Coraline

If you compare Selick's Coraline and Burton's Alice in Wonderland, the winner is clear. The fantastic stop-motion animated Coraline wins. The film is visually almost unbeatable, it offers ten ideas for every minute, the few songs that are played are pleasantly crazy, the music is good, the characters are humorously bizarre... The problem is in the story, which is not uninteresting, but it gets boring at times, especially in the second half. But what the hell, I tell myself, it's a fairy tale. And a good one. Too bad it's not as adult as The Nightmare before Christmas... (18/08/2010)

I was a bit worried when the film was slower to start and visibly tried to engage my imagination and some of my patience with its story, but after a few minutes the doubts were successfully erased and I became increasingly satisfied with the final form. Sure, it's no Miyazaki, it lacks Danny Elfman's catchy compositions and the story doesn't sound particularly likeable, but there's still the charm, the imaginative idea and the very original execution, which is always the most important thing in animation. The Oscar nomination, in my opinion, is well deserved and pretty much says it all. (15/10/2012)

I made myself watch it and I feel like it's matured a little bit. I don't always let Gaiman get to me. There's still the contrast between genuine horror and pleasingly button-grotesqueness, but it's still great regardless. The stop-motion animation is also incredibly rich and imaginative. So why not? (23/09/2009)

At first glance, there were a lot of scenes that reminded me slightly of other films. The well where the key was thrown was reminiscent of The Ring, the metal hand was reminiscent of Freddy Krueger, and as a whole it felt at times like a mix of Alice in Wonderland and the gloomy atmosphere of Corpse Bride. But whatever! I enjoyed it. In terms of running time, it was adequate. The music fit the passages perfectly, and the characters were interesting to the point of bizarre (especially Mr. B and the other mother). I was thinking 4*, but I'll round up because this animated film was indeed my cup of tea, full of colourful bleakness and great moments. (13/02/2010)

A very pleasant island of stop motion imperfection in a sophisticated flood of silicon superhumans. Beautiful animation further enhanced by the 3rd dimension, very poetic decadent drollery and a very nice atmosphere. It's unfortunate that the musical accompaniment does not captivate as much as Elfman's songs once did. Coraline is more infantile than Burton's work and it doesn't have the sharp verbal humor, but despite all the plush, it is able bite nicely. I had a great time. [85%] (29/05/2009)