365 Days. 365 Films.

From the creator of The Nightmare Before Christmas comes a strange and dark tale about a girl called Coraline. After her family move to a new place, Coraline discovers a mysterious door which leads to a parallel world in which everyone she known form the real world exist, but they all have buttons for eyes. After her ‘other mother and father’ begin to treat her with the love and attention she believes she isn’t getting from her real parents, she starts to go through the door more and more into her alternate world full of games to play and delicious food to eat. One day, however, Coraline’s ‘other mother’ turns evil, trying to force Coraline to sew buttons on her eyes so that she can stay forever, and after the ‘other mother’ kidnaps Coraline’s real parents, she is on a mission to save the day!
The plot is a little weird, I grant you that, but it’s not complicated and if anything it seems like the simplest plot in the world during the film. It’s a simple adventure storyline in the same vein as Pan’s Labyrinth, but in the manner of a more stylish, knows what he’s actually doing, Tim Burton. The animation is very similar to Burton’s work but it seems to have a broader appeal, and although this is apparently for children, I think smaller children would have nightmares after it.

Beautiful animation with a hint of Jan Svankmajer – surreal, scary, but fascinating to watch.