"Giraffes don't just fall from the sky, Miriam."
There can be no denying, though, that this film happens to be a wonderful little Halloween treat. Much of it is charming. The use of a parallel world evokes Lewis Carroll as well as a much older faerie tradition. The animation is glorious, clever and creative while still doing its job of narrating an entertaining story. And yet...
What really makes this brilliant is how, despite its inevitable happy ending, it really leans into the darkness of fairy tales. The very concept of a parallel world, with an Other Mother and Other Father, that is much more fun that drab reality with vaguely neglectful, busy parents... but, as ever with faerie, with a terrible price. The very thought of having one's eyes replaced by buttons is... brr!
There's more, of course. Standout performances by (who else?) French and Saunders. The matter-of-fact treatment of a talking cat. The cleverness with which it all unfolds. But this is, above all, a perfect dark little fairytale for Halloween.
Funny enough, I think the controvery over Neil Gaiman did one good thing; it cancelled a musical version of Coraline (honestaly, so many things are constantly adapted to musical, it is getting tiresome). Regardless, even if he penned the book and script, I am one of those people able to seperate the artist from the art, especially as Gaiman himself doesn't even appear in the film.
ReplyDeleteI might be one of those people who found most things scary as a kid, yet was able to get along quietly as long as (when I knew when the scary parts would come). As an adult, gaining the courage to watch these things, Coraline and Monster House are proably the perfect films to introduce kids to the genre of horror.