| Audience: | Middle School |
| MPAA Rating: | Rated PG for thematic elements, scary images, some language and suggestive humor |
| Profanity: | Some schoolyard language |
| Nudity/Sex: | Brief apparent comic nudity (turns out to be a fat suit) |
| Alcohol/Drugs: | Brief references to being drunk |
| Violence/Scariness: | Grotesque and macabre images, characters in peril, scary and predatory spider-ish villain, ghost children, disturbing elements to the story |
| Diversity Issues: | None |
| Movie Release Date: | February 6, 2009 |
| DVD Release Date: | July 14, 2009 |
In the grand tradition of Alice, Dorothy, Milo, and the Pevensie children, Coraline enters a portal to a magical world that is both thrilling and terrifying, one that will both enchant her and demand her greatest resources of courage and integrity. And it will teach her that she does being given whatever she wants is not what she thought -- that what she thinks she wants may not be what she wants after all.
Coraline (voice of Dakota Fanning) is bored and lonely. She and her parents have just moved into a new home and she does not know anyone. Her mother (voice of Teri Hatcher) and father (voice of John Hodgman, who plays the PC in the Mac commercials) are distracted and busy with work. While they type away furiously on their computers about gardening, they never actually go outside and plant anything. Coraline meets her neighbors, a pair of one-time performers (voices of Jennifer Saunders and Dawn French), a man training singing mice (voice of Ian McShane), and a boy her age named Wybie (voice of Robert Bailey Jr.), to whom she takes an immediate dislike.
She explores her surroundings and finds a mysterious locked door. Her mother tells her since the house was converted to make apartments it only opens onto a brick wall. But when she tries it herself, it opens into a tube-shaped corridor that leads to a place very like but also very unlike her own home and neighborhood. Everything is brighter and more colorful. The mother and father tell her that they are her Other parents. They sound just like her real parents and they look like them, too, except that they are utterly devoted and attentive and generous, and except for their eyes, which are sewn-on black buttons.
The Other world is enchanting for a while, with all kinds of diversions and performances. Many, like the Other parents, echo the places and characters from home. But then it begins to feel too synthetic and a little creepy. When the Other mother asks her sweetly to replace her eyes with buttons, Coraline goes home. But home is not the same. Something has happened and she will have to return to the Other place for an adventure that will require all of her courage, perseverance, and some growing up, too.
Coraline must follow the storyline and grow disenchanted with the Other place but we have the luxury of reveling in it. The creepier it gets, the more mesmerizing the visuals, ravishingly grotesque and dazzlingly inventive when the Other Mother suddenly elongates, her cheekbones sticking out like flying buttresses and her arms and legs getting spider-y. This is the first stereoscopic 3D film made in the painstakingly meticulous stop-motion system in which no more than 2-4 seconds can be completed each day because every frame requires as many as a thousand tiny adjustments. The 3D effect is all-encompassing and utterly entrancing as we feel as though we are inside the Other world as its uneasy false cheeriness slides away and we discover what is really going on. Like her parents, Coraline has been separated from authenticity of experience, in her case because she is a child. But the journey to the Other world shows her that she has what she needs to become more fully herself and to find a more vivid and vibrant life in the place she once thought of as drab and uninvolving.
Parents should know that this film has macabre and grotesque images that may be disturbing for young or sensitive viewers, a scary spidery-monster, ghost children, characters in peril, brief apparent comic nudity (very skimpy costume on a very buxom perfomer), and some schoolyard language.
Family discussion: What did Coraline like best about the place she found? Why did she leave? Why did she go back? What was the biggest problem she had to solve and how did she solve it?
If you like this, try: Coraline
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Are u kidding me? This movie was amazing, and visually stunning! 5 year olds in the theatre all came out form the movie happy and energetic. Parents, keep feeding your children with Jonas Brothers concerts and see where that gets you. The concept of an evil force wanting to destroy a good person who in the end triumphs and becomes heroic, has been seen before. You all grew up with movies like Snow-White (old witch that gets killed and eaten by vultures) and Little Mermaid (so many half naked bodies that you wouldn’t even find in a strip club), so why is this a problem? 2 or 3 images could be considered disturbing but other than that this movie is a "horror" film for kids... Also Kim, instead of letting your child see the happy ending and that all is well, u leave your child wondering whether the parents survived or not?? Way to go!!!
Hi Nell -
Keep up the good work reviewing movies. I watched this movie with my 16-year-old daughter on DVD, and we both found it disturbing. I can't imagine a younger child enjoying this movie! Although the movie story is creative, and the artwork is to be admired, I thought the story line of replacing someone's eyes with buttons creepy beyond belief. I mean, really! Who thinks of those ideas?
By the way, I read your reviews for general advice on movies, not just for screening movies for children.
Thanks for the thoughtful advice over the years - Corinne
Thanks so much, Corinne. I am really happy that you like my reviews as well as my parental guidance. And yes, it does have some disturbing and grisly images. Nightmarish stories hark back to the oldest myths and fairy tales and according to many sources serve a cathartic function in the audiences. The persistence and increasingly graphic plots and images of the horror genre (to the point where I won't even see them) speaks to this, too, I think.
Dear Nell,
Thank you so much for providing reviews like these. I was a "sensitive" child myself, and my daughter is exactly the same. I was able to tell by the previews that this movie was definitely not for her, but I've used your reviews before to check out movies. Sometimes my family makes fun of me, but they don't understand what it's like to be so sensitive. Certain movies are quite terrifying to certain children, and I don't want to take her to movies that will upset her or cause her nightmares for weeks.
Your reviews are great, and greatly appreciated. Thanks so much!
Thanks to you, Jennifer! I am always glad when someone reminds the other visitors to the site that everyone is different, everyone processes information differently, and no one should tell anyone else what should or should not feel scary to them. "Sensitive" is a good word. Early studies show that different people actually have different portions of their brains engaged as they watch. "Sensitive" people engage the same portion of the brain that is engaged when something is happening in real life. This is a wonderful quality as it enables a very deep empathy and compassion. But it can be difficult to communicate it to those who genuinely enjoy intense, violent, upsetting content in films. I really appreciate your willingness to illuminate this issue and I hope you will comment often on the movies you and your daughter see.
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