Coraline!

Wow, this was a feast for the eyes. Who else saw it? I took the kiddos though a friend warned me they'd have nightmares. They were a bit scared, but they loved it.

I saw it. I thought it was really great. Did you see the 3D version? First 3D thing I've ever seen that didn't give me headaches.

I saw it but not in three-d. I dunno how old your kids are, Maria, but there was a youngster behind us who got pretty freaked out and had to leave. I'd say three or four years old.

Despite my years of Gaiman stanism (mostly behind me now, and wow does that look like a typo for satanism) I never read the book.

The movie struck me as a potential part of the Sandman universe in a way that the book never did.

Cyrus is 3. He's still not used to a dark theater and actually fell asleep in my arms before things got really scary. Rufus is 6 and was clutching my arm really tight. It's the next day and I've heard no complaints of nightmares.

I loved the interplay between color and b&w. The circus/cabaret scenes... omg.

3D? Oh I'm fucked then as I can't use the glasses (my eyes work *indie style*)

> It's the next day and I've heard no complaints of nightmares.

I'm sure that if you find some oversize buttons and squint them into place, monocle-style...

Saw it in 3D and adored it.

not coming out here til May but very very much looking forward to it.

Looking forward to this; the book's one of the best things Gaiman's done IMO.

generally fine; thought addition of the boy was unnec.

I saw it in 3D, then turned around and saw it again before they took the 3D version out of theaters. Gorgeous movie!

Was funny hearing John Hodgman suddenly turn into John Linnell during the musical interlude.

Heh, I also went to see it again in 3D before it got replaced by the Jonas Brothers 3D spectacular. It's the most gorgeous movie I've seen in years. I guess you get used to computer animation lookin' pretty good and then they come along with this cartoony and spectacular stop-motion thing and you're like "but it looks so REAL, how did they do it?" and then you think "oh, it IS real! it's a tiny set!" (The scene that made me do this is when she goes to the theater for the second time).

Also, the soundtrack is completely magical.

I saw this in 3d and enjoyed it very much - but was sorta disappointed there weren't more crazy ass 3d moments.

saw this yesterday in 3d.
i'm glad there weren't more "crazy ass 3d moments", (though if you wait till right at the end there is a fun 3d moment .. ), it was the subtle aspect of the 3d side that really made the film for me. the visual depth in the background/foreground.
absolutely brilliant film.

I just saw my first 3D film a week ago (Monsters vs Aliens) and this was the main trailer - doesn't start here for a week or two, but the trailer was great and I'm looking for excuses to see more 3D stuff, so, looking forward to this.

saw it in 3d. i guess it was pretty good. i wasn't crazy about the effects or the film really. an achievement of course, just not really my bag.

Just seen this today. Building on some underlying anxiety recently, I thought this was giving me the beginning of an panic attack - and had to dash from the cinema to the solid reality of a japanese restaurant. Quite a frightening film, but very impressive visually.

now a musical by Stephen Merritt and David Greenspan: http://newyork.timeout.com/articles/theater/74872/coraline-the-musical-at-lucille-lortel-theatre

After sitting through a number of trailers where the girl heroine was a 10 year old with golden curly hair (i.e. Amber), our Alice was amazed to see one whose heroine was a dark haired girl with a lopsided grin and a gothicky outlook (i.e. Alice).

(I know, it's one of those GCHGirls doing the voice)

still, Alice demanded to see it, and although some of it was quite scary for her, it's her fav film now.

I see there's an "Amber Type" to be the new Dr Who assistant...

I listen to the soundtrack to the movie Coraline constantly.

Coraline in 3D was the funnest and most awesome thing I've been to in years. Defs a movie I'm gonna buy on DVD

Her shirts and gloves were hand-knit!

http://charlottesinterweb.files.wordpress.com/2009/02/phpthumb.jpg

http://photos.latimes.com/images/_.gif

saw the musical last night; a faithful sort of fun, the songs are very Merritt. Jayne Houdyshell (age 50+) an excellent heroine. Feingold's rave in the Voice:

http://www.villagevoice.com/2009-06-10/theater/greenspan-and-merritt-s-coraline-does-gaiman-proud/

that looks awesome

Also, children would have to be Addams Family-weird to like this version.

(and by its very nature, it would never ever ever translate to a bigger venue)

Her shirts and gloves were hand-knit!

How is that possible?!?!?!!!

Just saw this the other night and loved it! I just wish I would have been watching it on something other than a 17" monitor screen.

Coraline's knittin' lady:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VT5MFdAB7fI

I also bought the Coraline figurines. I love this movie.

