Coraline

[truth seeker]

I enjoyed this animation. The only problem I had was with the way the parent's treated Coraline and the way it was resolved at the end (there seemed to be no realization on the parent's part as to how they treated her).

It's basically about how a child wishes for their parents to be different. Coraline is dissatisfied with who her parents are and becomes easily prey for someone who can give her the parents she thinks she wants only to realize that in order to get what she wants, she must give up her soul. I would not recommend this movie for children (maybe 13 and up?) as the themes are dark.

You may not want to read the plot if you intend on seeing the movie.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coraline_%28film%29

 

[Smallwood]

I've read the Gaiman's novel some years ago. It was a kind of a book I enjoyed back then, for it's horror and exploration bits and it's overall rusty athmosphere but I don't remember enough about it to recommend it here.

The movie seems quite a bit more lightier than the book, probably better for the intented audience.

 

[Hildegarda]

I remember mentioning it in the Books section of the forum:

http://www.cassiopaea.org/forum/index.php?topic=69.msg73604#msg73604

What this review doesn't pick up -- and neither do the readers' reviews on Amazon -- is that the story is incredibly profound psychologically. It is really all about narcissist's love. "The other mother" is an archetypal creature that represents a desire to possess another person, to "give everything to her" on one's own terms, to create a fake world around a person. To feed on her, to manipulate and change her, to play games with her, to enlist others' help -- and and finally to destroy her and move on to the next victim. This is what a narcissist does. It's the ultimate trickery, and the only was to save yourself is to protect yourself with knowledge, remember what is true, and think of others. The accompanying imagery, both verbal and artistic, is making the message even more powerful.

I was very impressed with the movie, too. It's claymation at its best. Some plot adjustments have been made to streamline the action, e.g., they introduced another character, a playmate, just so that Coraline doesn't have to talk to herself all the time, and then used him in the final scene, too.

You are right, turth seeker, about there not being any realization on the real parent's part, but I guess it's the matter of the point of view from which the story unfolds. It's about Coraline, not about them, and when she says to the other mother, "how stupid you are -- nobody WANTS to have everything", it's a lesson learned irrespectively of what the real parents are, or their very human faults -- it's a lesson all her own.

 

[anart]

I was very impressed with the movie, too. It's claymation at its best.

Well, it's actually 'stop motion animation' - but the animation is impressive, no doubt! (claymation actually uses clay-like material that is sculpted - it's more 'old school' and impressive when done really well)

Some plot adjustments have been made to streamline the action, e.g., they introduced another character, a playmate, just so that Coraline doesn't have to talk to herself all the time, and then used him in the final scene, too.

You are right, turth seeker, about there not being any realization on the real parent's part, but I guess it's the matter of the point of view from which the story unfolds. It's about Coraline, not about them, and when she says to the other mother, "how stupid you are -- nobody WANTS to have everything", it's a lesson learned irrespectively of what the real parents are, or their very human faults -- it's a lesson all her own.

That's true, but, personally, this movie creeped me out.



********spoiler alert************



That horrid spider mother was enough to give anyone younger than 13 nightmares - eek! The dead children - aacckkk!! It was just really, really, dark and sad and tragic.

I didn't know anything about the story before I watched it, so I wasn't prepared for what amounts to the story of an ethereal serial killer of children.

With that said, in the tradition of the Brother's Grimm, it is a scary fairy tale that illustrates tragedy, so it does that very well.

I didn't like the 'real life' parents and the ending at all either - basically Coraline never escapes her isolation - she just ends up with the lesser of two evils, being alive and living with self-absorbed parents who don't take care of her and don't know any different way of being.

 

[Tigersoap]

I saw Coraline a while back and I wasn't really impressed by the plot, I did not read the comic beforehand though.
It was creepy but not the kind I would have liked, not like Nightmare before Christmas was imho.
I did not like the substance of the characters very much either.

I don't know but it seems like N.Gaiman had serious repressed issues with his mother and because those trippy tunnels made me think of birth canal but that may just be me :D

 

[truth seeker]

I went into this movie blindly thinking it would be more like "Nightmare Before Christmas" and was initially freaked out by the spider. But then I remembered my own and others' dreams regarding spiders, what they can represent and that they (the representation) feed off people and then thought "brilliant!"

The dead kids part threw me for a loop as well. Oh and the whole thing about the eyes! Yeah, I guess I would only recommend "Coraline" for those interested in these type of movies. Great animation though...