Coraline

KT and I went to see the film "Coraline" today and I really enjoyed it. The best thing about the movie in my estimation was the art direction, which was beautiful. I've seen the previous movie in the stop-motion style from Henry Selick, "The Nightmare Before Christmas" and I thought that its visual style, while interesting, was not particularly arresting. Not so for Coraline, perhaps as a result of the more recent film having the benefit of computer assistance to the puppetry. There were some wide-angle exterior shots showing the fog-shrouded, wooded mountains that framed the setting, and I thought that it was not only suggestive of such landscapes in real life but actually better looking to some extent, which is a significant accomplishment. Given the typical small, weak field for animated features this will probably be the significant Oscar contender in next year's Academy Awards, and I liked the art direction enough to believe it would win, even without having seen it's possible competition.

The story was good, which should be little surprise as it was adapted from a Neil Gaiman story. At various points it became one of those animated features to which people should not have brought very young and/or impressionable children, because I could see how one of those would be terrified by a few scenes.