Customer Reviews:
Showing reviews 1-5 of 30
 An Excellent Nightmare! May 5, 2009
Stewart Selkirk (UK)
25 out of 27 found this review helpful
This is a challenging film.I saw it first in the cinema, with a packed house and in 3D. Worth every penny! For parents and children, make no mistake, this is not some fluffy fodder to merely entertain. There is a profoundly atmospheric and emotive core to this film which isn't easy. Some viewers may find that its sombre and dark, almost gothic tone, is disturbing, as well they might, for it is so. That said, this is a wonderfully refreshing, contemporary "fairytale" that is uncompromising and inventive. There has never been a stop-motion,puppet animation film to touch this in technical terms. It is simply, stunningly, awesomely fine. But it is the content,the shift in tone, that makes this more than flimsy, family fodder. Will it scare the kids....? Oh yes! Will it scare the parents...? I think so, because it enters into the terrain of primary fears in a dreamlike way to which only those who are completely anaethetised may be immune. Comparisons have been suggested with "Alice in Wonderland" and they are fair enough. It is an "Alice" for our times, though I consider that such a statement doesn't necessarily do the film justice. This is great filmmaking. Selick is a filmmmaker infused with the drama of passion,style,sensitivity and taste."Coraline" is a complete winner and quite simply, unmissable. Oh, and by the way, don't miss the sensational animation at the end of the endcredits. Most viewers and audiences do.
Beware! Beware! Beware! July 23, 2009
Camil Moujaber (Owosso, Michigan USA)
17 out of 19 found this review helpful
The 3D Coraline DVD on Amazon USA is the blue/red type, with blue/red cardboard glasses. It is NOT the polarized 3D version we saw at the movies! So make sure this one here is the polarized 3D version with polarized glasses before you buy, unless you enjoy blue/red 3D movies and don't get a headache from them!
Delightfully Creepy Cinematic Animation Classic March 12, 2009
John Kwok (New York, NY USA)
8 out of 9 found this review helpful
Even in its two-dimensional version - which I saw recently - "Coraline" is an instant classic of cinematic animation, using time-honored stop-motion action cinemation. It's a classic fable of good versus evil, featuring a reluctant, almost insignificant, heroine triumphantly prevailing against the dark, sinister overlord of an alternate universe. Director Henry Selick has wrought wonders, working on this screen adaptation of Neil Gaiman's eerie teenage literature (with ample adult overtones) novel. His stop-motion action animation looks realistic, even after one remembers the excessively bright, almost unrealistic, colors of both outdoor gardens and house kitchens set in the "Other" universe. But he's also fortunate to have excellent acting from his cast, especially from young Dakota Fanning as the heroine, Coraline Jones, Teri Hatcher as her mother (and "Other Mother"), and surprisingly, comedian/writer John Hodgman as Coraline's father (and "Other Father").
br /
br /Young Coraline Jones moves from Michigan with her parents - a pair of professional writers who write catalogs on plants and gardens - to a dilapidated old house set somewhere in Oregon. It's such a dull, dreary place, and poor Coraline is bored to tears with all the attention - or rather lack thereof - she receives from her parents, who are busy writing away, working on their respective deadlines. Until one night she discovers a mysterious door to a different reality, the "Other" universe and meets her "Other" parents, who are far more lively, personable, and caring. Or are they really? Without a doubt, "Coraline" is an impressive achievement of cinematic animation at its best. It is also one of the finest films I have seen in recent years.
A truly wonderful realisation of a wonderful book October 24, 2009
Peter (United Kingdom)
3 out of 3 found this review helpful
This film is absolutely wonderful. It draws on the truly original vision of Neil Gaiman (who also wrote the book that inspired the movie Stardust [DVD] [2007). Then there's a big overlay of the director Henry Selick's vision (the film looks like a Tim Burton film, but is actually directed by Selick, who I believe also directed The Nightmare Before Christmas), which transforms and expands the book's vision into a satisfying visual spectacle. Then we get the beautiful realisation using truly brilliant stop-motion animation and an excellent cast of voice actors. Finally, there's the 3D presentation, which in the cinema was truly immersive, and not at all intrusive.
br /
br /Unfortunately, 3D televsions using polarised light are not yet available. 3D DVDs from Spy Kids 3D onwards have had to rely on a more primitive red/green colour filters, and this is nothing like as effective as the cinema version. The good news is that 3D televisions are being developed, and at least one UK broadcaster is planning to launch a 3D channel. When that happens, we can look forward to the 3D experience we already get in cinemas.
br /
br /This package has both the 3D and 2D versions of the film, so if you find the 3D experience strains your eyes, you can always switch to the 2D version. It's worth a try, though, for that "added dimension".
