Henry Selick’s latest stop motion adventure is his most beautiful yet and while after a first viewing it isn’t my favorite of his work, there is definitely a lot of room for this one to grow on a second and third go around.
Coraline and her family have just moved into an apartment up in Oregon so that they can concentrate on their writing for gardening magazine. As they dwell on their computers working, Coraline’s boredom builds and builds as she desperately tries and fines something to do to entertain her. Added on top of this, Coraline also doesn’t really jive with the rules of her parents, like most kids, and wishes for a life where she gets her favorite foods for dinner and won’t have dessert held hostage from her. One distraction she has around is an awkward neighborhood boy Wybie, though he and the local cat that hangs around him are more of a nuisance than anything. Her family’s house is broken into three apartments, which also allow for some eccentric neighbors as well. Upstairs is a Mr. Bobinsky, a giant Russian man with skinny legs that is training and talking to his mice to perform a jumping circus. And downstairs resides a pair of sisters who are ex-actresses who spend their day’s playing cards and admiring their entire history of stuffed Scottie’s dogs lining their shelves. [Read more...]