Coraline

(Image from Amazon.com)

We finally got around to watching Coraline.  Never having read the book (a shock I am sure after the opening post admitting to loving Neil Gaiman) neither of us were quite sure what to expect (though now we must read the book).  Overall it must be said that it was definitely a different sort of children's film, and parts might be a little scary for young children.  


K-- (okay, the button eyes freaked me the hell out)  I thought the film was absolutely delightful, an interesting type of story.  I liked that it might be a good film to remind older children that sometimes their parents are not the worst option.  My only complaint was that when gathering an item up, it was very odd, and much too simple.  The task was not difficult, it was overly simplified, and the voices were strangely repetitive.  I got bored at the point where she is gathering up the missing things that are needed to defeat "the other mother."  In the end, I enjoyed the film enough to want to read the book, though that will be another review altogether.  


G--I've been wanting to see this film for a long while, and K finally put it on to surprise me. I thought the film was too simple for adults, but too scary for kids.  It was overly simplistic in how she went from task to task to task directly, in such a perfectly linear fashion.  There was no breaks, no false trails, no story line.  I felt with the slightly simplistic sound effects and simplistic story line, I felt like I was watching somebody play a children's level video game.  I liked the atmosphere of the film, but it wasn't quite enough to overcome the story line.


Good:  Different idea for a children's film.  The individual characters were interesting, and we both enjoyed the voice acting.  Animation was fantastic, very engaging.  It contributed a lot to the atmosphere, sucking you into the story line.


Bad:  Too simplistic.  There was not enough character explanation (and there were some really weird characters).  


Final Rating: 6 cups of tea (with perhaps a scone thrown in, but sadly, no clotted cream)


(ratings are on a 1 to 10 scale)