- Share This Post
- submit
- 9
-
Sparkle (0)
We are huge Neil Gaiman fans in this household, and Coraline is currently my six-year-old daughter's "favorite book ever," with her second-favorite being Russell's graphic novelization of Coraline, so there was no question of our family not going to see Henry Selick's new animated feature film based on Gaiman's book.
Neil Gaiman is an incredibly accessible writer for anyone with an internet connection. He blogs, he Twitters, and he uses all manner of social media, and uses it well. It was on his goodreads profile that I read the following update:
"CORALINE
the movie is out in the US this week. If you're putting it off, I
should remind you that we only have the 3D screens for another couple
of weeks, and then The Jonas Brothers 3D movie will come in and take
them over."
Putting aside how very, very wrong it is for Gaiman, in any form, to be usurped by The Jonas Brothers, this nudge was all it took for me to hustle my family over to an IMAX theater in the next county with all due haste, to be sure we got the full 3D experience. And OH, am I glad that we did! Before I say one word about the movie's content, please let me impress upon you that this 3D? Is not your parents' 3D. WOW. This was not about hokey, "coming right AT you" gimmick shots sprinkled into a "regular" movie. Selick used the RealD technology to give each and every frame of this film a real, palpable depth. It wasn't about fakey-looking stuff protruding into your space, it was about creating a world on the screen that looked and felt as if you could step right into it, if you so desired. It was, in a word, magical. If you intend to see the movie, I can't plead the case for the 3D version strongly enough.
For others of you who are deeply invested in the fidelity of book-to-film adaptations, there are some very interesting things going on here. At the risk of being slightly spoiler-ish, I think I can safely tell you that Selick's film adds a character, created from whole cloth just for the movie. At first blush, I was taken aback by this new kid on the block--a boy Coraline's age named "Wybie"--what was he doing there? But I quickly realized that Coraline spent much of the novel alone, and that we as readers were privy to her thoughts...and that this is tricky, at best, to pull off in a movie. So Selick created a foil for Coraline. All right, I can live with that. And he was a natural addition, not at all awkward. by which I mean that if you didn't know he didn't belong, you'd never know he didn't belong.
What DID bother me about the new character was that, by his actions, something of Coraline's self-sufficiency and courage, as written by Gaiman, was lost. When my six-year-old daughter made notes on Coraline for her goodreads page, she put it this way:
"I like Coraline. I hope I would be as smart and brave as she was, if I needed to be."
Notice that she did not say, "I hope that there would be a boy around to help me." The film makes Coraline just a touch less of a feminist, which may or may not be a big deal to the viewer. The outcome is still rewarding and thoughtful, and the message remains the same. At the core of that message is a struggle that I'm sure every parent will recognize at once, expressed artfully by Glennia Campbell in her review of "Coraline."
"Coraline's main complaint against her parents is a familiar refrain.
"You never listen to me," she whines to her mother. I'm not sure I
know any child (or adult for that matter) who hasn't said or felt that
sentiment at one time or another. What Coraline does for parents is to
point out that the simple act of listening, and not necessarily
indulgence, is what children really want."
One of the main issues I see and hear being discussed with this film is that of how "dark" or "scary" it is, and for what age range it's appropriate. Gaiman himself provided "The Wizard of Oz" guideline: If your child can handle "The Wizard of Oz," he or she can probably handle "Coraline." This is something that I feel is just going to vary widely from child to child, and you
