CORALINE - DVD review

It is absolutely no secret that "Tim Burton's The Nightmare Before Christmas" is my favorite film of all time. I watch the picture at least a half a dozen times a year and have been known to watch it a couple of days in a row near either Halloween or Christmas. To me, Burton's creation is the picture of artistic perfection using film as a medium. While the film is Burton's personal creation and his image, it was directed by Henry Selick and the stop-motion director and his career has been something I've followed since he helped Burton bring "The Nightmare Before Christmas" to life. Focus Features pushed his latest stop-motion film "Coraline" by associating it with "Nightmare Before Christmas," which meant I had to see it as soon as I possibly could.

The film is based upon novelist Neil Gaiman's children's book Coraline and Selick handled the screenwriting duties to expand the book to a story long enough to become a full featured film. The production was the first undertaking for fledgling animation studio Laika and during pre-production "Coraline" was discussed as being a CGI-based animated film and then a hybrid between computer and stop-motion animation. Eventually and after some production tests, the decision was made to keep "Coraline" as a stop-motion film using facial replacement techniques similar to those used in "The Nightmare Before Christmas" and employ cameras to allow the film to be released in both traditional 2D format and trioscopic 3D.

"Coraline" stars actress Dakota Fanning as the voice talent behind lead character Coraline and includes a strong supporting cast. Teri Hatcher voices Coraline's mother Mel and the Other Mother who is revealed to be the evil doll creator who feasts upon the bodies of young children. Television commercial actor John Hodgman who is best known for the Macintosh advertisements as PC portrays Coraline's father Charlie and the Other Father. Talented thespian Ian McShane of "Deadwood" fame is circus performer Mr. Bobinsky. Veteran talent Keith David is recognizable as the black cat and actors Robert Bailey, Jr., Carolyn Crawford, Dawn French and Jennifer Saunders provide voices for other characters in the film.

The story centers around a young girl, Coraline, who moves in with her parents into an apartment in a rather large old country home that is painted pink. Her father and mother work together on producing a gardening catalog and Coraline meets up with a boy named Wybie (Bailey Jr.) and his cat early on during her adventures outside of the house. Wybie gives Coraline a doll that wears her exact clothing down to her hair ribbon and she is surprised when Wybie claims that he did not make the doll, but that his grandmother always had the old doll. Also living in the pink house in the upstairs apartment is the peculiar performer Mr. Bobinsky and two actresses in the basement named Miss Spink (Saunders) and Miss Forcible (French). Bobinsky has dancing mice and receives cheese in the mail, while Spink and Forcible are retired and now have a large collection of dead stuffed pets dressed as angels.

Eventually Coraline finds herself following one of Bobinsky's mice through a door in the house that appeared to be closed off with bricks, but becomes a magical entrance to an unusual world where Coraline meets her "Other" parents whom have buttons sewn in place of their eyes and appears to be everything a little girl could want complete with mango milkshakes and a Wybie that cannot speak. Coraline tells her parents about this dream world, but they brush it aside as the girl's imagination. She enjoys her nights in the peculiar other world, but when her Other Mother wants her to replace her eyes with buttons so that she can stay, Coraline realizes it is not a utopian environment.

"Coraline" is not as powerful a film as "The Nightmare Before Christmas" and it feels unfair that I should compare this picture to my absolute favorite all-time picture. However, Focus Features pushed the connection between the films and I'm going to go with it. Thankfully, this is Selick's second best picture and I find "Coraline" to be far more pleasing than either "Monkeybone" or "James and the Giant Peach." This film is quite and accomplishment and I have to agree with the strong critical acclaim the film has received since it was released. It is beautifully created and a well told story that nicely expands upon the short novel in which it is based. It does not stay fully true to the Gaiman novella, but this is one instance where change was required to bring the story to the big screen.

Dakota Fanning approached the filmmakers to take part in the picture and she is wonderful as a voice actor in "Coraline." Voice acting is a little different than traditional acting and I found each of the actors did a very good job. I particularly enjoyed Ian McShane as Bobinsky and though the three different variants of Coraline's mother were handled incredibly well by Teri Hatcher. Her underscored and sultry take on evilness was a nice take on the character. Keith David as the talking cat was a fun performance and it sounds as if David enjoyed making cat noises. I've watched countless Mac/PC ads and didn't realize that John Hodgman was a voice actor in the film until the credits crawled. Voice acting can be tricky, but there are no weak spots here.

"Coraline" is a moral tale reflecting the age-old saying that the grass isn't always greener on the other side. Young Coraline is tempted by utopian dreams where she can eat amazing meals, have parents that cater to her every need and friends that act the way she desires them too. Everything around Coraline in the Other World is custom tailored for her and she only begins to accept the shortcomings of her real parents and the harsh reality of normal life after discovering the dangers that were waiting for her in the Other World. Coraline learns to appreciate her parents and this conveyance of the same message from the novella is the key theme for the story and was handled very nicely by Selick.

I enjoyed "Coraline" from beginning to end and never once found myself questioning whether I liked the picture. It has a Burton-esque presence that hints at Selick's time working with Burton during "The Nightmare Before Christmas" and the stop-motion animation is impeccably done. Without a doubt, "Coraline" is a landmark picture in the medium and from a technical standpoint, "Coraline" is the greatest stop-motion film yet. The facial replacement technology had each of the main characters with an upper and lower replaceable head and the lines were then animated out in post-production. It is hard to believe that the complicated facial expressions and lip movements that were animated were done by stop-motion. This is a beautifully shot picture. I love stop-motion and it is easily my favorite form of animation.