Great job I thought. I was a bit depressed last night and it totally cheered me up. Better than the overrated Nightmare Before Christmas.

Saw on DVD without the 3D. Still, dazzling! I think I like it more than any Burton I know, esp the overrated Nightmare Before Christmas

Henry Selick directed this one, not Tim Burton.

I know. I can still prefer it to Burton.:P

I cannot in fact decide if it's better than Pee Wee's Big Adventure or not.

I can

Henry Selick directed this one, not Tim Burton.

Henry Selick directed Nightmare Before Christmas too

The point here is that Coraline is Burton-free.

and, that it is AWESOME.

That is also relevant. Today I work I discovered we have a giant Coraline display! Maybe I will take it home and display it in our living room.

Today AT work

I'm bummed out that I didn't see this in 3d in the theaters- I figured the glasses wouldn't play nicely with my own glasses, either focus problems, or headaches, or just not fitting properly- and then found out (via Up) that not only can I deal quite comfortably with the current generation of 3d movies, they can be totally fucking amazing as well.

Loved this. Really, REALLY loved the music.

can't believe her clothes were hand knit, that shit's crazy

the scene where she first opens the door and the tunnel pushes inward (3d) i swear to god i actually felt the breeze on my face

Glad that lots of people seem to like this more than Nightmare Before Christmas - it's so much better.

hope neil gaiman made a shit ton of money

Think he's doing alright for cash anyhow.

woah i don't know about better than nightmare before christmas. uh ok it's probably a better movie but nightmare before christmas is like also one of my very favorite musicals; those songs get in my head all the time.

yeah i thought about that after i typed it - i forgot about stardust THE MOVIE all the comics etc

I never really got the big deal with Nightmare Before..., very stylish but not much substance to it. I absolutely loved Coraline, book and film.

Once you delete the TMBG song from the soundtrack, it is perfect for listening at any time, in any place.

yeah i thought about that after i typed it - i forgot about stardust THE MOVIE all the comics etc

oh man yeah, I forgot how this multi-millionaire ALSO had a flop movie adapted from a book he optioned to a mate for cheap, and got a 3% royalty on some comics that sold 60,000 copies 15 years ago - THAT must help him feel comfortable on top of his millions of dollars

It probably does, yeah.

I know, it would me too, just lolling at nickalish

Was Stardust a flop? Cost $70m, box office $135m?

def got hurt by shitty EL ad campaigns

today i set my desktop to be the wallpaper thats available from the coraline website.
ie. old fashioned wallpaper as per the house.
found them hidden away on the site somewhere.
from a distance it looks all flowery, but actually its bugs (i think)
whatever, it is, it looks great.

Can't believe how much I enjoyed this!

Finally watched this - visually, it's an absolute triumph and there were lots of things I really liked. But I just don't think it captured enough of the genuinely unsettling and spooky vibe of the book except for in very small areas. I dunno, maybe I'm too old, but then something like Svankmajer's Alice still gives me the heebie-jeebies so my imagination cannot be entirely defunct yet.

i think this film had plot problems. but it was stunning.

yeah - it feels almost churlish to complain because the work and skill and love that went into it is plain to see; the garden sequence, and the mouse circus in particular were just incredible to look at. But compared to the book where the plot and every element of it fits together beautifully this just seemed a little unfocused. And with the comments upthread I assumed there would be a few chills, but it just didn't happen for me.

god, what a miserable curmudgeon I am become. six year old niece *loved* it and really, that's what counts the most I think.

there's nothing wrong with being a little dissatisfied. kids are notoriously unfussy critics of movies (i know that parents assert the contrary, probably b/c they'd like to think their little kid is henry james or something--but c'mon).

well, small fry sat through WALL-E and liked it enough, but this she totally dug. "the best film I've ever seen" in fact. You're spot on about the reduced critical faculties of kids in most cases though, fact I remember being a massive Animalympics fan as a youngster and that is honestly dreadful.

My standard for viewing as a kid: is animated = will watch. This meant even the shittiest of two-frame-per-minute Bible cartoons was a more exciting prospect than the Three Stooges or something obv better but in b&w (which was a no-go).

so i finally saw this on DVD and it was amazing!

it was so much better than fantastic mr fox!!

here's a thing though.

the dvd version is blue/red 3d, was that the same kind of 3d it was in the theaters? or was it fancy nu-3d with the clear glasses?

cuz i felt it was actually a bit... well, not distracting really, cuz something about wearing the glasses really "locks" you into the experience, i find. but it also totally mutes the colours and makes everything a bit fuzzier. so i'm actually thinking of watching the non-3d version (included) cuz maybe it'll look better.

