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Movies / On DVD / Coraline
Coraline

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Coraline (2009)

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Reviews Counted:211

Fresh:187

Rotten:24

Average Rating:7.7/10

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:08-05-2009

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
  • Pictures
  • 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
    >
    Way Too Old for Dolls
    >
    Mr B
    >
  • Meet Wybie
    >
    The Other Mother
    >
    Welcome Home
    >
    Bug Room
    >
  • RT Review Revue - Coraline, He's Just Not That Into You, The Pink Panther 2, Push
    >
1 - 4 of 13

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Reviews for Coraline

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1 - 20 (sorted by date; UK critics are listed first)
Text View | 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 >> >|
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If you're going to make a movie that doesn't quite add up to the sum of its parts, you might as well make sure those parts are beautifully formed.

Full Review Source: SFX Magazine | comment Comment
05/27/09
Richard Edwards
Richard Edwards
SFX Magazine

The film combines stunning visuals — there are scenes of incredible beauty — with good old-fashioned storytelling that is funny, inventive and at times scary. Destined to be a classic.

Full Review Source: Sunday Times (UK) | comment Comment
05/13/09
Cosmo Landesman
Cosmo Landesman
Sunday Times (UK)

The movie is beautifully crafted, but like the same director's other stop-motion feature, Tim Burton's The Nightmare Before Christmas, it will mystify and in some cases terrify younger children.

Full Review Source: Observer [UK] | comment Comment
05/13/09
Philip French
Philip French
Observer [UK]

It's easy to admire the film's psychedelic surrealism and its marvellous design, but it's not a great deal of fun.

Full Review Source: Independent on Sunday | comment Comment
05/13/09
Nicholas Barber
Nicholas Barber
Independent on Sunday

Here the film goes very dark but kids will lap it up, scares and all.

Full Review Source: Sunday Mail [UK] | comment Comment
05/13/09
Mickey McMonagle
Mickey McMonagle
Sunday Mail [UK]

This dark edge will be the biggest test of the film as a commercial prospect: it may be too terrifying for the target audience. But for braver kids – and parents – this is a thrilling, even challenging ride.

Full Review Source: Time Out | comment Comment
05/08/09
Tom Huddlestone
Tom Huddlestone
Time Out
Top Critic Icon Top Critic

Like the Tin Man of Oz, Coraline is a miracle of engineering - and absolutely heartless.

Full Review Source: Film4 | comment Comment
05/08/09
Ali Catterall
Ali Catterall
Film4
Top Critic Icon Top Critic

Technically, it's impeccable. But it’s madly out of synch with the 12A certificate.

Full Review Source: Times [UK] | comment 5 Comments
05/08/09
James Christopher
James Christopher
Times [UK]
Top Critic Icon Top Critic

Some scary fun.

Full Review Source: Guardian [UK] | comment Comment
05/08/09
Peter Bradshaw
Peter Bradshaw
Guardian [UK]
Top Critic Icon Top Critic

A gorgeously hand-crafted and pleasurably detailed piece of work. It’s also genuinely strange, creepy and arresting.

Full Review Source: Daily Telegraph | comment Comment
05/08/09
Tim Robey
Tim Robey
Daily Telegraph
Top Critic Icon Top Critic

The results are simply astonishing. Selick has created a richly detailed, beautifully realised set of parallel worlds and allows us to become as lost as Coraline herself in and between their exquisite textures.

Full Review Source: Little White Lies | comment Comment
05/08/09
Anton Bitel
Anton Bitel
Little White Lies

Coraline is more of an odd curiosity than a must see, lacking the storytelling innovation to match its visual panache.

Full Review Source: Digital Spy | comment Comment
05/08/09
Simon Reynolds
Simon Reynolds
Digital Spy

Endlessly inventive and impeccably realised, it’s tough to find fault with this freaky, feisty fable.

comment Comment
05/08/09
Neil Smith
Neil Smith
Heat Magazine

It's not really suitable for younger children but their elder brothers and sisters will be fiendishly entranced by the best children's movie this year. Naysayers can button it.

Full Review Source: Sky Movies | comment Comment
05/08/09
Tim Evans
Tim Evans
Sky Movies

Rich, ingenious and frighteningly close to home, Selick’s new nightmare puts him nearer to Guillermo del Toro and David Lynch than Tim Burton. See it in 3D. Then sleep with the light on.

Full Review Source: Total Film | comment Comment
05/08/09
Jonathan Crocker
Jonathan Crocker
Total Film

Admirably, it never condescends, and the subtexts about child abduction and the nature of maternal love identify Coraline as something measurably apart from what traditionally passes for “kids” films these days.

Full Review Source: Uncut Magazine [UK] | comment Comment
05/08/09
Michael Bonner
Michael Bonner
Uncut Magazine [UK]

Off-beat, weird, original, intense, stunning, jaw-dropping, enthralling and ingenious, this film is a beautiful piece of work that will hold your attention and capture your heart.

Full Review Source: Heart 106.2 | comment Comment
05/08/09
Simon Thompson
Simon Thompson
Heart 106.2

It lacks narrative drive, psychological depth and, most of all, warmth. This is a 'family' movie that offers an extremely dark view of human nature without providing much to relieve it.

Full Review Source: Daily Mail [UK] | comment 11 Comments
05/08/09
Christopher Tookey
Christopher Tookey
Daily Mail [UK]

It may be a little too complex and mildly disturbing for wee ones, but its lush gothic style and amazing effects will impress film fans.

Full Review Source: Sunday Mirror [UK] | comment Comment
05/08/09
Mark Adams
Mark Adams
Sunday Mirror [UK]

Coraline may end up as a cult classic watched by students rather than their little sisters.

Full Review Source: Sun Online | comment Comment
05/08/09
Sun Online
 
 
1 - 20 (sorted by date; UK critics are listed first)
Text View | 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 >> >|
all

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...

See All

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