Coraline

   Want a fun, but kind of creepy, family Halloween movie to watch? Then the stop-motion film Coraline is the one for you! Coraline Jones, voiced by Dakota Fanning, is a 12-year-old girl who just moved to rainy Pontiac, Michigan, with her mother, Mel Jones, voiced by Teri Hatcher, and her father Charlie Jones, voiced by John Hodgman.

  Coraline is lonely in her new house, and her parents are too busy writing their garden articles for work to do anything with her, so she goes out exploring. During her adventures, she meets her upstairs neighbor Mr. Bobinski, voiced by IanMcShane, her downstairs neighbors, Miss. Spink and Miss Forcible, voiced by Jennifer Saunders and Dawn French, and a young boy around her age Wybi (stands for why be born?...sad huh?), voiced by Robert Bailey Jr., who in Coraline’s opinion talks way too much. During her explorations one day, Coraline finds a little door, and with much pestering her mother finally unlocks it, and Coraline discovers the little door leads to another world! The other world looks just like her real one, just...better. Her other father plays the piano, sings songs about her, and tends to a garden where the plants glow at night, and all together make up a picture of her face. Coraline's other mother cooks her delicious meals and wants to play games with her, no matter the weather outside, her neighbors want her to come over and watch the shows they perform for her,
and the other Wybie can not talk, which Coraline likes. In the other world, Coraline has found everything she wants and does not have in her real world. Sounds cool huh? Just remember, nothing is as it seems.

    One aspect of making a stop motion film, such as Coraline, is a technique used to physically manipulate the objects to make them appear as if they move on their own. The objects and dolls are moved in small increments between individually photographed frames. The dolls, or clay figures, are made with moveable joints, so the photographer can make the dolls easier to move and bend the way they need them to.

   Another aspect of making this film is the costume designs. Coraline is one of the only dolls that have a full wardrobe. Coraline changes clothes often, so the costume designers had to make several numbers of the same outfit. All the costumes were hand made; all the stitching, buttons, zippers, everything. The costumes had to have little wires in the sleeves and pant legs and hoods, so that it looked more realistic and did not just hang there. Since the set designers were still working when the costumes were being made, the costume designers had to be careful with what colors they used, so the characters did not blend in the scene background. The faces on the characters come off in two pieces, so that way the photographer can change her mouths expression, without changing her eye expression.

   Coraline was a great movie. It is a little odd, but it is very creative and has a good story line. It makes a good family movie, though it may not be suitable for little kids, it might be freak them out a little too much. And remember kids; be careful what you wish for.