Your Other Mother Loves You
I caught the late matinee of Coraline yesterday. 18 hours later, I still haven’t come down from it. I can honestly say I haven’t seen a movie that lit up my mental circuit board that way in years.
I loved it for being emotionally authentic without trading in phony sentimental flourishes, and I loved how relentlessly inventive it was, inventive in the way of that first Willy Wonka picture (Gene Wilder, not Johnny Depp). But mostly I loved Coraline for being so incredibly… itself. It isn’t homage, or a little twist on one of the half dozen usual stories, but its own wry, dark, clever thing. I’m so excited that someone tackled a Neil Gaiman story, and so clearly got it, managed to nail down the spirit of his work: both his sense of mischief and his playful way with the elements of fable and fantasy.
Pictures like Coraline come along very, very rarely. Go see.
February 7th, 2009 at 8:26 am
[...] Coraline movie gets a rave review from Joe Hill. Interesting. What with that and the Newbery and being GoH at Worldcon, I think Mr. Neil is going [...]
February 7th, 2009 at 8:42 am
[...] Joe Hill ist begeistert von Neil Gaimans Romanverfilmung “Coralina”, erzählt er in seinem Blog und bietet auch gleich den Link zum Trailer an: –>Bitteschön. [...]
February 7th, 2009 at 9:07 am
Neil Gaiman again, hm?
Looks like a very nice movie. Thanks for the hint!
February 7th, 2009 at 9:15 am
Haven’t seen this, but I’m dying to. Glad to hear it’s so good.
February 7th, 2009 at 9:39 am
Willy Wonka was the first movie I saw in Windsor, Nova Scotia, Canada when I was in Grade Five. It was magical! Today, Willy Wonka, the original, is still my favorite movie.
I had collected enough beer bottles with my sister to buy tickets. [Dad would drive slowly along the gravelled roads and my sister and I would walk the ditches with carrying potato burlap bags. That was when drinking and driving was popular.]
February 7th, 2009 at 10:28 am
I do want to see Coraline. Glad to hear it was so enjoyable.
***I still carefully unwrap my candybars (especially a Cadbury Fruit & Nut Bar) and pretend I am going to get that golden ticket.***
February 7th, 2009 at 10:50 am
I am glad to hear it is good. I’ve been dying to see it. I was curious whether you saw it in 3-D?
February 7th, 2009 at 12:10 pm
I can’t freakin wait to see this! We’re going to the matinee show tomorrow. The boys are at their dads today, or i’d be there NOW. And now that you’ve said even MORE great things about it, Joe, I’m more excited than ever to see it!
February 7th, 2009 at 1:01 pm
I wanted to put this in the post, but felt it kind of muddied up what I was trying to say. I know exactly what movie last grabbed me the way Coraline grabbed me – it was Lost in Translation, five years ago. Now Lost in Translation is abso-fucking-lutely nothing like Coraline. The former is an almost minimalist love story between an unlikely pair adrift in Tokyo, while the latter is a mind-blowing dark fantasy for the young (in 3D no less). The only thing they have in common is that both seem unlike anything else in recent memory; both are told with great emotional clarity; they’re both the kind of movies that make you love movies.
Okay, I’m done being enthusiastic for a while. Just wanted to say that.
February 7th, 2009 at 1:30 pm
Im glad that they nailed it.
February 8th, 2009 at 10:31 am
Did anybody else have to buy their 3-D glasses? I was just wondering, I thought for a matinee $10.00 per person was a bit much. We were going to go, but I don’t want to buy 3-d glasses that I’ll never use again… I know this may sound petty to some of you, but…that extra 12 bucks was our concession money, and what is movie if you can’t eat popcorn! =)
February 8th, 2009 at 6:06 pm
Any 3D flick costs more now….here, if we go to the first show of the day it’s only $6 for the 3D viewing. I hope to see it tomorrow morning!
February 8th, 2009 at 7:58 pm
Yep, we had to pay extra too. I wonder if we take them back for another movie if we have to pay again?
February 8th, 2009 at 11:05 pm
I took my ten year old son Friday night to see Coraline, we both loved it. Coraline was the first Neil Gaiman book I read…I picked it up in the library one day while my boys were looking for books and was hooked.
I made my son read it before I would let him see it, just so he would understand everything that was going on. We both thought it was terrific (I blogged about it too). I loved how every little thing in the movie was just something cool to look at. It was obviously a terrific story but also so visually imaginative.
The website for the movie is also cool, http://www.coraline.com.
February 9th, 2009 at 11:09 am
Yeah, i think its pretty crappy that you have to pay for the glasses.
February 9th, 2009 at 12:06 pm
You don’t pay for the glasses, you are paying for the added expense of the 3-D projection system. In fact, don’t they ask you to recycle the glasses at the end of the movie? I know there is a box for the glasses to be returned to at the end of every 3-D movie I’ve seen recently.
My family has kept one pair of glasses for each of us so that when 3-D DVDs come out we’ll have glasses at home. But once we all had a pair, we have returned the rest of the glasses at the end of the film.
Regardless of any of that, Coraline was the best 3-D experience I’ve had. Way to use 3-D to enhance the story instead of as a gimmick! A very memorable movie for kids and adults.
February 9th, 2009 at 1:31 pm
My wife and I are going to see Coraline as part of our Valentine festivities. Thursday.