You're not my mother June 7, 2009
E. A Solinas (MD USA)
5 out of 6 found this review helpful
Nobody can drench a book in creepy, dank atmosphere like Neil Gaiman, infused with humor and more than a little horror.
br /
br /Fortunately that flavour is kept alive in the movie adaptation of "Coraline," brought to life by the talented Henry Selick. It's a haunting little dark fairy tale full of decayed apartments, dancing rats and eerie soulless doppelgangers, as well as a gutsy heroine who finds herself in this ominous "other" world.
br /
br /Newly moved into an aged apartment, Coraline (Dakota Fanning) is bored. Her parents are too busy to do anything with her, and her neighbors are either insane or boring. The one exception is Wybie, a boy who annoys her no end.
br /
br /It's the sort of relentlessly dull world that any little girl would want to escape from -- until Coraline does. She encounters a plastered-up door and a colourful wormhole, leading to a doppelganger of new home. In fact, it's so similar that she has a button-eyed "other mother" (Teri Hatcher) and matching "other father," (John Hodgman) as well as great food, games, a shimmering magic garden, a chorus of circus rodents and magic toys.
br /
br /At first Coraline is fascinated by the other world, especially since her other parents are as attentive as her real ones aren't. Then she finds her real parents sealed inside a mirror. With the help of a sarcastic cat, Coraline ventures back into the other world. But with her parents and a trio of dead children held hostage, Coraline's only hope is to gamble with her own freedom -- and she'll be trapped forever if she fails.
br /
br /Neil Gaiman's book "Coraline" is a brilliant dark fairy-tale vibe -- decayed apartments, dead children, spiderwebs, beetles, disembodied hands, button eyes, and an insectile button-eyed woman who wants to claim Coraline for herself. It's a fairy tale world that turns into a nightmare realm where souls are lost and horrific things scuttle in the shadows.
br /
br /Most directors would turn the story into a cutsy, unscary affair... but not the director of "The Nightmare Before Christmas" and "James and the Giant Peach." Instead, Selick gives it a dark, cobwebby atmosphere, brilliant colours and surreal details (the button eclipsing the moon). And it's full of lovely details that could have been silly (the creepy-crawly claw hand) yet work brilliantly.
br /
br /The story starts off as merely surreal, but grows more ghastly and eerie as the movie unwinds -- and in the last third, the slow-moving story suddenly spins into a thoroughly spooky territory, and a truly terrifying climax where the Other Mother shows her true self. And along the way, there are plenty of wonderfully creepy moments -- the three ghosts in a rotting bedroom/mirror, the offering of buttons and thick black thread, weird circus acts, and much more. The horror is subtle, the delicious creepiness is not.
br /
br /Coraline -- the Alice in this Notsowonderland -- is a wonderful little heroine: strong, sensible, self-sufficient but still fairly freaked out about what is happening around her. Normally I'm not crazy about Dakota Fanning, but voice-only she's quite good in this role.
br /
br /The sarcastic cat is a wonderful counterpoint, and the movie's original character Wybie makes a nice companion (albeit an extraneous one). And the other mother is the stuff of nightmares -- she's utterly inhuman and merciless, and by the movie's climax she's become the stuff of nightmares. Oh, and French and Saunders make a pair of fun cameos as the kooky neighbors.
br /
br /"Coraline" is a brilliantly dark little movie, full of dark magic and eerie creatures. Definitely one of this year's must-sees.
Showing reviews 1-5 of 30
|
![Coraline - 2 Disc Limited Edition (Includes the 2D and 3D Version and 4 Pairs of 3D Glasses) [DVD] [2009]](http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/516tzTFBMwL._SL160_.jpg)
![Monsters vs Aliens (1-Disc) [DVD] [2009]](http://images.amazon.com/images/P/B001NGO8BC.01._AA75_PU_PU-5_.jpg)
![Monsters vs Aliens (2-Disc) Special Edition [DVD] [2009]](http://images.amazon.com/images/P/B002LARV5O.01._AA75_PU_PU-5_.jpg)
![Ice Age 3: Dawn of the Dinosaurs [DVD] [2009]](http://images.amazon.com/images/P/B0021L9TT4.01._AA75_PU_PU-5_.jpg)
![Harry Potter And The Half-Blood Prince [DVD] [2009]](http://images.amazon.com/images/P/B002CYIQYO.01._AA75_PU_PU-5_.jpg)
