Movie preview and whatnot
Jan. 16th, 2009 10:17 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
eee1313It's Friday! That is a good thing. I'm glad of it not because it signals the end of the work week, but moreso because it means I can stay inside under my electric blanket for two full days. It is COLD outside, people! Right now it's -9°F outside, but with the windchill it's -25. Blech. But today I prepared: long underwear, two pairs of socks, a blouse and sweater, a scarf wrapped around my head 3 times (thanks, ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
adjrun, for making it extra-long!), my hat pulled down past my eyebrows, sunglasses to protect my eyes, fur-lined boots, gloves, and newly-sewn tight buttons to keep my winter coat closed. Supposedly next week it's going to get up into the 30s, which means that if there's no windchill it will feel like a 50° change in temperature. Heh. Break out the shorts and flip-flops, Chicagoland!
In other news, my cough is almost gone. I am glad of this.
Last night the Scientist and I braved the super-cold weather to drive downtown for a preview screening of Coraline.
First of all, I have to say that I've never read the book. I own it, but I've never read it. Here's where I also go on a limb and state a very unpopular opinion: I don't think much of Neil Gaiman. I loved the first book of his that I read, Good Omens. But thenfishdoctorpost informed me that most of what I enjoyed (the footnotes) were Terry Pratchett's work, and not Gaiman's. Hrm. Then I read Neverwhere and wasn't all that impressed. I saw Stardust and didn't like it very much. And yes, I know, you can't judge a book on its movie, but there you are. Then Gaiman came to town for his Graveyard Book tour, and... Well, he did a live reading, and the whole time I couldn't help but think it all just seemed so very clever, and that Gaiman seemed so pleased with himself. I dunno, the guy just rubbed me the wrong way. Then a few weeks later I heard what the event staff had to say about him and his entourage, and it made me like him even less. But before that, I read The Graveyard Book and thought it was okay, but nothing spectacular. So put all this together, and it comes down to my not thinking that Gaiman's all that great of a writer (he relies on clever turns of phrases as humor far too often for my taste, and many times he just throws characters/objects/plots out there without ever explaining any WHY behind it). I also think he's gotten a very swelled-headed opinion of himself, but that's my personal beef.
So anyway, I will readily admit to going into this movie not knowing the story or being a Gaiman fan. However, the movie was directed by Henry Selick, who directed The Nightmare Before Christmas, and you all know how I feel about THAT, so basically I'm going in amped to like it due to the Selick factor. And you know what? I really did like this movie. It's a good, creepy children's story that's really fun for adults. The Scientist said afterwards that he's sure parents at his theater are going to complain that it's "too scary," but I say SUCK IT UP. Kids these days have it too soft in their storytelling. Give 'em a good villain now and again, really throw them for a loop. It's not childhood if you're not traumatized by a movie and have nightmares, you know? How many kids were freaked out generation after generation by the Wicked Witch of the West or her flying monkeys in The Wizard of Oz? Now how many couldn't sleep at night because of, say, the Bowler Hat Guy in Meet the Robinsons? See what I'm saying? Kids today have it too easy. Scare 'em a little, make them feel ALIVE, you know? Anyway, Coraline is very likely going to do that. If you are the parent of a small child, know that before taking them and be ready to be awakened to nightmares.
So. The movie is good. It's weird, it doesn't really make sense, but it's good. It's rather Alice in Wonderland-ish to me. Coraline moves into a boarding house with her parents, and she meets all kinds of weird people who make no sense. There's the man in the attic training jumping mice to perform in a circus. There are two elderly women in the basement who were former burlesque stars and stuff their dead dogs and put them on display. There's a weird dirtbike-riding kid in a skull mask who stalks Coraline. And then there's the door in the wall that leads to a mirror image of her home, complete with button-eyed parents who just may be EVIL. And then Coraline has to fight her button-eyed mother to save her real parents once she finally sorts out where she belongs and what family love is really about.
The animation in this movie is spectacular. Selick and his team have really raised the bar on stop-motion animation. This movie makes what they did in Nightmare look like something out of a Rankin-Bass chop shop. That means a lot coming from me. It's flawless. Absolutely impeccable. As much as computer-animation is the jaw-dropping animation medium du jour, I really think what they've done with Coraline could give any Pixar film a run for its money, looks-wise. It's really phenomenal. There is definitely stuff that they used computer animation for in this film (notably in a sequence when the background pixelates and breaks apart), but I'm hoping that for the most part that the film relied mostly on stop-motion.
The vocal work in the movie is really good as well. Dakota Fanning is Coraline, and she did a very good job with the script work. Teri Hatcher is the Mother and Other Mother, and she's much better than I would have expected her to be. John Hodgeman ("I'm a PC...") is the Father/Other Father, and he's cute and adorable. I didn't recognize Ian McShane at all as the upstairs neighbor, Mr. Bobinsky. But the best part for me was that the comedy team of Jennifer Saunders & Dawn French played the old lady neighbors. Heeeeee! I love them. I also love that Selick has now used both Eddie and Patsy from AbFab in his movies. (Joanna Lumley played Aunt Spiker in James and the Giant Peach.) All he needs to do is use Julia Sawalha (who did voiceover work in Chicken Run, so it's not like it's foreign to her) and he'll have the trifecta complete.
Henry Selick was supposed to be there for a Q&A after the movie, but unfortunately due to the weather his plane was delayed and that was scrapped. :( I would have LOVED to have met him. I've seen every movie he's ever worked on, save for Slow Bob in the Lower Dimensions, which is known to be his star-making turn in the world of animation. Oh well.
