>Coraline
Director: Henry Selick
Cast: Dakota Fanning, Teri Hatcher, Jennifer Saunders, Dawn French, Keith David, John Hodgman, Robert Bailey jun., Ian McShane
Rating: (PG)
4 stars (out of 5)
Review by Christine Powley
Coraline (Rialto and Hoyts) starts, as so many stories do, with an unhappy child opening a secret door into a happier parallel universe. Or is it?
Coraline (Dakota Fanning) has moved with her parents into a creepy old house.
Her parents promised her fun as they settled in but a work emergency has them chained to their computers, leaving Coraline to make her own fun.
While exploring, Coraline discovers a tiny door that has been bricked up and wallpapered over.
All fairy-tale logic should tell her not to go through that door but it would be a short movie if she was sensible.
That night a sweet little kangaroo mouse leads Coraline to the door and when she opens it there is a tunnel.
On the other side, a house just like hers exists except it looks like something out of a 1950s sitcom and there in the gleaming kitchen is her other mother (Teri Hatcher) cooking up a storm.
It is a child's delight except that everyone on the other side has buttons for eyes.
Coraline is having too much fun to care and in the morning she wakes up in her own bed, so she figures no harm has been done.
As she spends more and more time with her other mother she starts to realise there is no such thing as a free lunch.
To save herself and her real parents she must challenge the other mother before it is too late and she is trapped in the other world.
Best thing: The animation goes one step beyond simple gross-out. The alternative world is as much alluring as frightening, which increases the scare factor.
Worst thing: Coraline is not particularly appealing. It takes a long time to see things through her eyes.
See it with: Your daughter. Watching Coraline become disenchanted by her fun other mother may make her rethink just how much your parenting sucks.
