters weird and creepy but their voices added tons of personality to them. Also they had massive breasts, collected dead dogs which they put in angel costumes, and ate lots of taffy for some reason. Keith David also does the voice of a cat. Why? Well well the hell not? I have never read the book, though I want to now. For all I know this film could be nothing like the book. It is one of the darkest fairy tales I have seen on screen. The people with buttons for eyes are just plain disturbing especially the spider mother, and the tragic ghost children she ate.

The plot is pretty thin, little girl moves to new house with parents she doesnt like much and then finds a door into a different world with parents she does like and version of her neighbors she loves. All this has a sinister side though, as the buttons for eyes will probably point out. I am going to praise the animation again, I loved how everything moves in this film and the look it has. Stop motion can look very dull, the corpse bride for example was lifeless in a non ironic way. This film is just wonderfully vibrant, I had to pause it once just to look at the images. Thankfully the story is as good as the images, just in a different way. Think of Alice in wonderland if Alice was younger. Coraline travels between both worlds, finding out that she prefers the world where her parents pay attention to her. This is really not a film for young kids, it has many mature and dark themes like parental neglect, and yes buttons for eyes. There are also creepy dolls, which are never good because they made me hate all the dolls I have in my house even more than before. Damn my weird brother for leaving them in my room so they can spy on me while I sleep:evil: Anyway, I highly recommend this film, it does things with animation I found facinating and the dark fairy tale story just makes it better. The only fault I can think of is that I wanted it to last longer. Another great part was the music, it was sublime and eerie without being overwhelming and monotonous like most scores. This has become my favorite animated film of 2009 next to Ponyo. Well I havent seen Mary and Max yet so that might change.

Overall I give it a 9 out of 10.