Western Outdoor Times - Times Spent Outdoors: Priceless!

Publishers Note - This was written by Christopher Hernandez a student at Rio Salado College. Our category WOOT stands for Western Outdoor Other Times and we thought this was a well written essay.

What a great semi dark kids movie. Coraline is a movie based on Neil Gaiman’s novella with the same name that was published in 2002. It is a PG rating stop-motion animation movie. The movie was released in theaters on Feb 6, 2009, by Henry Selick. It is an amazing film because of the story, time and work, and many others will agree that it is great.

Let's start with the storyline for the movie. The movie tells the story of Coraline Jones, who finds a doorway to a portal that leads to another world inside her new home. There she meets her “other mother” and “other father”. Everything was completely different from her real world. Everything was more colorful, and fun compared to Coraline's real world. Of course, things can't always be happy, things become sinister and dark in the other world. Coraline must complete tasks to save her real parents, the “other mother” stole them and hid them. Because the movie turns so dark, this would be best for “brave” children. Something very different from the common kid shows. (Roger, rogerebert.com)

Coraline's real world is bland and dull to her. She has two female neighbors that live in the basement of the palace and a male neighbor that lives in the attic of the pales. Coraline finds them weird and strange. Her parents pay little to no attention to her because they are more focused on their work. Coraline also met a boy around her age as she was exploring outside the palaces. She also finds him weird but annoying. Once Coraline was in the “other palace” the “other mother” had changed all that in a way that Coraline would enjoy making her want to stay. (Roger, rogerebert.com)

Next up time and work. Coraline is a stop-motion animation film. Every little movement in the movie had to be one frame at a time. “Completing the film involved more than 500 people over four years (laika.com)”. So many people have worked so hard on this movie to become great. Keep in mind that things like limbs, facial expressions, hair, and clothing all must move. Even if it's just a little bit, every movement helps the movie come alive to the viewers. It is tedious work.

“Principal photography alone took 18 months (laika.com)”. Of course, it would take that long knowing that everything is in 3D. “LAIKA has become the first company to do a feature-length movie using replacement faces printed on a 3D printer (laika.com)”. This is a big step in making movies like this. “The fantastic Garden was the most complex set created for the film (laika.com)”. In the movie the garden in the “other world” that the “other father” made was absolutely amazing. So many colors and so many kinds of plants and creatures. Of course, that garden got a lot of attention in the making. Every little detail makes a big difference.

Last will be other viewers' opinions on the movie. Rotten Tomatoes says that 90% of reviews enjoyed the movie. IMDb says that the film has a 7.7/10 rating. Metacritic rating is 80% from the reviews. These sites are used the most by people to see what majority of the world thought of a movie. As you can see Coraline Is up there in the ratings.

Yes, the movie is a child’sfilm, but it was well crafted in so many ways. Going over the summary of the story and how interesting it is. The time and work, every little thing coming together to make something great. Other reviewers' opinions, majority love the well-crafted movie. Personally, the child’s film needs more recommendation.

Works Cited

“Coraline.” Rotten Tomatoes, http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/coraline

Coraline - LAIKA Studios, http://www.laika.com/our-films/coraline

Ebert, Roger. “Coraline Movie Review & Film Summary (2009): Roger Ebert.” Coraline Movie Review & Film Summary (2009) | Roger Ebert, http://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/coraline-2009