Coraline

Post by **Ben** » February 1st, 2009, 5:26 pm

Nice!

Post by **Stratburst** » February 2nd, 2009, 10:34 pm

Blatant Plug Time: Suite 101 has an interview with Neil Gaiman, the author of Coraline, where he discusses the story, and talks about his relationship with director Henry Selick.

http://hollywood-animated-films.suite10 ... n_coraline

Post by **Ben** » February 2nd, 2009, 10:42 pm

Welcome!

I've merged your post with the Coraline thread we already have running.

Post by **Neal** » February 3rd, 2009, 12:27 am

I can't wait to see this Saturday! The early reviews speak high praise!

Post by **Rosengeist** » February 3rd, 2009, 2:17 pm

I know I don't post very often on here, but I just wanted to gush about how excited I am to see this film.

Watching the trailers and clips I am utterly astounded by the movement of the characters hair and clothes. they tend to be very stiff, which I can understand, but every once in a while they just trembles beautifully in correlation with their movements, like at 2:00-through about 2:07 in this clip http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=03yzQyrs ... playnext=1 . I think that's a pretty savvy handling of the hair and clothes (specifically the hair in that section) movement. Certainly, it would be distracting and too difficult to animate the hair and clothes moving and sliding around on a persons body realistically in each shot, but it would feel wrong to have it be completely stiff all the time.

The color pallete is also really impressing me. It's dark, but not oppresive, frightening, but whimsical and inviting. I just am blown away by the way they have been handling the colors on the characters, props and sets (The lighting is certainly a big part of that as well.)

I can't wait till this weekend to see if it matche sup to my expectations. I think I'm rreally going to enjoy this. I hope it does well, it seems like it could appeal to the 7-11 set, as well as possibly some 13-15 and 15-18 year olds. Especially to kids who are into that kind of supernatural fiction like "Twilight" and "Harry Potter" that has been popular as of late. Certainly I think it's appealing to fans of "The Nightmare Before Christmas" and of course, Neil Gaiman.

Post by **Ben** » February 3rd, 2009, 5:59 pm

There's a <I>lot</I> of Nightmare in the production design, which I really noticed more of on my second and third viewings. Hopefully that won't rub fans up the wrong way who may see it as a NB4X-wannabe or clone (the way some - not me - saw Corpse Bride).

We'll never have another Nightmare - that was a magical lightning bolt of a one off - but it has kickstarted a whole sub-genre of stop-motion films that looks to be continuing in high fashion with Coraline, 9 (to an extent) and then Frankenweenie and whatever Selick comes with next.

Post by **Rosengeist** » February 5th, 2009, 12:49 pm

I wonder if that isn't a result of Henry Selicks involvement. He's not mimicing Tim Burton, at least, I don't think he is, but from what I've seen his own films tyle does seem to have that same kind of darker, whimsical, Edward Gorey/German Expressionism feel.

I agree that we'll never have another Nightmare. You can't predict or manufacture that kind of thing. It just has to happen.

Post by **Ben** » February 5th, 2009, 1:30 pm

I think essentially why Nightmare worked was the meeting of those two very similar minds: both Burton's and Selick's solo work echoes the expressionistic design, also a trait of longtime collaborator Rick Heinrichs.

Both had produced "Nightmare-ish" work before NB4X and obviously have those sensibilities. I would never think that Selick would purposely attempt to clone the Nightmare feel: watching his early stuff and later works like Monkeybone, there's a clear indication that Nightmare was as much about his styling as Burton's.

Burton too, of course, used stop motion for the effects in BeetleJuice, again very much in keeping with NB4X's gift-wrapped monsters and such. Perhaps if they got back together and worked on a single project again, we might see something close to resembling what NB4X cpatured. Individually, they'll continue to come up with some fine work of their own, but only they know why they don't seem to want to collaborate again after only two films (Nightmare and Giant Peach).

Post by **Rosengeist** » February 6th, 2009, 7:16 pm

Indeed. Though as far as I remember it really wasn't understood or even liked all that much by many people when it came out. I was very young when it was released and was banned for two years after it came out from seeing it because my parents thought it was so dark.

It seems like something that has developed it's popularity, and I think a large, large part of that is because there aren't many other films like it, an weren't for a long time. It's very dark, but it's a friendly, well meaning kind of dark. Other films of Burtons like "Beetlejuice" and "Edward Scissorhands" are too, but the titular character of the former film is kind of menacing, and I don't think stuff like "Edward Scissorhands" had as much draw for children because even though Edward is a gentle character he is similar physically to Freddy Kreuger (I thought it was a straight out horror film until I saw it). It also is pretty heavy on the romance which I don't think appeals to a young male audiance as much in comparison to other Burton works.

This doesn't mean that the audiance for his film is strictly a juvenile one, but I think many people who are Burton fans are that partially because they grew up on his works.

And well...visually, there really isn't anything like it. Even when I see people trying to mimic it, the result is poor. I think it's because they think it was just a Burton style and ignore the Sellick aspect of it.

I'm always suprised that people don't seem to be aware of "James and the Giant Peach" I think because much of the visuals are more color intensive than NBC, few people believe it is a Burton/Sellick film. (Even if I thought it was one of the better animated film of the mid-90's_
It would really be interesting to see those two come back together though wouldn't it. They do seem to bring out the best in one another.

Post by **Ben** » February 7th, 2009, 3:48 pm

It seems, to me, that Coraline also shares aspects of James And The Giant Peach in the brightly colored aspects.

Yes, it would be very neat to see them collaborate again. I'd had my hopes up for Frankenweenie, but it seems the team who did Corpse Bride is behind that, albeit again for Disney.

I'm hoping (against probability) that Coraline is big enough of a hit to register with Universal/Focus and allow Selick and his Laika team to develop another one.

Post by **Rodney** » February 7th, 2009, 5:39 pm

Boxofficeguru is reporting an estimated 14-16 million over the weekend. That's good, although not great. I think it exceeds expectations though. It could be the number two movie this weekend here in the US which I think is pretty good.

Post by **Neal** » February 7th, 2009, 9:28 pm

I proposed this at another forum: Disney absorbs LAIKA ala what they did with Pixar. Disney themselves will/may have traditional animation covered with their own studio, Pixar handles CGI, ImageMovers Digital has got Motion Capture taken covered. That leaves stop motion. With Selick's TNBC and JatJP both being Disney banner releases, it seems his home could naturally be Disney.

Post by **Meg** » February 7th, 2009, 10:11 pm

Saw this yesterday - have to say I really enjoyed it! More than Nightmare even, which I find to be a little overrated. Hopefully will see Coraline again sometime soon, possibly in 3-D!

Post by **Neal** » February 7th, 2009, 10:18 pm

My parents are taking me to see it in 3D for my birthday. It'll be my first 3D film experience. I hope it's as good as I'm hyped for.

Post by **Cinderallaboi** » February 8th, 2009, 3:13 am

omg i saw it in 3D i really liked it just that the ending should of worked out better but it was goo if you going to see this go see it in 3D and the 3D glasses they give you you get to keep them

Coraline

Neil Gaiman discusses Coraline