Coraline - Movie Review

Coraline is a story about a young girl who moves into a new apartment and has pretty much been ignored by her parents who are too busy to spend time with her. She discovers a dorway leading to an alternate world that her parents pay attention to her, but they have button eyes and things are all a little more twisted than they seem. Could this alternate world be a paradise, the place to stay forever or is there something to it.

Written and Directed by Henry Selick, the director of A Nightmare Before Christmas and James and the Giant Peach, it is a story adapted and co-written by Neil Gaiman. The movie is the first one filmed in stop-motion feature shot in stereoscope 3-D. The features are pretty amazing to see in watching this film. I can't imagine what they had to go through to create the whole thing. I do hope the DVD comes with a full collection of extras showing this stuff. Pretty amazing.

Coraline goes from one world to the next at different times. Everyone from the real world is there, but with a little bit of a twist. Even the cat goes between the worlds and in the weird world he can talk. Wybie is the annying kid that she befriends in the movie. His grandmother owns the apartment building they live in.

There's a lot more to the story, but would rather you see it to understand and enjoy it. I reallly like everything about this movie. It's a bit of a dark story, the colors and graphics of it all are cool. It's well worth seeing. My suggestion is that it's not for young children, but maybe older than 10.

Rating: 4 out of 5

The Graveyard Book - Neil Gaiman - Review

Neil Gaiman's The Graveyard Book is a fantastic book for not only young readers, but for adults like myself as well. The story is about a young boy whose family is murdered and he alone survives and wanders into the graveyard and is taken in by some of it's residents. Without a name, the Owens family decides to name him Nobody. Nobody's parent of course are dead if you haven't figured that out yet. The man who killed the family is not done and will one day try to find Nobody and kill him as well. So he is protected and will grow up in the graveyard until he is old enough to go on his own.

You would think with the brutal murder of his family and the premise of the book that this might not be a story for kids. I would say it's just perfect and will give them a well rounded reading. You learn a lot about what Nobody can do in his almost magical world and what happens when he strays to the world outside. It makes you use your imagination and you draw your own images of this place in your head. when this book becomes a movie, I'm not sure if it will hit the vision I have in my head, but something tells me it will.

This is a brilliantly told story and I'm happy to have the opportunity to read it. It was an NPR story that intriged me to go out and get it. I couldn't find it anywhere I went. Barnes and Noble, Target & Walmart all out. I went to Borders and after spending 20 minutes looking everywhere I asked and they had one copy left in an obscure place I never would have looked. So now I have my copy and ready to read. Since reading this book about two months back, I stopped by Barnes and Noble last week and there were at least 50 copies and a display. Not sure if it was Coraline or the awards it's winning, but very happy to see picking up on sales. i believe it spent the last 6 weeks in the top or 2nd spot on the NY Times Best Seller List.

I don't want to give anything away about the story plot other than Bod is living in the graveyard to be protected from the man, Jack, who is still looking for him. all the different ghosts and humans that Bod come across over the course of the book teach him new things and have him questioning and eager to find out more.

You could pick this book up in and not want to put it down. The good thing is that it reads easy and you can finish it in a day or two. The bad thing is that you can finish in a day or two.

I have yet to see or read Coraline, but something tells me it will be a great read and a great film to see.

Pick up The Graveyard Book and enjoy it for yourself and read it to your kids as it's a fun story and enjoyable for the whole family.