Theatrical Review: "Coraline" 3D

I should come out and admit something right away: I don't like The Nightmare Before Christmas. And watching Spirited Away is akin to taking the GRE for me - my brain working so hard to reconcile oddities that I grow mentally exhausted. While I have a writer's imagination (for good or ill) there's something about a nonsensical universe where a dog becomes a flower becomes a friggin' balloon that's just a little too odd for me.

So, just know that I'm seeing Coraline - a film very much in Nightmare's tradition - through a filter of precarious tastes for the genre before you get into it.

I went to Coraline for two reasons:

1. I love Neil Gaiman's writing - American Gods is an amazing novel, and I'm working on The Graveyard Book now.

2. It is in 3D, and I haven't seen a 3D film since Jason Voorhees popped some guys eyes out in Friday the 13th: Part 3.

In this way - as a 3D film both well-written and well acted - Coraline is certainly worth a watch. The dimensions are very well used and not overdone. There are very few really "in your face" moments: most of the 3D is to add perspective and depth, complimenting the story and the visual affect of many scenes.

Again, this may be my rational side talking, but since Coraline really isn't a "kids movie" maybe some fantastic elements (like the creepy upstairs neighbor with more anatomical anomalies than a Bratz doll) should have been normalized and the fantasy left to the "other" realm.

When the illustration builds a reality we're used to - one of computers and bookshelves and leaky windows - something that smacks of Pixar, not Nightmare - then the introduction of something completely unreal (dancing mice for instance) just confuses.

Back to the 3D element: it seems that the movie was $3 extra, but that's for the film itself, not the glasses. The glasses are supposed to be recycled for later use. So - alas - having your own pair won't bring down 3D ticket prices anytime soon. I didn't recycle mine, but tucked them away ready to plead ignorance if stopped on the way out.

I'm perfectly fine with them claiming that the additional $3 doesn't pay for the 50-cent glasses, just so they are okay with me taking them if I want. I actually have Journey to the Center of the Earth 3D at home and wanted to see if the glasses worked. They didn't. I'll still keep them, of course, in case they work with, say, movies that I could rent which use the same 3D technology.

In the end, I think Coraline is a good film choice for 3D and the technology is worth the extra $3, even if Coraline isn't really my kind of movie; my ambivalence is a product of disliking the genre, not an indictment of Coraline as a film within that type.

I invite anyone who really does enjoy this sort of film to offer some commentary on how Coraline stacks up. Use the comment feature or just email me and I'll be happy to post it.