On my flight back from Calgary, I watched Coraline. It’s a cartoon and a kids movie, but I had read somewhere that it was good for an adult too (in a Toy Story type way). I think if I were a kid watching this movie, I would be freaked out. The movie starts with a teddy bear/doll being dissected and turned inside out!

For the first third, the movie continues to be spooky, creepy and eccentric. The locale is a gloomy paranormal house within a bland American country town. There are a couple of normal characters, but the remainder are bizarre and ugly in a disgusting kind of a way. It’s as if they purposely made the movie unappealing to kids (or maybe this is what they like now). But actually, in this way, I found the first third strangely appealing.

The middle of the movie built up the problem (typical child’s fantasy) and then the last act was when the heroine solved the problem. As the movie progressed, the movie got more and more boring (and become more like a conventional kids movie). If I just saw the first third, I’d give the movie 4/5 stars, but the entire movie is only 3/5.

However, it still struck me as odd to whom this movie was targetted towards. The lead character is a young girl, say 10 years old. I’d think the movie is too cartoon-y for that kids that age. On the other hand, a younger female audience would probably be too scared to watch it! While a young male audience might like the eccentricities, they may not relate well to a female lead. Then the plot is clearly written as a kids movie, and not an adult one.

Posted by Kevin in Blogs Tags: calgary, moviereview