Coraline Blu-ray
A little girl finds a parallel universe on the other side of a small door in her new home and discovers a whole world to explore but she should have left it alone.
Film making 12/25
Cinematography 12/25
Audio 18/25
Bonus Features 18/25
Total 60/100
Coraline, voice by Dakota Fanning, is a free willed kid who has moved to a new home and finds some interesting friends and a whole new world. She explores her new home, the Pink Palace Apartments, and finds a small locked door and a new friend Wybie or Wybourne Lovat voiced by Robert Bailey Jr.
When Coraline finds the key to the small door and discovers a brick wall she loses all interest in the door until a small mouse runs through the door. When the mouse sneaks through Coraline finds a tunnel to a new world that looks very similar to her own down to her parents.
Coraline’s parents, her other mom and other dad as they say have one major difference in this world, they have buttons for eyes. At first Coraline is intrigued by this world as her other parents are attentive, like to cook for her and spend time with her.
Soon Coraline discovers not all things are as they seem when her mom invites her to stay in the alternate world but first she needs to sew buttons on her eyes. Coraline refuses and the fun begins where other mom tries to lock Coraline up until she relents and lets her sew the buttons on her eyes, trapping her in the other world forever.
Coraline and friends from the alternate world help her fight other mom and send Coraline back as well as freeing others who have been trapped in that world. Coraline is a pretty good movie technically but the storyline is not very well thought out in the film.
The film is a good one that just does not get moving until more than half way with the fun and fighting starting about an hour into the film. The first hour is mostly Coraline getting to know her new home and the friends and neighbors in the apartment as she explores both worlds.
It almost seems like they wanted to really show the world and 3D images of the film and show off the technical aspects of the stop motion movie. Coraline gets actually boring and I was just wondering when the movie would get going.
Coraline is an overall average film and even though it may seem to be geared toward kids they would probably have them wondering the same thing, mainly when the fun is going to begin. Coraline is not exactly the typical child’s animation film but caters more toward the adults who want to see a technically well made film.
The film has some great high definition aspects and does a great job of keeping the films mood and tone throughout but the story is one that I found lacking. The high definition transfer is great without problems and showing what really can be done with high definition.
The transfer was flawless and does really impress you with its vivid colors, well done stop animation and overall excellent vision of a pretend world. The film really does look great from the simple things like Coraline picking at her food to the circus scene with Mr. Bobinsky flying through the air with the greatest of ease.
The great looking high definition is marred only if you watch the 3 dimensional mode of the film and its problems getting it to actually look like 3 dimensions. The 3D film has problems with a lack of the great vivid color that the regular film has and problems with dimensions and other things.
The 3D mode is more of a gimmick than anything else as you have to use those 3D glasses and they just don’t work all that well. The film in 3D mode has all kinds of problems like some objects don’t come together in the distance and ghosting as well as the lack of color.
The 3D is more of a partial bonus feature for kids than an actual way to view and enjoy the film but many will want to see the film in 3D mode at least once. The audio is also great in the Blu-ray version with really good surround sound and excellent DTS-HD Master Audio for a great experience.
The Blu-ray version of Coraline is technically a great film but I just was not impressed with the story as it did take a long time to get to the meat of the film. The Blu-ray edition comes with the 2D and 3D versions and a digital copy of the film as well as deleted scenes, an audio commentary by director Henry Selick and composer Henry Selick and more.
The extra contents are really pretty good with a great making of feature called Creepy Coraline and the U Control is actually worth taking a look at using three separate features. There is a picture and picture with behind the scenes features and the usual extra content as well as a voice over look at the actors as they voiced the film.
The third U Control feature is an animated feature that follows along with the film for a full length feature of Coraline. The other features are pretty good but the main ones are the U Control and the making of feature but the other extras are also well worth checking out.
While I did not really enjoy the films story the stop motion animation was excellent and overall you may want to check out Coraline and see for yourself. This is one film that is definitely worth viewing as a rental if not an outright purchase so either rent or buy as you see fit.