Rating summary

Movie		4.0
Video		4.5
Audio		5.0
Extras		5.0
Overall		4.5

Coraline Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Brian Orndorf September 1, 2021

From Henry Selick, the director of “The Nightmare Before Christmas” and “James and the Giant Peach” (and, well, “Monkeybone”), comes “Coraline,” another foray into luxurious stop-motion animation and wildly imaginative fantasy visualization. It’s a gorgeous picture to behold, but occasionally fails to beguile, as the surreal nature of the material often overwhelms basic storytelling requirements. “Coraline” is an easy film to admire, but not always to watch.

Moving with her family from Michigan to a remote apartment building inhabited by demented stage and circus performers, Coraline (voiced by Dakota Fanning) is a curious girl, bored to tears with her new home and frustrated with her parents’ lack of interest in her adventures. Finding a small doorway hidden behind living room wallpaper, Coraline decides to investigate, entering an alternative world where her button-eyed Other Mother (Teri Hatcher) and Other Father (John Hodgeman) welcome her with open arms, giving the young girl all the attention she desires. While loving her adoptive family, Coraline grows nervous when she learns the price for such affection is the sacrifice of her own eyes and the imprisonment of her real-world parents. Working with help from both dimensions, Coraline attempts to escape her predicament, only to find Other Mother’s intentions go from loving to malicious the more the girl resists her company.

Adapted from the novella by Neil Gaiman, “Coraline” has been stretched out to a feature-length experience whether it likes it or not, plowing through expected and unexpected realms of the unreal. The whole package has been attractively manufactured by Selick, who delivers big on the promise of the source material by arranging a literal carnival of horrors to alternately bewitch and betray the titular heroine as she wades through dangerously flooded fields of the subconscious.

It’s impossible to deny the picture’s visual mastery, especially when the film is a proud member of the stop-motion animation club, forgoing routine CGI sheen for exhilarating textures and luscious artistry that can only emerge from this painstaking process. Selick masters a miniature world for the film, indulging reoccurring Gaiman themes of heroism and magic while furthering his own interest in creepy crawly creatures and bizarre Tim Burton-esque production design choices. “Coraline” is a gorgeous film, with layers of fantasy and spooky dimension joining a production already jam-packed with eccentricity and whimsy. While many are sure to disagree, “Coraline” does work wonderfully as a mute-button movie, getting away from the somewhat labored storytelling, keeping total focus on the majestic needlework visuals Selick portions out by the shovelful.

With Gaiman’s ideas lengthened, including the addition of slouching friend Wybie to help Coraline out, the picture has difficulty keeping perfect time. Most of “Coraline” seems to wander away from the central crisis more than it has to, indulging in Selick’s whirling psychedelia to a point of exhaustion. Meeting neighbors such as beet-loving Russian acrobat Bobinski (Ian McShane) and a pair of retired acting sisters, the buxom Miss Forcible (Jennifer Saunders) and the rotund Miss Fink (Dawn French), provide an excuse to get out of Coraline’s head, but their surreal tangents spiral out of control, some scenes to a point of unexpectedly macabre results that will surely inspire a few nightmares for younger viewers.

For additional information, please visit Kenneth Brown’s 2009 review.

Coraline Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

"Coraline" was originally brought to Blu-ray in 2009, and the disc was celebrated at the time. For this unexpected reissue, Shout Factory has not provided an updated scan of the feature, with the old VC-1 encode now an AVC encoded image (1.85:1 aspect ratio) presentation. A slight sense of age is visible during the viewing experience, but the grand technical achievements of the endeavor aren't threatened. Detail remains appealing, with this highly textured world coming through as intended, surveying fibrous hair and strings, smooth skin surfaces, and animal fur. Sets retain their weathered appearance, and fantasy realms deliver clear decoration. Colors enjoy the extremity of the production, which volleys from a colder, darker examination of Coraline's real world to warmer elements of other world fantasy, and shadowy events are preserved, without solidification. A 3-D version of the movie has not been included in this release.

Coraline Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

The 5.1 DTS-HD MA mix delivers an active listening event for "Coraline," finding surrounds capably handling dimensional scoring cues, weather and household atmospherics, and movement, offering some inviting panning effects along the way. Dialogue exchanges are distinct, with sharp, deep voicework throughout, securing strange accents and softer emotional moments. Music supports with authority, offering crisp instrumentation. Low-end delivers heavier percussion.

Coraline Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

• Booklet (ten pages) contains review blurbs and an essay from Peter Debruge.

• Commentary features writer/director Henry Selick and composer Bruno Coulais.

• "Inside Laika: Discovering the Characters of 'Coraline'" (10:45, HD) is a featurette that covers the production process on the picture, swiftly going through concept, casting, and technical challenges, showing off the labor of stop-motion animation. Interviewees include writer/director Henry Selick, animators Brad Schiff, Amy Adamy, Suzanne Twining, and Juliana Cox, supervising animator Anthony Scott, and lead animators Trey Thomas, Phil Dale, and Travis Knight.

• "Inside Laika: Revisiting the Puppets with Laika's Animation Team" (HD) highlights character and design decisions for "The Beldam" (1:16), "Mr. Bobinsky" (1:40), "The Cat" (1:12), "Coraline Jones" (1:15), "Other Father" (1:05), "Other Mother" (1:10), and "Wybie Lovat" (1:02).

• Feature-Length Storyboards (94:02, HD) presents the early hand-drawn vision of "Coraline" in its entirety, providing a fascinating sit for die-hard fans of the movie, who get a chance to see how certain visual ideas were developed in the final animation.

• "Making of 'Coraline'" (HD) is broken down into these chapters: "The Evolution of the Story" (2:42), "Character Design and Art Direction" (3:56), "Directing the Voice Sessions" (3:16), "Making Puppets" (4:30), "Coraline's Closet" (4:50), "Setting the Stage: How Does Your Garden Grow?" (4:12), "It's Alive" (3:19), "I've Seen Fire and I've Seen Fog" (4:01), "The Eyes Have It" (3:20), and "Wrapping Up" (2:03). The featurettes can be viewed with a Play All function.

• "Creepy Coraline" (5:03, HD) highlights the gross elements of the picture, taking a look at the creation and animation of rats, bugs, Other Mother, and Slugzilla.

• "Voicing the Characters" (10:47, HD) explores performances from the cast, including Dakota Fanning, Teri Hatcher, Keith David, Robert Bailey Jr., John Hodgman, Ian McShane, Jennifer Saunders, and Dawn French. Character profiles are shared and acting choices are identified. Footage from recording sessions is also offered, providing a glimpse of the process.

• Deleted Scenes (8:44, HD) are offered, with introductions from writer/director Henry Selick.

• Still Galleries are divided into "Behind the Scenes," "Concept Art," and "Character Art."

• And a Theatrical Trailer (2:25, HD) is included.

Coraline Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

Even if the bruised enchantment runs out of steam long before the movie ends, "Coraline" is a laudable achievement of animation and imagination, giving kids a nice roundhouse kick of unnerving fantasy, perhaps even inadvertently introducing them to the glittery highs and eye-clawing lows of an acid trip. It's a messy batch of insanity, but it's utterly beautiful.