Coraline

So what is this one about?
Netflix tells us

Curious young Coraline (voiced by Dakota Fanning) unlocks a mysterious door in her family's new home and is transported to an alternate universe that strangely resembles her own -- only better. But when her Other Mother (Teri Hatcher) doesn't want Coraline to return to reality, our heroine must summon all her courage and ingenuity to go home and save her family. The breathtaking stop-motion animation is based on the best-seller by Neil Gaiman.

And how much did I pay to watch?
I saw this bad boy in 3-D because I heard that is the only way to see it. And 3-D at Cinema DeLux was $12. Or, at least it was on February 20, 2009...which was when I watched it (errrrrrrrrrr)

And what did I think?
Well, I think probably 3-D was the only way to see it. I've only seen a movie or two in 3-D lately (I think only Beowulf in Budapest) and this one was much much better. I think something that is a little more cartoonish is better in 3-D than "live action" movies (Beowulf wasn't really live action because it looked like it was computer animated live action...) Also, apparently Neil Gaiman wrote Beowulf...innnnnnteresting [Apparently the process is called "performance capture" and is explained here,

The cameras recorded real time footage of the performances, shots which Zemeckis reviewed. The director then used a virtual camera to choose camera angles from the footage which was edited together. Two teams of animators worked on the film, with one group working on replicating the facial performances, the other working on body movement. The animators said they worked very closely on replicating the human characters, but the character of Grendel had to be almost reworked, because he is a monster, not human.

Man, you're getting more production info than you'd have ever expected on this blog, aren't you?]

Anyway, Coraline was done in animated stop-motion

"an animation technique to make a physically manipulated object appear to move on its own. The object is moved in small amounts between individually photographed frames, creating the illusion of movement when the series of frames are played as a continuous sequence. Clay figures are often used in stop motion animations, known as claymation, for their ease of repositioning."

Interesting, right?

The 3-d in Coraline made it really spacey, and that is what the other world was supposed to feel like, so it worked really well. The story was interesting enough, but what I enjoyed about this movie was the way it actually looked. I mean, it was probably worth watching the movie just to see how it looked. Sort of like The Corpse Bride. I liked the other mother, and all of the characters in the other world.

I think this movie probably appeals to the kiddies who really like those spacey, sort of goth-ish movies and comic books. But for a straight-laced girl like me I liked the art of it all.

So what is the rating? (out of 10)
Yeah, so this def gets points because of how cool it looked. It gets an 8.

If you're gonna watch this you should watch it in 3-d...but now that it is out of the theatre I don't know how that is possible. Sad face for you...