It was an experience alright, sitting in the very first row of a packed theater with my head tilted straight up for 100 minutes. But that's what I get for arriving at 11:07 for an 11:00 showing on a Sunday morning.
The little wooden girl on the cover of this
novel by Neil Gaiman may look a little scary, but its 3D transformation made it something to remember.
To the regular movie-goer, this film provides valuable lessons to children. The book is geared towards 9 - 12 year olds, so I'd imagine the film, including Coraline's character and voice of Dakota Fanning, to be around this age and reach this audience.
Kids love to dream in their utopian fantasy lands. They also love to disobey and rebel against their parents. That's the cool thing to do. Coraline portrays that kind of child, having to live in her fantasy land, which did not turn out to be what she wanted after all. She must have been in a state of
consternation. Her experience with her "other" family teaches her, and hopefully all the kids watching, about friendship and family values, what we need to cherish and not take for granted.
This was a pretty awesome movie for the younger crowd, 3D glasses included, but this was also a wonderful film for the behind-the-scenes, technical audience.
The detailed work and energy it took to make this film work was absolutely brilliant. Spending three weeks to shoot three seconds of the film tells me that the entire crew was vastly dedicated to create a success.
Using popcorn to make cherry blossoms? Ingenious. Superglue and baking soda to create snow? Wonderful. Piano wire and fishing line to create strands of hair? Clever. Plastic mesh and fiber optics to illuminate thousands of plants? Incredible. Ping pong balls and cosmetic sponges to bloom flowers? Wowza. Cotton and hair spray to give the illusion of teapot vapor? What a showoff! Kitty litter for the driveway? Insane. 550 hand-painted mice? Oh my god! 2349062093 Coralines? I'm speechless. Here's a
Wired gallery of exclusive behind-the-scenes from the film.
Whether you enjoyed the film or not, you must appreciate the efforts everyone put into the animation of Coraline. Remember how Pixar and Toy Store first amazed the animation world? Remember how The Matrix first brought us into the slow-mo crazy bullet dodging era? This film is going to be the next big "Remember how..." moment in film history.
My theory for this film is that if people can turn everyday household items into music, people can transform everyday household items into 3D animation. This film is better than 3D; it's 3A.
