Movie Review -- Coraline 3D (2009)

featuring the voice talent of Dakota Fanning and Teri Hatcher

directed and screenplay by Henry Selick

Odd. Simply odd. I don't know if that's a good thing, or a bad thing here. Coraline is just odd.

From the talent behind The Nightmare Before Christmas (which I loved when I was younger and I think is as dull as can be now), this film is just about as un-kid-friendly a kid pic can get. There's nothing objectionable here, but there's nothing that will grab a young kid's interest either.

Coraline is a young girl who is completely unsatisfied at home -- her parents don't pay her any attention and a recent move to a new home has left her with no friends but the annoying weirdo kid next door. One night, she goes through a small door she finds in her home and is taken to a seemingly "mirror" world of her current life -- her parents are incredibly (and overly) kind and loving and the boy next door can't annoy her because he is unable to talk -- for you see, Coraline's "other mother" in the new world not only has buttons for eyes, but has sewn the neighbor's mouth shut simply because Coraline was annoyed by him...you see, this new "other mother" wants Coraline to be as happy as can be and if that means sewing a boy's mouth shut then so be it. Like any kid flick, Coraline realizes that things may not be hunky-dory in this seemingly ideal world and she soon understands that she wants her "old" life back, however imperfect it might be.

First off, the movie is too long. It could have been much better as a 80-minute film than a 105-minute film. There's not much story here and cutting characters and subplots could've helped immensely.

My second problem with the flick certainly branches off of that first problem -- there's too many extra characters that were simply thrown in for their sheer eccentricity. Add to that another subplot dealing with dead ghost kids and, while I wasn't confused per se, I was perplexed as to why this was the least bit important.

Animation-wise, it definitely looked new (they were going for a computerized stop-motion look), but as the characters moved around, I couldn't help but think of the old-school Rankin/Bass "Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer" of the 1960s. That's not necessarily a bad thing, but things weren't always fluid all the time which I found a little odd.

Maybe I'm spoiled by Disney World 3D movies, but the 3D effects were once again not all that special. There were scenes that looked cool, but I don't think it would've been any different in 2D.

I realize I'm kind of complaining about the movie, but I didn't hate it. I appreciated the fact that the animators kind of said, "Screw the audience...we're gonna make the kind of movie that we want and we don't care if parents have to deal with kids that get nightmares," but at the same time, the story really lacked oomph.

I don't know what I think about this one at this point. I certainly wouldn't rush out to see it, but I think I'm making it sound worse than it was. That being said, it certainly wasn't anything great, but it was acceptable (yeah, I know, a rousing recommendation there).

But hey, if you want to see the biggest animated breasts that you've ever seen, this is the movie for you! (shudder...shudder...)

The RyMickey Rating: C+