Makin' Up a Post About Coraline

Last year A.O. Scott dared to speak some common sense to parents: Sometimes your children are ready for more than just the talking panda or the ninja kid. My ventures into Tarantinoland or my exposure to Preacher may have come too early for all I know, but I would've been more than ready for Coraline back then.

If you're ready to explain the movie to your kids, by all means take them to the Jungian wonderland, and make sure it says "3D" on the marquee. Go out of your way for that experience, rightly ignoring dear intransigent Ebert, who seems to think that mean or self-centered characters are unusual in children's stories, and probably would've lavished at least one half star more on the movie were it not for 3D lenses darkening his vision and thereby obstructing the view of his notepad.

Staring into Henry Selick's model-box-come-alive is an event rife with many pleasures scary and beautiful and subtle. The 3D part of it is not a novelty insofar as it's 3D. If it's a novelty at all it's because there will scarcely be another like it, unless Selick and his team can top this. I don't want to get into specifics. Go. Your eyes haven't opened wide enough lately.

(If you have already seen it, here's its Making Of Channel)