by Donald Lind

Created on: February 13, 2009   Last Updated: February 21, 2009

"A twisted, mischievous cautionary tale; a stop-motion beauty-in 3-D!"

Henry Selick's latest film, "Coraline," is a thing of beauty. It is the first great movie to come out in 2009, and it does nearly the impossible: it spins an animated fable, a cautionary tale for kids that appeals to all ages and is just as imaginative and visually arresting, if not even better than the best of what Pixar has to offer.

While most studios use either computer graphics or traditional hand-drawn images to create animated life, Selick works with the rare medium of stop-motion. If anything, this is a more painstaking process than hand-drawing the images. Like the works or Roger Corman and the stop-motion and claymation effects of the original "King Kong," Selick's works just don't create images, with the interpretation of life behind the animated eyes; they are creating as close to actual life as one can, with detailed models. In addition to that, Selick's films, especially "Coraline," create entire worlds where literally anything is possible.

Selick usually doesn't take a whole lot of credit for his work as director of "The Nightmare Before Christmas," as it is largely perceived as Tim Burton's work and vision, and for the most part, that is true. But, Selick also infused that and his other works, this and 1996's "James and the Giant Peach" with a bizarre, offbeat visual style that is both weird and wondrous to behold. All three of these films feature the main character wanting something more out of an empty life and going on an amazing, if slightly twisted journey to discovering and achieving what the really want.

In "Coraline," what the main character wants is simply more love, affection and understanding. It isn't merely something missing in her life, but she wants to find her idealized version of her life. Selick uses this as a dark, cautionary fable; the old "Be careful what you wish for" and "You don't know what you got until it's gone" mantras apply here. It could very well be dark and scary for children and it contains a surprising number of adult themes.

Life in general cannot be drabber for young Coraline Jones (voiced by Dakota Fanning). Her family has just moved from her home in Michigan, to rainy, clammy Oregon. She lives in a pink, three-story house, where parents (Teri Hatcher and John Hodgeman) are collaborating on a gardening book. She wants desperately to actually work in the garden outside, but her parents, she believes, hate dirt.

The only people she has to talk

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