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Techtite's DVD Reviews! |
"Henry Selick not only proves he can make an enjoyable stop-animation thriller sans Disney or Tim Burton: he actually makes a film that rivals Disney and Burton's most recent works." --from the review ------------- Sidebar :: ------------- An Oscar For Teri Hatcher? If only it were possible. The voice acting talent Hatcher provides for this movie is absolutely extraordinary. Sure it didn't require her to act physically, though how many actresses could pull off the versatile voice talent she provides for this film, with no less than two characters, with one of these characters changing dramatically into no less then three different "personalities" in the film? It's hard to describe if you haven't seen the movie, though I'm just saying: watch the movie and then ask yourself why someone hasn't considered a "best voice actor" Oscar yet. After all; they have Best Animated Film, isn't it only proper they honor the acting talent, too?
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Coraline
Review by TechtiteAs always, a review of The Show and the DVD/Blu-Ray extras! The Show: I always love a pleasant surprise. To be honest, at first glance I really didn't expect much here. Sure it is a film directed by the same guy who helped Tim Burton put The Nightmare Before Christmas into cinematic stop-motion history, though could Henry Selick make an effective stop-animation thriller without Tim Burton assisting at all? The answer is a fervent YES. Coraline is, without a doubt, a very rare gem.Sure that last line may be hard for some to swallow, for a film not made by Disney, nor Pixar, nor Tim Burton. It also deserves mentioning that not unlike Nightmare Before Christmas: some scenes of this "children's movie" may be too intense for very young tots, and too “animated” for very old (and frankly way too stuffy) adults, who insist they’re too "old" for animated movies, whatever that means. Yet for everyone else, Coraline is an imaginative story with spot-on-perfect voice acting and visually stunning stop-motion animation. Though don’t take just my word for it: as of this DVD/Blu-Ray review’s posting, out of an astounding 207 critical reviews tallied by Rotten Tomatoes, 88% loved it. That’s a RT score that even most Oscar winning movies do not achieve. Based on the brilliantly written children’s book by Neil Gaiman, Coraline Jones (voiced by Dakota Fanning) is the typical young girl with the not-so-perfect family life. While there’s a Russian acrobat living in the loft above, and two retired stage dancers living in the loft below, Coraline's own life in between seems rather lonely, with two parents who are so busy with their work that they barely spend time with her. All she wishes for is a pair of parents who would play games with her and never want her to go away. As the old saying goes: be careful what you wish for! Coraline quickly discovers a strange child sized door that someone seemingly tried to brick up and cover with wallpaper. Strangely, upon nightfall, the bricks have vanished and as any curious child would do, Coraline enters the strange doorway into a seemingly mirror-opposite of her own world. There are two major differences: for one, everyone in this world has buttons for eyes. The other difference is how her “other mom” and “other dad” are doting parents who fulfill Coraline’s every dream. One of many fun elements of this story is seeing how each person in the "real" world is depicted in the supposedly "perfect" other world. One minute Coraline is in the real world, talking to two elderly stage actresses from way-back-when (hilariously voiced by Britain’s real-life comedienne duo Dawn French and Jennifer Saunders). Then she’s in the “other” world, and the old ladies are athletic, agile, and hamming it up as a bunch of daring stage acrobats. It seems like everyone in the real world has a perfect "copy" in the other world. Yet what happens when this "perfect" other world doesn't want Coraline to go away...ever? That last question might seem a bit foreboding, though it’s actually done quite brilliantly. How brilliantly? Let's put it this way: if you hadn't told me that Tim Burton had no hand in this movie, I would never have guessed, and I mean that as the best compliment possible. You might think that director Selick bit off more than he could chew here, with neither Disney studios nor Tim Burton helping him this time around. That’s where you would not only be wrong: in fact, I'd dare wonder if Coraline was a film that either Disney or Burton could have done as well. Seriously! You see; by the midpoint of this movie the story takes a decidedly macabre turn where the dream world becomes a nightmare. The transition is brilliant, smooth, and totally engrossing, though it’s a transition the above two parties would’ve had problems with. Disney studios would’ve made the first half of the movie too cheerful, and not made the second half foreboding enough. Tim Burton would’ve made the darker moments easy as pie, though he has trouble making sweet