This is Henry Selick’s (Director of The Nightmare Before Christmas) latest stop motion animated film.  It’s beautiful.  Absolutely gorgeous.  My husband and I thoroughly enjoyed watching it from an aesthetic perspective.

The story goes that a young girl named Coraline is unhappy with her family who are too busy finishing a book to spend any time with her.  She finds a secret, locked door that leads to a magical world where her “other” parents live.  Her other parents have plenty of time to spend with her and have even planted a magical garden for her.  And it’s not just her parents that are magical.  Her neighbors are fantastical and just what any girl would want.

But all is not as it seems.  This is where things start to get scary as Coraline is first trapped in this other world and then has to rescue her parents and several ghost children who are trapped there also.

I would recommend this movie for children 11 and up.  I don’t think my kids would have enjoyed this movie.  First of all because it moves at a very slow pace and then because the other mom turns into a monster and there are ghost children that she has captured.  It’s kind of like an old fashioned fairy tale where when you do something wrong you have to pay the nasty, horrible consequences.  It’s not sugar coated.  Coraline is apparently based on a horror novella (by Neil Gaiman) and it shows.

On a side note, because of the reference to The Nightmare Before Christmas and it being a stop motion film I thought Tim Burton was involved so I’ve been telling people this is a Tim Burton film but as far as I can tell, it’s not.  Which is I guess why it’s scary and music is not such a big part of it.  I did see a preview for 9, Burton’s new movie coming out 9/9/09.  I’m really excited about that one.  It looks really good.  It doesn’t look anything like The Corpse Bride or Nightmare.  It’s like an action movie.

Anyway, back to my main topic, I loved it but what did you guys think of Coraline?

This is my third adventure with Tim Burton and so far I have loved every moment of it.  The Nightmare Before Christmas is a stop motion musical film.  I didn’t know there was going to be sining so it kind of caught me off guard but in a good way.  I loved the music in this film.

Jack is the king of Halloween.  He lives in Halloween Town where they plan all year long to make sure Halloween is the scariest, creepiest, most oozing holiday to date.  The town is celebrating the best Halloween ever but Jack is feeling like he’s lost his purpose.  He’s just not feeling the love for what he does.

He wanders into the forest and finds the door to Christmas Town which leads to my favorite scene from the whole movie.  Jack is mesmerized by the snow and the lights and cheerfulness and goes back to Halloween Town filled with new hope.

Unfortunately Jack does not understand the meaning of Christmas and decides that Halloween Town will give Santa the year off and take over.  This does not go well.  Fortunately a rag doll named Sally is looking out for Jack and Santa cleans up the rest of the mess.

I do not plan on showing this movie to my kids because at this point in their lives they do not view Halloween as scary.  It is merely a time to dress like super heroes and get candy and I’d like to leave it at that.

For the adults out there I say watch this soon.  It is fantastic.  The two guys that do the voice of Jack, Chris Sarandon and Danny Elfman, are incredible.  I was totally taken in by their combined efforts.  I really felt that jack was powerful and domineering even though his body is so scrawny.

I realize I may be the only one that hasn’t seen this movie but better late than never right.  I 100% absolutely loved it.  Have you seen it?