When the book came out we spent the evenings before bed readinbg it to each other. I have been looking forward to this movie since Mr. Gaiman announced it on his own blog some time ago nad am happy to hear that they did a good job.
February 9th, 2009 at 5:31 pm
Well, if you have to pay for the added expense of a 3-D projection system, then thats worse. Will we have to pay more for every upgrade.
February 10th, 2009 at 1:11 am
I saw it yesterday too and LOVED it! I’ve seen the ‘Watchmen’ previews, and I started thinking about novels being made into movies. I feel that each medium has to be true to itself and not try to be like the other(I don’t want to see movies that show EVERY line in a book- hello! Twilight!!). I’ve noticed lately that I’m tending to enjoy movies made from short stories(Benjamin Button) or graphic novels(Watchmen looks good), but I hate full length novels that are put into movies(The Reader). There are exceptions, but I do think that -over all- when a book is taken into movies, they MUST rework it in order to make it good. Short stories and graphic novels MAKE directors rework them-
February 10th, 2009 at 9:57 pm
Well, golly gee, look at that! A pewnie wyobra! I was going to say that and now I can’t be the first. Oh well.
I did want to say that we didn’t see the 3D version because the closest 3D showing was over 30 minutes away which seemed ridiculous when there are so many theaters near us. So we settled for the regular old version, which still rocked.
February 11th, 2009 at 10:42 pm
The 3-D glasses aren’t recycled here. And they make you pay the extra even if you bring them back to watch it again! I’m only griping cause I think it’s just ridiculous how much it costs to go to the movies these days.
Anyways…I’m just pissed cause Neil didn’t invite me to the premiere…
February 13th, 2009 at 9:39 am
I saw Coraline. I liked it. I haven’t read the book though.
February 13th, 2009 at 12:15 pm
Joe, this preview (is it the one Neil linked on his site awhile back?) is a much more accurate representation of the movie than the other ones that were shown.
Originally, because of the previews, I was worried this movie had been made less dark for fear of frightening kids. When I saw it, I was pleased to find that, if anything, it is actually darker than the book.
I loved it for the atmosphere and for the whole sense of dread it builds. This movie made me feel like Nightmare Before Christmas did when I was younger. I am taking my young cousin to see it tonight before it is out of 3D theaters.
February 14th, 2009 at 1:29 pm
We went to Coraline a week ago. It was amazing. I bought Neil’s other book Stardust today. He is a very talented man. I am in total awe of his work. He’s kinda cute too.
February 14th, 2009 at 5:31 pm
I’m dying to see it!!!!
February 14th, 2009 at 10:06 pm
Francesca, I am obviously biased towards the movie because I love Neil Gaiman, but I can honestly say that man hasn’t written a bad story. Pure genius in whatever medium he handles.
February 15th, 2009 at 8:44 pm
I read this to the kids when they were younger, and one couldn’t bear to stay through it (I like to ham it up in my best Vincent Price imitation), but as teens, they both loved the movie. It was totally magical and the 3D felt natural and not contrived (no balls or yoyos, totally unrelated to the story, appearing to fly out all of the sudden for no reason breaking the third wall). It was disconcerting watching the sewing needle coming at your eye.
February 16th, 2009 at 1:14 pm
Yep, loved it and the fact that the 3D only gave it depth and realism, not cheesy effects flying out at you.
The needle coming toward your eye is awesome…..:)
Wonderfully made film.
February 17th, 2009 at 11:52 am
I thought the movie was very well done, but was disappointed with the deviation from the original story. I know it’s not always possible to be 100% faithful to the book, and I could even understand changing it to America. What drives me crazy is when they change the story for no apparent reason; when the original story would work just as well but they change it anyway.
February 17th, 2009 at 8:01 pm
I miss you, Joe. Your website isn’t the same without you. Peter Pan says Hi. I’m off to Never-Neverland now. Fond greetings to you, dear writing man.
February 18th, 2009 at 8:18 am
I like cheesy effect flying out at you. my 2 cents
February 20th, 2009 at 11:11 am
I can’t wait to see this movie. I think we’re taking the boys this weekend after we go meet George Romero at the local comic book store!. Hope to see more of Mr. Gaiman’s books set to celluloid, or whatever they are using these days. OOO The Graveyard Book would be exciting, but as a Mom, I was having a hard time listening to his readings.
Speaking of Johnny Depp, I just heard that Tim Burton is doing a live action version of Alice in Wonderland and he’s the Mad Hatter!
Thanks for posting this! Still finding it cool that 3-D is making a comeback again.
February 21st, 2009 at 1:16 pm
[...] If you have not see the animated film Coraline yet, do. Really. It’s a wonderful story with gorgeous stop motion animation and has an excellent soundtrack. Even the changes from Neil Gaiman’s original story I thought were done very well – they added rather than detracted from the story. It has easily become one of my favorite movies of all time. All around charming. Here are a few reviews that I agree with if you need more convincing – Tor and Joe Hill Fiction. [...]
February 21st, 2009 at 5:06 pm
We caught Coraline last weekend — and yes, paid the $12.25 each to enjoy it in 3D — and thought it a wonderful film. It’s nice to see an animated film done without CGI and stick to the original story material.
March 6th, 2009 at 12:35 am
Oh Man! I just saw Coraline in 3D and youre right Joe! its amazing!