Coraline - She's as cute as a button (in the eyes)

In the mood for a charming, visually mesmerizing movie with a hint of nostalgia and a heap of unsettling creepiness?

Coraline is the film adaptation of a fantasy/horror novella by Neil Gaiman, directed by Henry Selick. Selick is the man behind The Nightmare Before Christmas, James and the Giant Peach, Monkeybone (guilty pleasure), and more. The plot of the movie involves a young girl who, while wandering around her new house out of boredom, stumbles upon another world. A world where her doppelganger parents don't neglect her, where everyone she meets is fun and interesting, and where everything is eerily similar to her real life - only much better. Coraline falls in love with this new world, until things begin to go awry and she finds out the hard way that not everything is as it seems.

Henry Selick is known for his dazzling visuals, and this movie truly exemplifies this. With four years of work put into production and more than 500 people involved in the making of it, Coraline is a surreal, yet beautiful painting put into motion. Each character and set is so bizarrely designed, but at the same time they all fit together to create a brilliantly displayed piece of work. Selick has evolved his craft incredibly; all of the animation in this movie is crisper and smoother than ever.

I was surprised to find just how well each piece of music fit into the movie, with an enchanting score from Bruno Coulais, and even a tiny bit from They Might Be Giants. Coulais' theme for the movie is easily comparable to Danny Elfman's score from The Nightmare Before Christmas, as they have a catchy, sad and unique feeling to them. The music from TMBG is also well-placed, with its own brand of catchiness to it. I should also note that the lyrics to their piece are just so terribly clever and fitting.

The movie manages to keep a very disturbing feeling to it. There's a very chilling, unsettling feeling to some scenes, and it all culminates about three-quarters into the film. For a kids movie, it was very surprising to find as many things as creepy as I did. This is partially because of Selick's knack for being able to design some really disturbing stuff, but there's also a consistent atmosphere throughout the movie which really puts you on edge.

There isn't much to criticize the movie for, except maybe a few missing plot points. This is a fairy tale, however, so all that really needs to be said for anything questionable plot-wise is the word "magic." Besides, none of those are distracting enough to keep you from enjoying a dazzling, animated work of art.