Rated PG
My rating: 4.5 out of 5

Whether you go through the looking glass, down the rabbit hole, over the rainbow, or into the labyrinth, you are guaranteed to encounter wonders beyond your imagination. These sights and sounds can charm your senses with the enchantment and wonderment of a beautiful dream. Based on Neil Gaiman’s imaginative novel, Henry Selick’s adaptation of Coraline brings the fantastical story to life with breathtaking stop-motion animation and lovable characters, as it carries the audience into a strange and enchanting world.

Eleven-year-old Coraline Jones (Dakota Fanning) has moved into an old, decrepit triplex home with her mother (Teri Hatcher) and father (John Hodgman), both of whom are too distracted with work to pay any attention to her. Their house remains barren, meals are poorly put together, and Coraline is crankily brushed off whenever she has a question or needs attention.

While wandering one day, she meets an irritating and talkative boy named Wybie (Robert Bailey Jr.). Although he is her only companion, Coraline prefers to pass the time counting the doors and windows of her new home—a task her father assigned her so he could write in peace. This activity one day leads Coraline to an exciting discovery: a tiny locked door that opens to a brick wall during the day, and transforms into a portal at night. Coraline awakens late at night and ventures through the portal into an alternate world, a world in which everyone has buttons for eyes.

In this world, her “Other Mother” affectionately coos at her and cooks delicious meals. Her “Other Father” is an effervescent one-man show, and later shows Coraline his Kool Aid-colored garden, which has been carefully planted to resemble Coraline when viewed from above. Each night, Coraline revisits her blissful alternate reality, and each morning she wakes with a disappointed sigh when she finds herself in her dingy old room. Her Other Parents finally tell her that she can live in this world permanently; the only catch is that if Coraline stays, her real eyes must go.

The film then bursts into a mind-bending nightmare that may frighten young children, despite its “PG” rating. Nevertheless, it will surely entrance everyone else. Although Coraline has obvious visual echoes of the Selick directed The Nightmare Before Christmas, it is entirely original and unlike anything we have seen before. Every second demonstrates the painstakingly careful work of stop-motion animation, which is the most notable factor of the film.

Stop-motion is an exacting form of animation, in which puppets are posed in a scene, photographed for a single frame, moved ever-so-slightly, and photographed again. The look and feel of it all is easily the equivalent of any computer-generated imagery. It perfectly fits the story, capturing the bizarre and horrifying elements while portraying them as a fairy tale.

The score, often resembling a haunting lullaby, fuses childish innocence with an underlying sense of the sinister and grim. The audience can appreciate the attention to detail and the combination can spark a passion for the medium.

Character development is important to this film’s success as well. The charm of each character is essential; the audience wants Coraline to be happy, and ten minutes into the film you will find yourself willing to follow this sassy little girl anywhere. Coraline can’t help but be charming.

The film serves as a reminder to adults that childhood is a time not only of fascination and allure, but also of fear. Although we triumph over our childish fears of shadows and nightmares as we grow into adults, their echoes can linger embedded in our memories. Somewhere inside of us, a piece of our child-self survives, to be beckoned with sugar and sunlight, or comforting lies. This film appeals to the older audience as it allows adults to relive some of those feelings experienced during childhood. Coraline stands as a meaningful, powerful, and entertaining film, daring to to tread the bitter path of childhood fears that leads us all to adulthood.