The movie Coraline, directed by Henry Selick, who also directed The Nightmare Before Christmas and James the Giant Peach bases this movie off the book Coraline, written by Neil Gaiman. Although this movie is a very spectacular Halloween favorite, this animated movie teaches the lesson of appreciating what you have before you no longer have it. The main character, Coraline, voice of Dakota Fanning, finds herself feeling lonely when she is forced to move to a whole new town with her mother, voice of Teri Hatcher and her father, voice of John Hodgman. Her workaholic parents are to busy with their noses in their books to give Coraline the attention she really wants. Her only option is to explore her new surroundings. She quickly finds out that her neighbors aren't really on the normal side, they're actually quite bizarre. The one she picks up a weird connection with is Wybie, voice of Robert Bailey Jr. Through out the movie, Coraline struggles to get her parents to show their love for her. When she gets to live in a world with everything she wanted and the parents she's always wished for, she can't help but continue to go back.
See, the new house she lives in is very old and has been divided into sets of apartments. Coraline finds a hidden door at her house she can't help but want to explore. At night she wanders behind those doors and there were the things she's longed for in her life. In the "other" world she's always pictured for herself she has an "other" mother and an "other" father who want nothing but the attention of Coraline. The "other" neighbors even interest Coraline to the point where she actually enjoys being around them. Besides the fact that everyone has buttons sewed on as eyes, everything seems to be the same. When Coraline takes advantage of what they give her and forgets about her real parents and real life only bad news lies ahead for her. She's given the option by her other mother to stay in the other world forever if Coraline sews on buttons as eyes. When Coraline is not okay with the idea of that and tries to escape back to her real home, other mother shows her true colors and leaves Coraline feeling like she'll never get back to her parents again.In my opinion, I thought this was a very well thought out movie and I enjoyed watching it. The way Oregon-based Laika Ent. produced the movie it combines old fashioned stop motion techniques with the new modern 3D motion. The way the characters interact with each other make you not want to turn your head from the screen. The creepiness of the characters make you feel a little on edge, but that's what gives it that extra spice I guess you could say. I wouldn't recommend this movie to children because of the fright factor and the moral of the movie being that your family will not always be there. Many children probably won't realize the moral of the movie, but the fact that the other world had characters with buttons sewn on as eyes it could pose a problem for little children.
