No, Coraline is not really a recent release.  But it did receive a screening at my local AMC today through Fathom Events, and I attended it with my wife, her sister and her sister’s husband.  Everybody enjoyed it but me.  When I reviewed the film the first time I gave it just ☆ 1/2 and complained that I didn’t understand it.  That remains true, although I certainly appreciated it more this time around.  I still don’t pretend to understand this dark fantasy, and a quick survey of writer Neil Gaiman’s work indicates to me that I haven’t liked any of the few projects of his that I have seen, and have actually avoided a few that look utterly uninteresting to me (“American Gods” in particular).

Henry Selick’s film was until recently the longest stop-motion feature film ever (and it was originally shot in 3-D, to boot!).  It follows young Coraline (voice of Dakota Fanning), a girl whose writer parents pay her no attention, as she pokes around their new (very old) house and finds a small door that connects to a much prettier version of her life, complete with friendlier parents.  But all is not what it seems, and Coraline begins to discover that she is being lured to a terrible fate.

How much of this is the child’s fantasy and how much of it is “realistic” is certainly debatable, but ultimately it makes no difference to most viewers.  Selick’s stop motion style is the show, whether it is the crumbling house, the beautiful gardens, the crazy neighbors who share their multi-unit home or the cool cat who hangs around.  And those visuals are impressive, even to a jaded / uninterested viewer like myself.  Some viewers seem to consider this movie the crowning jewel of stop motion animation filmmaking; certainly it is far more advanced than Ray Harryhausen’s creature features of the 1950s and ’60s, or Willis O’Brien’s earlier efforts.

But I have to have a story to which I can relate, or the visuals don’t mean much.  As impressive as this movie looks, I don’t really understand why it exists.  It just doesn’t mean anything to me.  This second viewing of mine occurs just thirteen years after the first, yet I didn’t remember anything important about the film except the small door and the girl going back and forth between her warring worlds.  Nothing else stayed with me.  I appreciate the animation and all the work that I know went into its creation, but I wonder how long this viewing will stay with me.  ☆ ☆.  15 August 2022.