moments seem actually, well, “sweet” (one of many reasons his remake of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory was a bit too...saccharine). Accolades must also be given to the brilliant voice casting. Teri Hatcher voices both Coraline’s real-world mother and the mysterious so-called “other mother,” and it’s her part that is most challenging, because the mother/daughter relationship here is pivotal to the entire film. As dreams slowly become nightmares, the “other mother” must almost instantaneously turn from a sort of 1950's sitcom mother stereotype, into a dark and foreboding villainess. Teri Hatcher performs the role transition so brilliantly you’ll wish there was an Oscar for Best Voice Actress (see sidebar for a larger rant about this!). Yet to be fair; all the voice talent is well chosen here, and is one of many details that make this movie shine. Flaws are merely of the nitpicking variety. As expected this is not 100% true to the book. Some longer moments of the book are truncated to fit nicely into a 90 second movie. Other aspects are seemingly altered to make the movie popular to boys and girls alike (Wyborn, Coraline’s best friend in the movie, was not in the book at all). There is also the occasional animation glitch, which is understandable when dealing with hand-made, stop-motion animation, and not CGI. However at no point did I find such animation glitches distracting, so again: these are nitpicks. In conclusion, Coraline is one of the few animated works outside of Disney/Pixar that I not only liked; now that it's on DVD I found myself watching it three times in as many days, seeing new, small details I missed each time. Next year, I have little doubt that Disney’s “Up” will earn Pixar another Oscar. However, if Coraline were to somehow win the race against impossible odds; I wouldn’t be the least bit surprised. The only surprise would be if the film wasn’t nominated at all. Coraline is, by all accounts, a very rare gem. The DVD Extras: This is one of those releases that is offered in three formats: single-disc, double disc, and Blu-Ray double disc. As is the case: Blu Ray is the best bargain of the three, because you get all the extras that were on the DVD version, plus additional extras, plus a free copy of the DVD, and (for now anyway) an additional "digital copy" for either your PC, laptop, iPod, or similar video playback media. As for the single-disc: that's pretty much the edition you'll get to see if you simply rent the DVD, so if you're buying the movie (and chances are you'll want to), then by all means get the DVD two-disc if you can't watch Blu-Ray discs quite yet. All three editions include both a regular version and a "3D" version. Of course I can't get into all the technical specs as to why this would be impossible to offer with even an HDTV system, though just in case you were asking: no, the 3D isn't as good as the 3D you saw in theaters. It is still surprisingly good though and people desperate to relive some of the magic of the 3D version should not be terribly disappointed. Extras include deleted scenes, though let's be clear: stop animation is a very long painstaking process so when I say deleted scene I mean "black and white storyboards that didn't make the cut." Oh well; it's the thought that counts right? We also are given a wonderful behind the scenes featurette, an even more fascinating featurette exclusive for the voice acting talent (seriously they really outdid themselves casting the voices for this film), and a separate featurette starring author Neil Gaiman and director Henry Selick as they delve into "The World of Coraline." An audio commentary with Selick and composer Bruno Coulais (no Gaiman commentary track? Aw!) completes the list of dual DVD/Blu-Ray extras. Blu-Ray offers some intriguing exclusives. One option allows you to watch the movie in Picture-in-Picture format, with a smaller screen showing the black and white storyboard animations that led to each scene. Yet the real fun of Blu-Ray is in the behind-the-scenes footage that can be played scene by scene. This includes anecdotes from writer Neil Gaiman, director Henry Selick, a majority of the voice actors, as well as most of the film crew. I liked how each major voice actor offers an anecdote about their character as soon as their character appears in the movie. Many of the voice actors return for additional anecdotes when something pivotal happens to their character in the main movie. While this sort of picture-in-picture video commentary is not uncommon for Blu-Ray, it's not as common as I'd like, and it's an awesome extra here. As an added bonus: Blu-Ray players connected to the internet (i.e.: any standard Playstation 3, really) connects you to "BD Live" where you can download an exclusive video "The World According To Henry [Selick]." Yet even without such extras this is a wonderful film and a great addition to any movie shelf. With its release relatively close to Halloween, it's prety much a must-buy to this Blu-Ray critic. 'nuf said there!
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