Watching the film in three dimensions is a lot of fun as well. I had watched "Coraline" in theaters in three dimensions. It was a treat. This is easily one of the best-done three dimensional presentations since 3D became Hollywood's new "in thing" a few years back. Unlike "The Nightmare Before Christmas 3D," which was adapted for three dimensional viewing, "Coraline" was created from the ground up to be shown as such and the amount of depth is very strong. I loved the early shot of Wybie on the hill coming down to scare Coraline. The blowing grass below was even in 3D. Viewing the film at home with cheap cardboard glasses isn't as good as the theatrical presentation and the coloring of the film is lost, but it still looks quite impressive.

While this isn't a sequel to "The Nightmare Before Christmas," it feels like the adopted child of Selick and Burton's amazing collaboration to join Burton's own "The Corpse Bride" as a kindred sibling. Burton was not part of this picture, but his influence on Selick is apparent as the twisted and fantastical world created by Selick is a real pleasure that translates amazingly well to stop motion. The story and acting is strong enough to warrant repeated viewings of this ninety minute film, but the meticulous stop-motion animation demands return trips to the Other World. I'm sure "Coraline" will grow a little bit more on me as time passes and though I may not watch it a dozen times a year, I can see at least one or two viewings here and there.

Video:

The 1.83:1 video presentation of "Coraline" is quite good and the 2D version of the film is the target of this review. The 3D version is not quite as stunning as the technology required to create a 3D image results in a slight loss of color and affects the level of detail to some degree. It is a worthwhile tradeoff as the trioscopic image is easily one of the better 3D presentations I have seen on home video. However, the 2D version is a strongly detailed and nicely colored disc. The colors of the ‘real world' are slightly muted while the ‘other world' is vibrant and bright. It takes a short while until the button-eyed inhabitants of the other world are introduced, but the amount of detail and color of "Coraline" rank among some of the better visuals I have seen on DVD. Black levels are strong and that is important given the amount of time spent in the darkness in this film. This is a very clean and rich looking transfer with zero problems resulting from bringing the title to DVD.

Audio:

The DVD release of "Coraline" features an English Dolby Digital 5.1 soundtrack to convey the whimsical nature of the worlds created by Henry Selick. The mix is beautifully laid out to envelope the viewer with sound elements from every channel. When Wybie is biking from the high slopes behind Coraline, the rear surrounds come alive. They are also very active through much of the other scenes with either rear directional effects, ambient sounds or the musical score by Bruno Coulais. The front channels are hefty and carry the primary information fluently from left to right and vice versa with the center channel nicely anchoring the dialogue. The .1 LFE channel provides strong, but not overpowering bass and Coulais' score is nicely rendered throughout the film, although I don't find it nearly as enjoyable as the work done by Elfman. Foreign language support is provided in the form of Spanish and French Dolby Digital 5.1 surround and subtitles are included in English SDH, French and Spanish.

Extras:

"Coraline" is packaged as a 2-disc "Collector's Edition." The DVD itself boots up with a lengthy trailer park that runs for about seven minutes and is included on both sides of the DVD. Trailers included are for "9," the "Bionicle: The Legend Reborn" DVD, "Curious George 2: Follow that Monkey," an advertisement for Universal Blu-ray releases, the upcoming "Duplicity" DVD and Blu-ray release and theatrical release of "Bring it On: Fight to the Finish." The first side of the disc contains the 2D version of the film and flipping it over provides access to the 3D trioscopic version of the picture. The majority of special features beyond an included commentary (also contained on both sides) are located on a second platter and only scene selection and disc setup are options on the 2-sided first disc. Four pairs of green and purple lensed trioscopic cardboard glasses are provided.

The Feature Commentary with Director Henry Selick and Composer Bruno Coulais is misleading in title as the vast majority of the commentary is recorded only with Selick. Coulais appears during the final credits crawl for about five minutes and the Frenchman talks briefly about the film and his experience. Selick provides a good commentary and discusses decisions on making the film as a stop motion picture and provides solid information on the making of the picture and how technology has changed or continued to be used since his previous stop motion films. Selick delves into details about how the film strays from the original novel and discusses the reasoning for doing things the way he did with the picture. Selick provides a relaxed and informative commentary track. Coulais five minutes is also a good listen.

The second disc contains a Digital Copy of the film for transfer to either PC or Mac based computers and a trio of other bonus features. The Deleted Scenes (8:51) is introduced by Henry Selick and he talks about why scenes are removed as each scene has an introductory bumper with Selick. Odd cuts showing him smiling made this feel awkward, but the five deleted scenes and a montage are entertaining and I enjoyed the first deleted scene about a laptop. These are pieced together as one supplement. The Making of Coraline (35:57) is broken into ten chapters and does a very good job of looking at the making of this film. I love stop motion and this helps show how some of the magic is done for the picture. Voicing the Characters (10:47) is a brief feature that has interviews with Selick and members of the cast as they talk about recording voice work and shows some of the footage from the sessions.

Closing:

"Coraline" is the latest stop-motion animation gem from Henry Selick, who is one of the true masters of the animated art form. Selick had worked with another master, Tim Burton previously on my favorite film of all time, "Tim Burton's The Nightmare Before Christmas" and I view "Coraline" as one of the sibling children of that amazing film. The story is very nicely done and this is the pinnacle of stop-motion animation as "Coraline" is a true visual masterpiece. I don't consider this film one of my absolute favorites of all time, but I appreciate the work done by Selick and find this to be a very pleasing experience. The 2-disc DVD release is a little disappointing when it comes to supplements, but I enjoyed the inclusion of both the 3D and 2D versions of the film and found "Coraline" to be the best home adaptation of three dimensions yet. This is a great film and a wonderful departure from the computerized worlds of Pixar.