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Movies / On DVD / Coraline
Coraline

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Coraline (2009)

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Reviews Counted:32

Fresh:25

Rotten:7

Average Rating:7.2/10

Consensus: With its vivid stop-motion animation combined with Neil Gaiman's imaginative story, Coraline is a film that's both visually stunning and wondrously entertaining.

Rated: PG [See Full Rating] for thematic elements, scary images, some language and suggestive humor.

Runtime: 1 hr 41 mins

Genre: Childrens

Theatrical Release:Feb 6, 2009 Wide

Box Office: $75,169,351

Synopsis: As covetous children are often warned: "Be careful what you wish for." It’s this very cautionary wisdom that sets the stage for Henry Selick’s CORALINE, an eerily eye-popping stop-motion animation... As covetous children are often warned: "Be careful what you wish for." It’s this very cautionary wisdom that sets the stage for Henry Selick’s CORALINE, an eerily eye-popping stop-motion animation tale of fractured dreams and families made whole. As the films opens, Coraline Jones (voiced by Dakota Fanning) and her parents (Teri Hatcher, John Hodgman) have moved into the Pink Palace, a once-vibrant boarding house that’s turned drab and dilapidated. As her parents work feverishly on a new gardening catalog, the bored and belligerent Coraline is admonished to explore her new world’s possibilities. Along the way she meets her fellow tenants, including two aging English showgirls and a mouse-training Russian acrobat, as well as an outcast neighborhood boy named Wybie. But it is a mysterious hidden door that most piques Coraline’s interest--a gateway to a parallel world where her "other" parents and neighbors live only to see Coraline well fed and endlessly entertained. All is not cakes and carnivals for Coraline, though, and the black buttons that have replaced the eyes of these otherworldly imitations hint at darker intentions. When these intentions are revealed, Cora and a friendly magical cat use their wits and willpower to defeat Coraline’s wicked "other mother" and restore balance in the real world. Based on Neil Gaiman’s beloved children’s novel, director Selick (THE NIGHTMARE BEFORE CHRISTMAS) uses the stop-motion technique to bring CORALINE to life with amazing visual and emotional depth. The result is a frightfully magical adventure that will give the whole family plenty to shriek, cheer, and talk about. [More]

Starring: Dakota Fanning, Teri Hatcher, John Hodgman, Dawn French

Starring: Dakota Fanning, Teri Hatcher, John Hodgman, Dawn French, Jennifer Saunders, Ian McShane

Director: Henry Selick

Director: Henry Selick
Screenwriter: Henry Selick
Producer: Bill Mechanic, Claire Jennings, Henry Selick,
Composer: Bruno Coulais
Studio: Focus Features

[See More Credits]

  • Trailers
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  • Part 1: Henry Selick and Neil Gaiman bring Coraline to Life
    >
    Part 2: Crafting the world of Coraline
    >
    Part 3: The Story of Coraline
    >
    Part 4: Meet The Inhabitants Of Coraline's World
    >
  • Part 5: Coraline In The Higher Dimensions
    >
    Trailer
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    Way Too Old for Dolls
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    Mr B
    >
  • Meet Wybie
    >
    The Other Mother
    >
    Welcome Home
    >
    Bug Room
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  • RT Review Revue - Coraline, He's Just Not That Into You, The Pink Panther 2, Push
    >
1 - 4 of 13

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Release:

Dec 8, 2009

[DVD Details]
 
 

DVD Features:

  • Region [unknown]
  • Collectors Edition
  • Collectors Edition
 
 
 
 

Reviews for Coraline

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1 - 20 (sorted by date)
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Employing stop-motion animation that renders human beings with the distinctive characteristics evident in both The Nightmare Before Christmas and James and the Giant Peach, Selick finds the perfect look to bring Gaiman's vision to life.

Full Review Source: ReelViews | comment Comment
02/25/09
James Berardinelli
James Berardinelli
ReelViews
Top Critic Icon Top Critic

A gift to imagination.

Full Review Source: New Yorker | comment Comment
02/23/09
David Denby
David Denby
New Yorker
Top Critic Icon Top Critic

Selick puts his real faith not in the gimmickry that Coraline's audiences will think they've shown up for, but in the stronger virtues that they'd likely view as old-fashioned: character, and story, and so on.

Full Review Source: NPR | comment Comment
02/06/09
Bob Mondello
Bob Mondello
NPR
Top Critic Icon Top Critic

[The] chilly visual vocabulary, along with a narrative that too often detours into ingenious irrelevancies, makes Coraline an object to be admired, but not embraced.

Full Review Source: TIME Magazine | comment Comment
02/06/09
Richard Corliss
Richard Corliss
TIME Magazine
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A a children's entertainment that's much too scary for little kids (ugly insects provide a pervasive visual motif) and too lifeless to enchant older audiences.

