Coraline [2009]

Making a good adaptation is weird. Just because the movie of the book isn't just like the book doesn't mean that it's a bad movie. Of course, this isn't always the case. The Tale of Despereaux movie was terrible, and The Hobbit trilogy is... well, it's a big enough problem that I had to say trilogy.

Coraline on the other hand, isn't just like the book, but it's an awesome adaptation.

Where do I start... well, the film is stop-motion, and it is gorgeous. The sets are so detailed, and I heard that a crewmember was hired to knit clothes for the characters on teeny-tiny little knitting needles! The character design was cool, too. Especially Coraline and The Other Mother. I like the versatility you can get in stop-motion when it comes to designing characters.

I love the music, it's got kind of a Danny Elfman feel to it, but the composer is actually Bruno Coulais. There's some very good use of pizzicato strings and a creepy kid's choir singing in nonsense language.

Wybie, as always, dressed like a fireman.

Anyhoo, there is a few things that they added that weren't in the book- but it didn't bother me at all. The biggest change they made was that there's another kid who lives next door to Coraline- the unfortunately named Wyborne, or Wybie. Usually, adding characters is not a good idea (Boldo from the disastrous, evil incarnate Despereaux movie), but I actually really liked Wybie. The book has a lot of inner narration and Coraline wandering around exploring by herself. So it makes story-telling a lot easier if they have a second character for Coraline to work off of.

Aside from the addition of Wybie, the story is kept mostly intact from the book. A little girl, roughly 11 or 12 years old moves into a duplex with her mum and dad. However, the other side of the duplex isn't occupied, and there's a little door in Coraline's house that's bricked off. Late one night, Coraline finds herself drawn to the other side of the door (now mysteriously opened up), and on the other side, she finds a world just like her own, except that everyone inexplicably has button eyes. There's another mother, another father, even another Wybie. Things seem way better on the other version of her life. Her parents now have endless amounts of time for her, and there's always delicious snacks around. However, Coraline soon finds out that this other world is actually quite sinister.

The Other Mother

The movie doesn't distill any of the dark or slightly disturbing elements of the book, and the story plays out very well on screen. It's always neat to see how a book plays out in movie-format, especially something as strange and unique as Coraline.

Well, as much as I love this movie even I have to admit that there are... problems. Well, one problem. See, two of Coraline's neighbors, Miss Spink and Miss Forcible, are implied to be former burlesque dancers, and in the Other world, there's a scene where they are **ahem** scantily clad. The movie gets away with this because it's actually two younger women in old lady costumes. Before that gets revealed though it's um... more disturbing than the Other Mother in her spider mode.

My reaction to the above mentioned scene.

Oh, and speaking of The Other Mother... Coraline is a story written for all ages, children to adults, and the same goes for the movie. But there are a few things that you might want to know before you pop this into the player for the young'ns. Naturally, spoilers follow.

If Coraline wants to stay in the Other world, she has to let The Other Mother replace her eyes with buttons. Coraline refuses, and soon finds out that this has happened to at least three other children before. And the other children are kind of, well, dead now. It's kind of a disturbing twist, and it might freak out young children. My little sister is ten, and she wasn't scarred for life, but more sensitive kids might be freaked out. So you know, use your own judgment.

The Verdict: A

Coraline is a terrific adaptation of a terrific book. If you like the book, this is worth a watch, and vice versa. The sets are very well made, and the look/feel of the movie is kooky and whimsical while still being suspenseful and creepy. It's not perfect, you know, there's some suggestive humor in it. But if you like this kind of movie, I would totally recommend Coraline.
Age Appropriateness: Preteens and up, but it varies from person to person. I know some adults who would be uncomfortable with Coraline.

ParaNorman [2012]

Huh. Take a look at the tagline on the poster, 'You don't become a hero by being normal'. I get their point, but I can think of a lot of heroes who were 'normal'. Emmet from The Lego Movie, Sam Gamgee from Lord of the Rings, Atticus Finch from To Kill a Mockingbird, shall I go on? I could, but that's not what I'm here for.
Today, while the rest of the family was fetching rabbits (long story), me and my 'lil Bro stayed home and used the Netflix instant view to our advantage, because we are sick and when you're sick you can stay home and watch movies, it's the unwritten law of the universe.
I picked ParaNorman because it's of the stop-motion Macabre genre, which I have been becoming increasingly fond of. I've heard quite mixed things about it, and this review is going to be quite mixed. Spoilers await ahead too, but because this movie is two years old I'm not going to bother with my little warning signs.
ParaNorman is the story of young Norman, who sees and speaks to the dead. Because of this, he's an outcast, mocked and shunned by the town, misunderstood at home. I'm not such a big fan of the Misunderstood Hero type story, but I don't hate it either. Odd Thomas is an outcast (Oddie can also see ghosts, by the way), as is Jean Valjean. But, poorly executed, this trope can be slightly irritating. ParaNorman doesn't exactly butcher it, but I was rolling my eyes every time an adult came on screen, because literally ALL the adults in ParaNorman are useless at best. I know that the major Aesop Moral of this movie was to not be afraid of what you don't understand, and that had to be illustrated, but I don't understand how all the adults in town are all this level of stupid bigot. Irritating! Why is it so unfashionable to have responsible adults as in stories where a kid is the main character? Serves as a reminder of how our present day generation believes itself so much more superior to past ones.
Anyway, Norman finds that it's up to him to put a stop to the annual Curse of the Witch. The Curse of the Witch was first placed upon the town by a vengeful witch, and it causes the dead to rise from their graves. The spell has been kept at bay for 300 years, by reading a book of fairy tales aloud at the place the witch was buried. However, Norman can't find the witches burial place, and so all hell breaks loose. Almost literally.
Plot wise, ParaNorman is pretty dang good. Not the most original of movies, but it's got a great premise, and an unexpected (somewhat distressing, I should probably add) twist. It's the characters (and some aforementioned thematic elements) that deflate my enthusiasm.
Though they are all more or less redeemed in the end, every character who isn't Norman is a one-dimentional stereotype. You have the Fat Sidekick (Neil), the Bratty Teenage Sister (Courtney), Goth Bully (Alvin), Dumb Jock (Mitch), the kind, yet passive mother, and of course! Everyone's favorite, the Mean Patriarch. None of these characters really grow though the story, and no, I don't count last minute changes of heart as character development. The only one I find (sort of)  realistic is Courtney. She is by no means a layered or complex character, but it makes sense that even if she's annoyed by her little brother, she would still defend him when it was important. Still though, until that moment, there was no indication that Courtney was anything but a stain upon humanity.
On the positive side, the production of the ParaNorman was amazing. Not just the puppets and scenery, but also the cinematography. I love it when non-live action films have stunning cinematography, and this is a really good example of that. It's almost worth all the crude references and tired clichés. Also makes you wonder what kind of movie this would be if the makers had put as much love into developing the world and side-characters as they had put into creating it.

The Verdict: B-
ParaNorman has terrific cinematography and a good premise. It's different from a lot of other movies, but sadly, in some ways is just like them. Despite marketing, this is not a movie for kids. I watched it with my teenage brother, but I wouldn't really recommend it for viewers under 13.

Later amigos,
-Monica