CORALINE (2009) **1/2 Incredible animation. I prefer old school animation to the modernist computer-driven models, but...you couldn't do this old-style, this is historically brilliant animation too. And Henry Selick's imagery is incredible. It would work in any medium, here, there, Technicolor, black and white...it would matter, and it may well be that none of that would be a spectacular as this, but the eye is evident. I don't know to what degree this was considered-it was certainly an intentional subtext-but mirroring the film of mirrored realities, parents are given some insight into what they might move towards, and children insight into appreciation for what they have. Wow. That's a lot. My criticisms-which is too strong a word here-maybe have more to this particular film's allocated fate. As a medium animation is inherently inclined towards a light and playful wonderfulness, and this film is powerful evidence of that. Not that animation can't do dark and scary, but that's not its natural habitat. And so as the film turns the corner of a strong plot that's becoming apparent to the point that it continues to surprise but no longer shock nor astound, the animation loses some power in the transition from its natural strength to a surprising show of force in a less sympathetic state. The air never goes out of it, but the stars just aren't with it, as depicted it's more something to be worked through than celebratory. All that, and I love the idea of what the studio must have been like the afternoon Jennifer Saunders and Dawn French came around to do their parts. The way the cat jumps along.
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