CLICK HERE FOR BLOGGER TEMPLATES AND MYSPACE LAYOUTS »

Saturday, March 21, 2009

Thoughts on: Coraline


I have been quite disappointed in Hollywood in recent years. Apparently they believe that nobody is interested in traditionally animated films anymore and many are only producing poorly written CGI comedies that usually make fun of well-known material from other sources. So when I heard that Coraline was made by the same people who made Nightmare Before Christmas and Corpse Bride, and was going to be using traditional stop-motion animation, I knew I had to see it in theaters while I still can. So if I had to spend $5+ on a movie ticket just to show my love for traditional non-CGI animation, so be it. Plus, I kept hearing the movie was quite good, another reason why I wanted to see it. So when they where finally showing the movie at the local theater in town, I went and saw it on the final day it was playing (and my mom went and saw it with me).

It was quite nice seeing an animated film that wasn't a fully CGI one on the big screen again (last traditionally animated film I saw on the big screen was Atlantis: the Lost Empire by Disney, I think). The animation in Coraline is terrific and really well done! It was really great (creepy) eye-candy. Some parts of the film where done on the computer though, but they blended in so nicely with the animation it was quite difficult to tell the difference at times. I envy the folks who got to see this movie in 3D or at the IMAX screens, I bet it was really something to see. Then again, even though I went to a regular screening, it was still amazing visual-wise.

The story was decent too, much better than many of the animated films these days. It wasn't anything like Madagascar or the later Shrek movies where they where made just for laughs. There was a real plot in Coraline, and it wasn't bad either. I heard Coraline was based off of a British children's novel and It actually won an award a while back. I won't get into describing the plot, knowing how one can easily look that up on a site like Wikipedia. Lets just say it bears a slight similarity to Alice in Wonderland and rehashes the age-old quote "Be careful what you wish for". As well as, you should never trust someone who says that they are your real parents and have buttons for eyes.

Now even though the visuals where great, and the story was good, this is one animated film that I wouldn't recommend letting the really young 'lil kiddies see (under age 6). Its downright creepy at times and its bound to give them nightmares. It should be alright for older kids though, afteral, I grew up during an era where they made animated films like this regularly, and other people my age who saw these films back then turned out fine today.

If you love traditional animation like this as much as I do, please don't download it off the internet and actually view it the legal way by seeing this movie in theaters if you still can. If not, then at least rent the DVD or check it out when it comes to pay-per-view. By doing this it shows Hollywood that there is still interest in films like these. I thought this movie was worth the $5 bucks I spent.

One a scale of 1-10 (10 being highest), I give Coraline a good solid 8.

On a final note, I give you Chester the Bum (aka ThatGuyWithTheGlasses) and his review for Coraline....

1 comments:

Anonymous said...

Who knows where to download XRumer 5.0 Palladium?
Help, please. All recommend this program to effectively advertise on the Internet, this is the best program!