An interesting film this, based on Neil Gaman's novel of the same name. Admittedly it's not the movie I actually headed out to see, but seeing as State of Play was sold out, I opted to don the old 3-D Gregory Pecks and give it a go.Overall, I'm impressed, but I have to say I more admired the movie than enjoyed it. Visually it has Tim Burton written all over it, though it turns out that it was directed by Henry Selick, who I think is a one-time collaborator of old Timbo. (Musically it sounds very Danny Elfman-ish too, but again it's not.) So, all in all, the weirdness and creepiness factor is comfortably cranked up all the way to eleven. And I have to say, this is a pretty darn scary movie in parts, so I'd be careful before I dragged too young a child along to it (well, unless they'd forgotten to do their homework) lest they be scared witless.
But, but, but... there's just too much of a lack of overall warmth for the main characters, I feel.
Still, the 3-D stuff is impressive.
How's the maths?
Well, as far as I can see, Coraline doesn't even go to school, so how the heck am I meant to know?
Indeed, Selick actually directed "the nightmare before christmas" - that iconically Burton cartoon look is at least as much his!
ReplyDeleteI'm a big fan of the book of this, and I agree that I didn't quite care about Coraline herself as much as I should have. She's not quite as lovable as the little girl in the book, though I can't put my finger on why.
Still liked it a lot, though.
PS: I agree about "the class", it's the truest on-screen classroom I've ever seen by some distance. I believe all the actors were actually real teachers and students from the area, or something...
I must get round to reading some Gaima... I've read "Good Omens" but that doesn't really count, does it?
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