Koumpounophobia is the fear of buttons. It may be a bizarre fear, but, as Coraline"" opens with one spindly hand plucking the button eyes off of a doll, ripping open its face and removing the stuffing inside, the sight of the buttons being tossed aside will give you shivers. And once the movie is over, you may recoil a bit when you feel that big round button on the front of your wool coat.
""Coraline"" is the baby of Henry Selick, the director of ""The Nightmare Before Christmas."" The stop-motion director took the horror novella by koumpounophobe Neil Gaiman and brought it to the screen with visual flair and
enough creepiness to give even adults nightmares.
Bored out of her wits by her work-at-home parents, Coraline passes the time by exploring her new abode, an ancient house called ""The Pink Palace."" Eventually she discovers a tiny door behind the wallpaper, sealed with a lock opened by a button-shaped key.
Dakota Fanning really lights up Coraline with a defiant, wholesome voice-work performance of an imaginative child surrounded by people who have no interest in her. In her bright yellow rain slickers and chauffeur's cap, Coraline grips our hearts immediately as a girl who desperately wants to be seen and loved, but can't seem to find anyone in her world who is willing.
Coraline thinks she finds that person when the little door opens to reveal an apartment identical to her own, complete with parallel versions of her parents that, for some reason, have buttons for eyes. Coraline comes to learn that these other parents are more fun and interesting than her real parents. Her Other Mother bakes constantly, and her Other Father trades typing away on a computer for banging out tunes on a piano. Even the neighbors, eccentric and strange in Coraline's world, put on exciting performances for Coraline's amusement. The Other world of button-eyed folks is all-too alluring.
We're sucked in by this world along with Coraline thanks largely in part to the exceptional visual style offered by Selick's trademark stop-motion visuals. ""Coraline"" represents his most elaborate production to date, with detailed set pieces like a circus of mice with cotton-candy cannons and a theater full of terriers, complete with terrier ushers.
As you might guess, things aren't as they seem - ofrom the moment we see the button-eyed Other Mother and hear Teri Hatcher's voice turn from a harsh indifference to a saccharin-sweet obsession with Coraline's fancies, we know something is a bit off. When John Hodgman goes from the aloof dad who obeys his wife to the Other Father, he acts like a puppet being worked by the unseen puppeteer. Everyone in the button world is hiding something, and Hatcher and Hodgman really sell that sinking feeling that something unseeming is going on behind the scenes of the button world.
""Coraline"" is a modern ""Alice in Wonderland,"" both in story and visual pizzazz. It's likely too scary for the kids, but adults will thoroughly enjoy the eerie tale as it twists and turns to a final showdown with the button-eyed denizens of the dream world.
Grade: A
