Coraline

Being a fan of Selick's previous work on The Nightmare Before Christmas and to a lesser extent James and the Giant Peach, I had high hopes for Coraline. Stop-motion is easily one of my favourite methods of animation. The CG animation of Pixar and similar companies look astounding, but there is a certain charm to stop-motion that CG will never be able to capture. Plus, Neil Gaiman, the writer of the source novella of same name, is the author of the Sandman series of graphic novels, a series I am currently reading through and am enjoying thoroughly. So with that in mind, I was expecting great things from Coraline.

Visually, the movie was intriguing, but not much more than just intriguing. Some character designs were interesting, while some were just odd, such as the old lady with the impossibly large breasts. The stop-motion was amazingly smooth and was hard to tell at times that it was even stop-motion at all and not just another CG movie. If this movie is in fact completely stop-motion -- save for the few obvious visual effects added afterwards -- Selick is truly a master of his craft.

And since I had mentioned it earlier, let's talk about the 3D. I felt the technology in Coraline was very underused. Yes, all scenes had depth, and shots from the cliff-tops did instill a sense of vertigo, but so did the dive off Isengard tower in Fellowship of the Ring, which wasn't in 3D. However, some scenes would have felt differently had it not been in 3D, such as the tunnel Coraline must crawl through to visit her Other Parents. But the only part that truly gives you a sense that you are watching a movie in 3D is the credits. Basically, I'm still not sold on this 3D business.

The story itself is rather uninspired. Multiple times throughout I felt like I was watching a video game. Coraline essentially goes a fetch quest for the last half of the movie for three different items, and open receiving the first, she hears a voice saying "Yay! You found me! Now only have two more to find!" What I heard: "Thank you Mario! But our Princess is in another castle!" The plot is thin, predictable, and ultimately uninteresting. As I said, its one I've seen in video games throughout the years. It works in games because you're playing the hero, as opposed to watching the hero.

I hate bashing this movie, simply because I had hoped that it would be great. I was hoping that it may be the movie to change my mind when it came to 3D movies. It failed on both fronts. However, it is not without its point of merit: The animation is incredibly smooth. But would I pay the price for a 3D movie ticket if I were to see it again? No. Rent is possible, though not likely.

Final Verdict: 5.3 out of 10

Elgo Versus the Third Dimension

What is with the media's sudden love affair with 3D? It seems every second week a new movie comes out in 3D and there are many more around the corner. Earlier this year we had My Bloody Valentine 3D, which was met with fairly mixed reviews though slightly skewed to the lesser ratings. This coming weekend we have Coraline and in the summer we have Avatar as directed by James Cameron.

I don't have a problem with the occasional movie being shot in 3D, but the notion that there are those in the movie industry that believe 3D is the way of the future, that all movies will be 3D. Well, I have something to say to them: It won't happen. It is just not feasible to have all movies/films in 3D as they just won't work. Imagine a movie like Michael Clayton in 3D. Yeah. Wouldn't work.

And it's not just that. 3D movies will inherently be sub-par because they will always be full of cheesy shots that are blatantly thrown in to have something thrown out amongst the audience. Take this past week's episode of Chuck for example. It was a half decent episode, but there were a couple shots here and there of something flying at the camera that would have been shot differently had it not been in 3D. But that animosity towards Chuck versus the Third Dimension episode is due to the glasses not being so readily available in Canada (Safe to say my eyes were a little sore at the end of the episode!).

Now, before everyone says I'm just a nay-sayer afraid of change, I'm not. I embrace leaps in technology all the time...when they work. 3D is just a gimmick like the POV Cam from Blair Witch Project, Cloverfield, and Quarantine fame. When we first saw this style of shooting, we all thought it was a great step forward. Now any movie with POV style camera-work inherently has a strike against them because we've seen it so much. With all the movies coming out in 3D now it will only be a matter of time when people will stop caring, when people realize that 3D is nothing more than a gimmick.

That is why 3D won't work. It's a gimmick, a fad. And like all fads this one will fade. Which could be the reason why theatre multiplexes are reluctant to make one or two of their cinemas 3D enabled; because it's a phase. Maybe sometime during this weird phase we may actually get a 3D movie worth seeing. We'll see if Coraline falls into this category this coming weekend.