Let me start by saying, let’s all pretend that I have already posted the coming review of Audrey, Wait! by Robin Benway. But for now I’m going to be a good little blogger and review the new movie Coraline like Darcy asked me to.
To start off with let me say I enjoyed both the book and the movie Coraline. Neil Gaiman is pretty damn brilliant at what he does. I did however have some issues with the movie which I didn’t have with the book. I also had a quip with the book that I didn’t have with the movie. I’m going to try to keep this review as spoiler free as possible, but I also have to assume that if you’re reading this you have some familiarity with the story. In a nutshell it’s about Coraline, a little girl who finds a bricked off door in her apartment. One night the door opens to a magical world of awesome that happens to have a monster that steals her parents and Coraline must use all her cunning (and a cat) to get them back.
The only thing I found lacking with the book was the description of the other world. I got the feeling it was supposed to be this amazing world of wonder and no child but Coraline would ever want to leave at first. But I felt the story left things a little too up to my imagination, I didn’t feel like it was a world I would have had trouble leaving. Maybe as most of my pleasure reading is done on the subway, my imagination hat wasn’t as on as it should have been. That said I was really looking forward to seeing how amazing the other world would look onscreen. I was not disappointed. The other world was everything I could have hoped for and more. The 3D effects were as spectacular as I wanted and they didn’t feel forced. With other 3D movies I’ve seen it feels like the animators are just trying to see how much stuff they can get away with throwing at the screen, which is fine in small doses but a full feature length movie could be a little much. That’s not the case with Coraline, it promises a modern wonderland and it delivers.
On to my movie gripes. I understand that changes must be made from book to movie. Things added and removed, when it’s done well it’s magic when it’s not it’s well, crap. My main problem with the movie which irked me from the first hint of it in the commercial was the inclusion of Wybie, short for Wybourn. First of all why include a comment about his name sounding like why-born and never going anywhere with it? The tome of knowledge that is Wikipedia says he was added so that it wouldn’t just be Coraline talking to herself and to me that’s just not a good enough reason. He’s annoying and adds nothing to the story. Worst of all he detracts form Coraline as a character. While it’s still Coraline who saves her parents and the other children from the evil other mother, it’s Wybie that finally does her in. Indulge me a moment dear readers as I jump up on my feminist soapbox. One of the things I loved loved loved about Coraline was that she was a strong female child character and we don’t have enough of them. She wasn’t a 2D stereotype of a cheerleader or a girl that just wants to be some pretty pretty princess. She’s got a big problem and she solves it on her own. But in the movie she needs a little boy. That’s probably not the intention but that’s how it seems. If they needed to add this extra character why couldn’t it have been a girl? The cat is a boy, can’t the poofy extra be a girl? I’m not a person who believes there’s some grand machismo council trying to get women back in the kitchen. However I do think that when you’re producing something for kids you should be aware of the message you’re sending. There’s a lot of tripe out there for girls, and when a literary god like Gaiman writes us a great female character don’t mess it up by adding some sniveling little boy to literally ride in on his white bike (ok it wasn’t white but still) to save the day.
Aside from that there were a few moments that dragged a little, some things went on longer than they needed too but not in a Return of the King eighteen freaking endings kind of way. In terms of acting the voices were great. I’m pretty much in awe of Dakota Fanning in general but I also really loved Keith David as the Cat. I wish some of the warnings the mice gave in the book were included in the movie. The mice were absolutely adorable, seriously if they make toy mice I would buy them.
I feel like the movie dumbed down the creepy aspect of the book, and part of that again had to do with wybie. To me as a child there would have been nothing as frightening as my parents disappearing, being alone with a monster. That’s primal nightmare stuff right there. But the movie has to span a larger audience than the book so it has to be a tinge less terrifying so that the five year old brother of the nine year old girl in the audience won’t be scared for life. While watching it we did have the awesome experience of having one small child yell “I want to go home now!” after a particularly spine tingling scene, which I think made every adult in the audience laugh. This is one of those movies where parents really need to know their kids before they walk in. If your child laughs at the monster in the closet, throw the glasses on and enjoy the show, if he’s kind of squeamish of say spiders this is NOT the movie for him.
To wrap up a rather long post, in general I feel bad telling anyone to spend the ridiculous amount of money that tickets cost these days but if you are going to splurge I recommend Coraline. Unless you’re a person who can not separate the book from the movie I’d say it’s fairly likely that you will enjoy yourself.
~ Editorial Assassin
Me, because I’m in graduate school hell right now. Grrrr.
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