In a Nutshell. Mini reviews of movies old and new. No fuss. No spoilers. And often no sleep.

Thursday 7 November 2013

CORALINE [2009]

Acclaimed stop-motion director Henry Selick brings Neil Gaiman's dark fantasy children's novel Coraline to the big screen with flourishing passion.
Beautifully designed sets & characters and wonderfully set up shots keep the eyes in complete awe as we're whisked away into a twisted Narnia In Wonderland sort of world.  Unfortunately the dull voice acting, flat dialogue and boring characters make for a rather long journey at times.  The character of Coraline is a bratty little bint, so it makes it hard to care what happens to her or anything that surrounds her life.  It pains me to say this as I am a huge fan of both Gaiman and Selick's work and was eagerly anticipating this film but in the end it feels like a bit of a misfire that needed a bit more work on the script to truly give it the heart the story deserves.

3 boring Mark Ryden paintings out of 5

2 comments:

Dr Faustus said...

I've only watched this once but 3 sounds about right. If it didn't have Selick's experience evident in the model work then maybe 2.5 would be more fitting.

Teri Hatcher is a crone in real life so she suited the Other Mother well.

cuckoo said...

This was the 2nd time seeing it.

I absolutely hated it the first time.
This time around I gave careful attention to the more positive aspects of the film and enjoyed it just a tad more.

Teri Hatcher really is one of the better voices...
...scary.

Dakota Fanning is abysmal.