Full Review Source: Wall Street Journal | comment 12 Comments
02/06/09
Joe Morgenstern
Joe Morgenstern
Wall Street Journal
Top Critic Icon Top Critic

Coraline is a plucky heroine, and director Selig's imagination is indisputable. But the story falters in parts, and its dark tone could be off-putting for children.

Full Review Source: USA Today | comment 7 Comments
02/06/09
Claudia Puig
Claudia Puig
USA Today
Top Critic Icon Top Critic

This animated screen rendering of Neil Gaiman's masterful children's horror fantasy is so full of life and texture, it's almost gilding the lily to add the third dimension to it.

Full Review Source: Toronto Star | comment Comment
02/06/09
Peter Howell
Peter Howell
Toronto Star
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What a rich, strange vision it is.

Full Review Source: San Francisco Chronicle | comment 1 Comment
02/06/09
Mick LaSalle
Mick LaSalle
San Francisco Chronicle
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Nearly everything in Coraline has been painstakingly handmade.

Full Review Source: Salon.com | comment Comment
02/06/09
Stephanie Zacharek
Stephanie Zacharek
Salon.com
Top Critic Icon Top Critic

This is perhaps the most effective 3-D movie I have ever seen, with a sophisticated, involving story that will appeal to many adults.

Full Review Source: New York Post | comment Comment
02/06/09
V.A. Musetto
V.A. Musetto
New York Post
Top Critic Icon Top Critic
N/R

An extraordinary achievement that nevertheless falls short of its full potential, Coraline is absolutely worth seeing, for older children and adults alike.

Full Review Source: New York Daily News | comment Comment
02/06/09
Elizabeth Weitzman
Elizabeth Weitzman
New York Daily News
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A labor of love in every frame.

Full Review Source: Minneapolis Star Tribune | comment Comment
02/06/09
Colin Covert
Colin Covert
Minneapolis Star Tribune
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Coraline is a remarkable feat of imagination, a magical tale with a genuinely sinister edge.

Full Review Source: Los Angeles Times | comment Comment
02/06/09
Kenneth Turan
Kenneth Turan
Los Angeles Times
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It is a sumptuous visual feast and a perfectly enchanting story.

Full Review Source: Houston Chronicle | comment Comment
02/06/09
Amy Biancolli
Amy Biancolli
Houston Chronicle
Top Critic Icon Top Critic

Although fairytale, art and cinema references abound, Coraline is thoroughly and excitingly original -- and quite possibly the best 3-D movie ever made.

Full Review Source: Globe and Mail | comment Comment
02/06/09
Jennie Punter
Jennie Punter
Globe and Mail
Top Critic Icon Top Critic

Spooky, stunning and savvy, Coraline is one of those kids movies that makes you wonder if all the kids are going to walk out of the theater with hair scared white and eyeballs frozen in awe.

Full Review Source: Detroit News | comment Comment
02/06/09
Tom Long
Tom Long
Detroit News
Top Critic Icon Top Critic

The writer-director and his gifted animators impress with stop-motion detail. Yet Coraline is short on delight

Full Review Source: Denver Post | comment 4 Comments
02/06/09
Lisa Kennedy
Lisa Kennedy
Denver Post
Top Critic Icon Top Critic

Parents may need to give a reassuring squeeze now and then, but Coraline is the best kind of children's entertainment -- smartly told and deeply felt.

Full Review Source: Dallas Morning News | comment Comment
02/06/09
Tom Maurstad
Tom Maurstad
Dallas Morning News
Top Critic Icon Top Critic

Coraline lingers in an atmosphere that is creepy, wonderfully strange and full of feeling.

Full Review Source: New York Times | comment Comment
02/06/09
A.O. Scott
A.O. Scott
New York Times
Top Critic Icon Top Critic

It's not just the 3-D glasses that add an extra dimension to the horror and hilarity of Coraline.

Full Review Source: Rolling Stone | comment Comment
02/06/09
Peter Travers
Peter Travers
Rolling Stone
Top Critic Icon Top Critic
 
 
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Latest News for Coraline

December 10, 2009: Henry Selick Discusses Life After Coraline Opens in new window
He's had a busy 2009, but Henry Selick isn't resting on his laurels -- and as he recently told HitFix, one of the three projects he's working on is a reunion with Neil Gaiman. More...

December 02, 2009: Awards Tour: Annie Nominations, Up and Coraline lead
State of the art CG and stop-motion lead the way in the most well-known animation awards ceremony. More...

November 13, 2009: James Schamus talks Taking Woodstock - RT Interview
James Schamus might be a workaholic. If it's not enough that he's the head of Focus Features -- the independent imprint of Universal -- he's also an established producer and... More...

November 02, 2009: Henry Selick Talks Coraline, Future Projects, and More Opens in new window
If you're a fan of "Coraline" director Henry Selick's work, you won't want to miss this interview, which finds him discussing projects past, present, and future. More...

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