I’m eager to hear from those who have seen Coraline.
The long (~5 min.) preview I saw looked really really excellent. I gathered it wasn’t a kids’ movie.
All of Henry Selick’s animated movies are smart and sophisticated entertainments, and I’m very much looking forward to this one. It’s currently scoring an 80 at Metacritic (for frame of reference, Milk is 84 and Dark Knight was an 82). Can’t wait…
I’m seeing it with my girlfriend for her birthday on Sunday actually! I’m really excited about it (although not nearly as much as I am for 9…sorry, I pimp this movie anywhere I have the chance even though I have nothing to do with it)!
I’m not impressed by the trailer. It looks like the movie is poised to be about 1/3rd as creepy as the book. I didn’t like the book very much, but the movie looks like it’ll be far worse.
I just got back from it. Fun movie! Cute, quirky, and more than a bit spooky, but I liked it. (I also liked Return to Oz, though…not that it’s that spooky, but, y’know, fair warning.)
The 3D effects weren’t as jaw-droppingly amazing as in Beowulf—at least a few scenes weren’t, or weren’t totally, in 3D, but it did have a good number of them, to be sure.
It may be a kid’s movie…but it’s certainly not a stupid kid’s movie. (Although stupid children might still enjoy it)
I give it three skulls. Joe Bob Ranchoth says check it out. 
P.S.: I think Mr. Bobinsky was wearing a “Liquidator” medal. Yow.
Whats a “book”?
‘A non-volatile, random-access storage medium. A book!’
– Blank Reg
I saw this today with a friend. We decided to see the 2D version because we thought the 3D might be distracting. I liked it enough, though, that I think I might check it out in 3D as well.
Saw this today (in 3-D) and very much liked it. Very dark and creepy - I haven’t read the book so I can’t compare the two, but I don’t necessarily know that I’d want to take my kid to this if I had one. Then again, I don’t think a lot of children are going to pick up on some of the subtleties that make it so creepy, so maybe it works out.
They better not screw up the game for that, because that seriously looked like a game trailer, I instantly thought “I want to play that” then “oh right, WATCH, it’s a movie… watch…”
Anyway, it looks interesting I’ll go and see it next week. Unfortunately I can’t do 3D because I found my Lazy eye doesn’t let it work unless they’re the high quality polarizing glasses (like the ones in Disneyland, they look like sunglasses), the blue+red ones do nothing for me. Or is that what they hand out?
You get the good glasses. They don’t do the blue/red things anymore.
I saw this today. I found it fairly absorbing, which usually doesn’t happen for me with kids’ movies. It’s nice to see a kids’ movie with a genuine sense of darkness and scariness anymore. They’re all so sissified now. I could see this scaring a kid the way the Wizard of Oz scared me when I was 4. It gives the kiddies an actual ride, not just pussy slow ride on the baby train like most of these cartoons do these days.
I actually found the story compelling enough that I forgot about the 3D.
We saw it last night, and really enjoyed it. It was just as creepy and dark as the book, and Teri Hatcher was voice-cast perfectly. Visually, I thought it was really beautiful, but not so stunning as to distract from the story. Some parts seemed as if they could be frightening for younger children, but that’s why it’s rated PG.
I’m not really sure how much the 3-D added, honestly (beyond a headache). The effects seemed pretty subtle, which was actually nice. It didn’t seem as if the story was written to have as many overly obvious 3-D bits as possible, which is something I’ve found to be the case in other 3-D movies. So, if it didn’t add too much, it didn’t distract, either. I definitely plan to watch the film in 2-D to compare and contrast.
Wow, 9 looks cool.
Your job here is complete. Consider me pumped.
It’s worth having a look at the short story that inspired Coraline, “The New Mother” by Lucy Lane Clifford, from 1872. The entire text is available on Google Books in The Dark Descent http://books.google.com/books?id=pNgZxdPETK0C&pg=PA50&lpg=PA50&dq=%22new+mother%22+clifford+turkey&source=web&ots=MJyee1-dAS&sig=2BX5VmfJgHwg0b8jsHvkXOMXc7g&hl=en&ei=cFuOSdLoGpmQsQPD7umWCQ&sa=X&oi=book_result&resnum=2&ct=result#PPA59,M1
Saw it today and enjoyed it immensely. Great story and visuals that had me practially squealing in delight. Some nice in-joke/homages - the name of the moving company is a tribute to beloved Pixar story man Joe Ranft.
Forgot to mention that I saw it in 2D. I can hardly wait for the current 3D fad to die the quick death it so richly deserves.
I’m not sure I can handle the movie. I was SCARRED FOR LIFE by the book - which I read when I was like, 26. And it’s supposedly appropriate for readers age 8 and up! I can’t imagine giving that book to an eight year old, I tell you what.
I just got back from it and rather enjoyed it. It was absolutely gorgeous (especially the garden scene), but I wouldn’t take a young child to see it. Sad to say, some parts even freaked me a little bit out.
Our daughter read this book in grade two or three. I was surprised that she didn’t find it at all disturbing – she has a relationship with fantasy that I never developed, or lapsed in me a long time ago. Anyway, no discussion of Coraline should be without this little primer:
[Neil Gaiman on the humble button](<div style=“font-size: 10px; text-align: left;”><a href="{Permalink}#disqus_thread">Comments (View)</a></div>)
This is good to know. I was wondering about taking my stupid kids to it! I have a 5 year old who loves scary and wants to see it and an 8 year old who is actually beyond his years in “smart” who doesn’t want to see it and is very easily scared by movies (hides his face when something scary is coming)… So, is it too old for a 5 year old boy?
I was the other way. I thought, “Wait, that was supposed to be creepy?” I didn’t like the book much.