Yeah, we only watch the 2D version at our house. The 3d is pretty annoying.

afaik the fancy polarised specs 3D you get in cinemas is impossible to do with current TVs, hence the old-skool blur-o-vision coloured lenses. The next "big" thing in TV tech is claimed to be better 3D.

it was so much better than fantastic mr fox!!

― ankles (s1ocki), Wednesday, December 2, 2009 10:00 AM (7 minutes ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

MAN UR WRONG

x-post

and yeah, I watched it on (non-3D) blu-ray and it looked stunning, imagine the regular dvd looks ace too.

afaik the fancy polarised specs 3D you get in cinemas is impossible to do with current TVs, hence the old-skool blur-o-vision coloured lenses. The next "big" thing in TV tech is claimed to be better 3D.

― Bill A, Wednesday, December 2, 2009 10:08 AM (1 minute ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

ya so you're saying it was polarized in the theater?

Yeah, it was the 'fancy nu-3D' of which our Amber kept the gogs (heck, they charged extra for the film!)

Of course, they are useful for nowt outside das kino.

theater was Men In Black style glasses. I haven't seen a movie in red/blue in a zillion years

I think the last time was when they played some John Wayne movie on TV in 3D in like 1990.

red/blue is kind of awful.

even so, i really enjoyed it.

but it did i think distract from the visuals rather than enhance them.

but it does kind of piss me off that this movie is gonna essentially get kicked off of this year's top-10 lists by the wes standersons cuz no one will go for two stop-motion movies. even tho this one is clearly superior.

i loved me some coraline, but fox was mad better

in what way? cuz it looked like a '60s tv special and had futura?

maybe i'm just kinda pissed that wanderson basically shoved roald dahl out of the frame to trot out his exact same aesthetic dog&pony show.

this movie just felt so much more alive and not crowded with all those auterial pre-occupations

Part of this has to do with the wandersonian umbrella, but he def gave the characters more depth. And by that I mean, more depth than any of his characters have had in any movie since Rushmore. Plus the joeks were better

Coraline was an adventure tale, Fantastic Fox was a character study

coraline made me feel like i was watching something new, fantastic mr fox, even though it was a totally different genre—or medium, really—for anderson, felt stale. thass all

I like em both, but Coraline and Mr. Fox both sort of get caught up with third-act, climax-chasing problems.

it's the squirrel nut zippers of kid's movies. xp

if that's true, this is the evanescence

>Yeah, it was the 'fancy nu-3D' of which our Amber kept the gogs.

Bit off-topic, but my (other) 12 yr old niece and her friends have a current craze of wearing those specs (with the lenses popped out) when they are hanging out, goofing about on MSN etc. They filch pockets full at any 3D screening on the way out. I finally feel like a very old person indeed.

^ this makes me want to pop the lenses out of my Coraline RealD specs and wear them to work

100% w/s1ocki on this

The scene in Coraline where the whole other world goes away & it's just her & the cat walking around on this white background...so amazing.

i just got this for kids at random, not knowing anything about it. it freaked them out at times (voices from downstairs-- "ohhh no, this is scary!", but they are so into it. i thought it was fantastic, both visually and as a story.

we saw mr. fox and enjoyed it, but somehow i think rather less of fox after seeing this.

I made a toy monkey for my mom as an xmas gift, and I cld not use any of the buttons I had on hand for eyes bcz they were all black & therefore wld have looked like the "other monkey." Thanks Coraline, for making me have to go to the button store last night.

btw i watched this the other day and its ~*fabulous*~... really wish i saw it in theaters

plot-wise it could've been a lot tighter, but at least it had the advantage of keeping me on my toes, i never really knew what was coming next. teri hatcher was in way over her head trying to create multiple characters, but otherwise all the voice acting is solid

couldnt help but think the whole time how much it blew mr. fox out of the water... so delightful and imaginative, the exact opposite of the shittastic mr. fuckass. coraline herself being so well designed and well animated served to illustrate what a catastrophic decision it was to make the animals in mr. fox look like talking taxidermy... it just doesnt mesh with the principles of good cartooning, and it's one of the many decisions that made it such a soulless, safe, meek slab of dogshit.

i really want to see this, heard great things.

It is great, and one of the voices is Lovejoy!

shittastic mr. fuckass

So you didn't like that one, I take it? Weird to even compare the two, really, totally different goals and vibes. I enjoyed both, but I'm probably sooner to watch Coraline again.

i did a screening of this a month ago.. in 3-D! i say "screening" because a friend brought over a projector.

you need special green and magenta glasses for it, six of which i ordered from California. if any London ILXORs want to borrow them let me know.