'Coraline' visually beautiful but emotionally dead

"Coraline"

Let's get something out the way. Coraline, the latest film from Henry Selick (The Nightmare Before Christmas) is not for kids. Don't be fooled by the stop-motion animation and quirky images. This fantasy film is creepy, haunting and filled to the brim with macabre themes not suitable for the youngest of younglings. So please, do the future of your child's emotional well-being a favor and leave the little ones at home. 

When Coraline (voiced by Dakota Fanning) moves with her writer parents to an apartment set in the middle of a dense, dense forest, the precociouspre-teen has trouble adapting to her new surroundings. Neglected by her parents with only the company of an odd neighbor boy named Wybie, Coraline is clearly an unhappy kid. (But really, who's a happy kid at 12?) Unable to fill love's void, Coraline wanders around the creaky, leaky apartment looking for any sort of entertainment. She finds it, discovering a small door that's been wallpapered over. Oddly, once the door is opened, all that's there is a brick wall.

That is until little hopping mice (indigenous to Australia , for those keeping score) come through the door to scavenge for food in the middle of the night. Awakened by the disturbance, young Coraline heads down to the little door and finds a long, brilliantly lit tunnel that leads to second little door. What else can a kid do but through caution to the wind and go? She winds up in a bizzaro world that exists in seemingly the same house. Bright decorations, the smell of good food and fun seems to rule in this world. But to Coraline, the most endearing part of this magical dimension is finding the polar opposites of her real parents: caring, fun-loving and have buttons for eyes.

Smitten by the care, comfort, and gifts given to her by her "other parents", our favorite purple-haired gal starts to make more and more visits to theparallel world. But the fun is short-lived as Coraline's new mother (both versions of her mother are voiced by Teri Hatcher) aims to keep the girl forever and replace her eyes with buttons.

Filmed in 3D, Coraline is a visual masterpiece. Beautiful and pleasant to watch yet edged with a creepy quality, the images act like a Rankin/Bass stop-animation production meshed with a Tool video and a poor-man's Grimm Brothers tale. Sadly, Selick's film doesn't capture the same intrigue as The Nightmare Before Christmas but will still pack appeal for goth kids. Visually outstanding but emotionally dead, the story spends too much time focusing on its menagerie of odd characters rather than the creation of a tugging storyline.

For those waiting for the mystical combination of a great film and 3D technology, keep waiting for Up.