Coraline is going to scare the crap out of your kids. Having seen two key scenes from Neil Gaiman's graphic novel, I can guarantee you that any child under the age of 10 will have nightmares after seeing this movie. Hell, I'm surprised I didn't have any nightmares.
Henry Selick, who directed The Nightmare Before Christmas and James and the Giant Peach, has brought back his unique style of stop-motion animation for this story, with spooky themes that fit in well with his pseudo-gothic style. It's a great thing for adults who are fans of the artistry of animation, especially an old-fashioned style like stop motion, which accomplishes several moments that feel like magic in just the few short scenes that I saw.
The scenes set up the basics of the story, introducing Coraline (voiced by Dakota Fanning) and her parents (Teri Hatcher and John Hodgman) as they move into a rambling old Victorian house that's been split up into apartment. In the house Coraline discovers a portal into another world, where her "Other Mother" and "Other Father" have constantly smiling faces and button eyes, her talkative best friend is silent, and her neighbors-- a Russian gymnast and two elderly sisters-- aren't washed-up, but performers capable of amazing magic.
Of course, things in the other world aren't really as nice as they seem, and that's when Coraline goes from pleasantly spooky to downright chilling. Coraline's Other Mother, with her blank button eyes, turns into a mantis-type figure when Coraline asks to go back home. And the performance by the neighbor sisters, in a huge auditorium full of Scottie dogs, is gorgeous, but echoey and creepy in a way that evokes the theater scene from Mulholland Drive. Yes, this is a children's movie that can be compared to David Lynch. Toldja it would scare your kids!
The Q&A session after the short screening, which included director Selick as well as several people who worked on the film, was dominated mostly by specific questions about stop-motion animation from the NYU art students in attendance. So it's hard to get much of a grip on the film, or how terrifying it will feel in full-length. Coraline comes out February 6 of next year, which means it will definitely be one of the only releases worth paying attention to amid the usual winter graveyard movies. But it's too soon to tell if the lovely animation will amount to a movie that can satisfy its audience.