Anyway, I would definitely recommend this movie. The end.
I also got to seetaraljc briefly, and celli even more briefly. Tara, as always, smelled lovely.
adjrun, for making it extra-long!), my hat pulled down past my eyebrows, sunglasses to protect my eyes, fur-lined boots, gloves, and newly-sewn tight buttons to keep my winter coat closed. Supposedly next week it's going to get up into the 30s, which means that if there's no windchill it will feel like a 50° change in temperature. Heh. Break out the shorts and flip-flops, Chicagoland!In other news, my cough is almost gone. I am glad of this.
Last night the Scientist and I braved the super-cold weather to drive downtown for a preview screening of Coraline.
First of all, I have to say that I've never read the book. I own it, but I've never read it. Here's where I also go on a limb and state a very unpopular opinion: I don't think much of Neil Gaiman. I loved the first book of his that I read, Good Omens. But then
fishdoctorpost informed me that most of what I enjoyed (the footnotes) were Terry Pratchett's work, and not Gaiman's. Hrm. Then I read Neverwhere and wasn't all that impressed. I saw Stardust and didn't like it very much. And yes, I know, you can't judge a book on its movie, but there you are. Then Gaiman came to town for his Graveyard Book tour, and... Well, he did a live reading, and the whole time I couldn't help but think it all just seemed so very clever, and that Gaiman seemed so pleased with himself. I dunno, the guy just rubbed me the wrong way. Then a few weeks later I heard what the event staff had to say about him and his entourage, and it made me like him even less. But before that, I read The Graveyard Book and thought it was okay, but nothing spectacular. So put all this together, and it comes down to my not thinking that Gaiman's all that great of a writer (he relies on clever turns of phrases as humor far too often for my taste, and many times he just throws characters/objects/plots out there without ever explaining any WHY behind it). I also think he's gotten a very swelled-headed opinion of himself, but that's my personal beef.So anyway, I will readily admit to going into this movie not knowing the story or being a Gaiman fan. However, the movie was directed by Henry Selick, who directed The Nightmare Before Christmas, and you all know how I feel about THAT, so basically I'm going in amped to like it due to the Selick factor. And you know what? I really did like this movie. It's a good, creepy children's story that's really fun for adults. The Scientist said afterwards that he's sure parents at his theater are going to complain that it's "too scary," but I say SUCK IT UP. Kids these days have it too soft in their storytelling. Give 'em a good villain now and again, really throw them for a loop. It's not childhood if you're not traumatized by a movie and have nightmares, you know? How many kids were freaked out generation after generation by the Wicked Witch of the West or her flying monkeys in The Wizard of Oz? Now how many couldn't sleep at night because of, say, the Bowler Hat Guy in Meet the Robinsons? See what I'm saying? Kids today have it too easy. Scare 'em a little, make them feel ALIVE, you know? Anyway, Coraline is very likely going to do that. If you are the parent of a small child, know that before taking them and be ready to be awakened to nightmares.
So. The movie is good. It's weird, it doesn't really make sense, but it's good. It's rather Alice in Wonderland-ish to me. Coraline moves into a boarding house with her parents, and she meets all kinds of weird people who make no sense. There's the man in the attic training jumping mice to perform in a circus. There are two elderly women in the basement who were former burlesque stars and stuff their dead dogs and put them on display. There's a weird dirtbike-riding kid in a skull mask who stalks Coraline. And then there's the door in the wall that leads to a mirror image of her home, complete with button-eyed parents who just may be EVIL. And then Coraline has to fight her button-eyed mother to save her real parents once she finally sorts out where she belongs and what family love is really about.
The animation in this movie is spectacular. Selick and his team have really raised the bar on stop-motion animation. This movie makes what they did in Nightmare look like something out of a Rankin-Bass chop shop. That means a lot coming from me. It's flawless. Absolutely impeccable. As much as computer-animation is the jaw-dropping animation medium du jour, I really think what they've done with Coraline could give any Pixar film a run for its money, looks-wise. It's really phenomenal. There is definitely stuff that they used computer animation for in this film (notably in a sequence when the background pixelates and breaks apart), but I'm hoping that for the most part that the film relied mostly on stop-motion.
The vocal work in the movie is really good as well. Dakota Fanning is Coraline, and she did a very good job with the script work. Teri Hatcher is the Mother and Other Mother, and she's much better than I would have expected her to be. John Hodgeman ("I'm a PC...") is the Father/Other Father, and he's cute and adorable. I didn't recognize Ian McShane at all as the upstairs neighbor, Mr. Bobinsky. But the best part for me was that the comedy team of Jennifer Saunders & Dawn French played the old lady neighbors. Heeeeee! I love them. I also love that Selick has now used both Eddie and Patsy from AbFab in his movies. (Joanna Lumley played Aunt Spiker in James and the Giant Peach.) All he needs to do is use Julia Sawalha (who did voiceover work in Chicken Run, so it's not like it's foreign to her) and he'll have the trifecta complete.
Henry Selick was supposed to be there for a Q&A after the movie, but unfortunately due to the weather his plane was delayed and that was scrapped. :( I would have LOVED to have met him. I've seen every movie he's ever worked on, save for Slow Bob in the Lower Dimensions, which is known to be his star-making turn in the world of animation. Oh well.
Anyway, I would definitely recommend this movie. The end.
I also got to see
taraljc briefly, and celli even more briefly. Tara, as always, smelled lovely.