Not since Alice's fall down the rabbit hole has a young girl's curiosity resulted in such bizarre consequences as Neil Gaiman's acclaimed children's novel, "Coraline."
And not since 1996's "James and the Giant Peach" have we seen a Henry Selick directorial piece as visually spectacular as his adaptation of Gaiman's 2002 classic.
That being said, though, two rights don't necessarily make another right. Something got lost in translation. If the novel was a DVD player and the film was the TV set, Selick didn't plug in the audio cable correctly.
The outcome is a dark tale, shot in stop-action animation but emotionally flat in terms of dialogue.It's a shame because, short of Tim Burton, no one was more suited to adapt this cautionary confection than Selick.
Coraline Jones (voiced by Dakota Fanning) is an adventurous, blue-haired girl who believes she could do with a few improved adults. Her workaholic parents pay no mind to her quirky whims and needs.
Coraline's wishes come true when she discovers a portal to a parallel reality where her ideal "other" parents (Teri Hatcher and John Hodgman) exist, ready to appease her every desire for attention and sumptuous feasts. Free from boredom, Coraline is willing to overlook everyone's creepy button eyes.
Sumptuous, creepy and absurdly dazzling are also good adjectives to describe Selick's signature aesthetic featured in "Coraline." A credit to his mastery of color and abstract proportions, the film was shot in 3-D. If possible, gun for a theater showing it as so.
True to the novel's "be careful what you wish for" mantra, Coraline finds a sinister underbelly to this dream world. Her "other" mother is actually a monster determined to keep Coraline a prisoner by sewing buttons into her eyes.
Unfortunately, Selick, who also wrote the screenplay, diverts from the novel in troublesome ways. Saddled with an extra key character (a hunched kid named Wybie who is nowhere to be found in the book) and empty elaborative dialogue, the film falls short of its potential profoundness.
It takes quick-witted thinking and help from a snarky black cat (Keith David) for our young heroine to save herself from her "other" mother's spider-like clutches.It will take a personal re-write from Neil Gaiman for this critic to be completely satisfied with the film.
Grade: A+ for visuals, B- for story
Verdict: A dark visual confection lacking the sustenance of its inspiration
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