Coraline: Pushing all the wrong buttons

By CHRIS TOOKEY FOR MAILONLINE
Updated:

Coraline (PG)

This fantastical, stop-motion animation is about an unpleasant little girl (voiced by Dakota Fanning) who is ignored by her writer parents, but finds a strange little door in their new apartment, which leads through a tunnel to a parallel universe.

There, much more appealing versions of Mum and Dad are attentive to her every need ...but can't wait to gouge out her eyes and replace them with buttons exactly like their own.

Made by Henry Selick in a spindly style reminiscent of The Nightmare Before Christmas, the look of the film has wowed most critics, but I have profound reservations. 

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I don't mind it being dark and creepy. Nor will children. Many of Grimm's and Hans Christian Andersen's tales have those qualities.

But, like other movies made from Neil Gaiman's novels  -  especially MirrorMask (2005)  -  it strives to be a latter-day Alice In Wonderland without having Lewis Carroll's playfulness or wit. 

It lacks narrative drive, psychological depth and, most of all, warmth. This is a 'family' movie that offers an extremely dark view of human nature without providing much to relieve it.

Our heroine's choice is between parents who ignore her and doppelgangers who wish her harm. It's enough to give any sensitive child nightmares.

Structurally, too, it's flawed. Director-screenwriter Selick falls so in love with his own visuals that the first 80 minutes pass far too slowly.

Then, when the story does gather pace and the child embarks on a desperate quest, the story operates under a set of rules that are unintelligible.

The result is a picture which may impress arty adults but will leave many discerning children, and responsible parents, cold. It's an imaginative but nasty piece of work.

Verdict: Cold, sinister art-house movie, and is it really for children?

Rating: 2 Star Rating

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