Coraline - Blu-ray Review

[Michael Scott]

Coraline



Movie:
Video:
Audio:
Extras: :
Final Score:


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Movie
With Shout Factory getting access to the Laika Studios film history (at least all but The Missing Link which was released only a couple of years back for some reason), we get to watch the movie that started it all for them. Their Toy Story so to speak. Back in 2009 stop motion animation had fallen by the wayside, but it once was a juggernaut in the film industry, giving rise to Jason and the Argonauts, much of Tim Burton’s older works, and countless others. But in 2009 it had been supplanted by CGI and other forms of animation. Not to be dissuaded the fledgling animation studio banked their success on recreating stop motion animation, just with modern day CGI technology. Thus Coraline was born, a creepy little Tim Burton-esque animated movie that put the studio on the map.

I watched Coraline back in 2010 when I got my Epson 1080p projector and remember being blown away by it. The movie was a prized film on Blu-ray back then, and I just stumbled across it in a pawn shop where I was given first dibs by the manager (at the time I was a regular deal hound there, so put aside stuff for me she knew I was after). Popping the disc in I was immediately drawn to the animation (though at the time it was a bit awkward. Laika hadn’t perfected their Stop Motion cloning in CGI form, so some items moved like traditional stop motion tech, and others seemed to move too smoothly at times) and the fact that it all felt like Tim Burton if Tim Burton wasn’t addicted to making everything gothic in his visual designs. The story was really disturbing if you looked at it closely, and doesn’t have the same fine tuning of story elements that Laika would come to perfect in films like The Boxtrolls or Kuba and the Two Strings, but it was fascinating to say the least. Horror, children’s movie, and cinematic visual treat all in one.

Based on Neil Gaiman’s 2002 novella of the same name, Coraline is a deceptively light story of a young girl named Coraline (Dakota Fanning, who sounds ridiculously like her younger Sister Elle here)who has just moved into a remote apartment “house” out in rural Oregon. She’s left her friends behind, her whole life behind, just so that her garden writer parents (played by Teri Hatcher and John Hodgman) could be closer to more vegetation in order to further their goals of a garden magazine. Given specific instructions to go explore the house and LEAVE THEM ALONE by her parents, Coraline sets out to find something to entertain herself. The kooky neighbors garner some mild interest, but she soon finds out that the house has a tiny door in the wall that has been wall papered over some years ago.

Finding the key to said door, Coraline finds a magical way in, and soon finds herself in an alternate universe, complete with clones of her parents, the house, and everything she ever knew, just better. Her “other parents” are loving and attentive instead of distant and pre-occupied, and everyone in the world just wants to entertain her, leading Coraline to wish that she’d never leave. However, all is not as it seems, as the stray cat on her side of reality can talk down here, and it’s soon revealed that the “other mother” is a trap. An evil monster who manipulates and controls events to lure unsuspecting children in and then steal away their life as she sucks them dry. Now it’s up to Coraline to figure a way out of the monster’s lair, and get back to her OWN reality, as boring as it may seem to her.

Coraline is a pretty simple story at heart. It’s a bedtime story of a monster in a hidden dimension, much like Hansel and Gretel, or a myriad of other creepy children’s fairy tales that we’ve known over the years. A sort of “be careful what you wish for” cautionary tale in children’s form. However, the story goes full blown horror (for younger viewers) in the latter half, bringing in some seriously creepy imagery and traumatic events that get softened just a bit by the children’s nature of the film. The bait and switch genre bump might be a problem if taken as just that, but the gorgeous animation and clever digital cinematography really do sell the thing. Coraline isn’t the best of the Laika animated films, nor is it the best Neil Gaiman adaptation either. It’s good, but really is brought to excellence due to the animation and ambiance of the whole thing.




Rating:

Rated PG for thematic elements, scary images, some language and suggestive humor




Video:

I don’t have my old Blu-ray of Coraline from 2009, so I can’t give it a direct A/B comparison like I was with The Boxtrolls, but needless to say this new remaster looks great on Blu-ray (though the old 2009 disc was incredible if memory serves me correctly). Colors are bright and vibrant and there’s next to no artifacting on the disc. Blues, greens, neon shades of various colors all pop with incredible intensity, and black levels are shockingly inky and deep. I did notice a little bit of noise in the little “hallway” between doors near the end, but it’s fairly fleeting and doesn’t really impact the encode that much. It’s a great looking disc, but I did notice that the animation could be a smooth in some instances, or overly jerky in others. This isn’t affecting my score of the encode (as it has NOTHING to do with the encode) but it is something to notice as I feel this was Laika’s bumps and hiccups at replicating stop motion in CGI. Great looking disc for sure.






Audio:

Like The Boxtrolls, it looks like Shout Factory copied over the 5.1. DTS-HD MA track of the old Blu-ray, and once again, it’s not a big deal. The 2009’s disc was stellar to begin with, and is stellar today. The creepy score is infused nicely into surround speakers, and the main listening position is awash with all sorts of activity. Creaks and groans in the house come through with incredible clarity, as well as squeaks and cracks from the aging house. Dialog is crystal clear and clean as usual, and the front soundstage is amazing. Bass is powerful and thundering when needed, slamming the listener back into their seat with some seriously beefy hits. The twang and thump in the spiderweb is one really standout moment that took me by surprise. It may not be a Dolby Atmos track, but Coraline’s 5.1 mix is still quite the listener.









Extras:

• NEW Never-Before-Seen Coraline Animation Test Footage
• NEW "Inside LAIKA Featurette"
• NEW Foreword by Peter Debruge, Chief Film Critic for Variety
• Audio Commentary with Director Henry Selick and Composer Bruno Coulais
• The Making Of Coraline
• Original Featurettes
• Deleted Scenes
• Feature-Length Storyboards

Final Score: ​

Coraline is probably the weakest of the original 4 films from Laika studios (I still haven’t seen The Weakest Link so I cant comment on that specifically). However, it is still a good film, and a seminal film for the studio. It’s the creepiest of their movies by a goodly margin, and still makes for a fun watch some 12 years later. Shout Factory’s new Blu-ray edition is excellent too, given a new remaster, but much like The Boxtrolls, may not facilitate an instant upgrade simply due to the fact that the original Blu-ray was SOOOOO good that it’s really hard to obviously outclass it. New master aside. As usual, if you’re upgrading, your decision will be based on brand new extras and the packaging. If getting for the first time, then this is the best release to date. Great Watch.


Technical Specifications:


Starring: Dakota Fanning, Teri Hatcher, John Hodgman, Jennifer Saunders, Dawn French, Keith David
Directed by: Henry Selick
Written by: Henry Selick
Aspect Ratio: 1.85:1 AVC
Audio: English: DTS-HD MA 5.1, French, Spanish DD 5.1
Subtitles: English SDH, French, Spanish
Studio: Shout Factory
Rated: PG
Runtime: 101 Minutes
Blu-ray Release Date: August 31st 2021

Recommendation: Fun Watch

 

[Todd Anderson]

Pretty sure a film named "The Weakest Link" is the weakest of the four original Laika flicks!

Seems like studios are getting desperate for what to release next...

 

[Michael Scott]

Pretty sure a film named "The Weakest Link" is the weakest of the four original Laika flicks!

Seems like studios are getting desperate for what to release next...

lol, I made sure to mention "original 4" for a reason. I haven't seen The Weakest Link yet so I left it out of the equation. The original 4 are Coraline, Paranorman, The Boxtrolls and Kubo & The Two Strings (which is amazing btw)