henry selick Tagged Articles at Cinematical

Henry Selick, the magic man behind painstaking puppetry in movies like Coraline and The Nightmare Before Christmas, is thinking way out of the 3D box. As the featured keynote speaker at this year's National Association of Broadcasters event in Las Vegas, Selick discussed "how digital technology has helped to revitalize the handcrafted approach of stop-motion animation." This was clearly apparent from Coraline, which even in its limited theatrical run made $74.8M, according to BoxOfficeMojo.com.

Selick also discussed the limits of 3D filmmaking; besides the cost and the time involved, 3D films have a limited time on the big screen because there just aren't as many theaters able to project 3D films. Now that the industry is hyping 3D, there are more films competing for those precious few theaters equipped with the technology. (Whether or not anyone really needed to see the Jonas Brothers's purity rings up close in three glorious dimensions is another story altogether.) Pixar's Up is even premiering at Cannes.

Meanwhile, DreamWorks's Jeffrey Katzenberg has been talking up 3D tech for years, and at a mini-preview of Monsters vs. Aliens I attended, even discussed the possibility of people eventually buying their own hip, stylish 3D glasses. Personally, I think 3D can make even the shoddiest movie ten times cooler -- I mean, what other reason is there to see the remake of My Bloody Valentine other than to duck a very realistic pick-axe aiming for your eye?

There are good writers, there are great writers, and then there's Neil Gaiman, who inspires slack-jawed awe. His omnibus Fragile Things contains my all-time favorite short story, "A Study in Emerald"; I don't want to give away too much, because I think you should read it for yourself, but suffice it to say that it begins as very clearly one thing, and slowly, organically turns into something else entirely. Gaiman's ability to tell a fully-formed, absorbing story while moving between genres with confidence and grace is nothing short of astonishing. His brand of fantasy may not be for everyone, but as a writer – in terms of versatility and control of the form – he is second to no one.

In the afterword to one of the more recent editions of Coraline, Gaiman calls the short novel his proudest achievement as an author. He's right to be proud. Some people are stunned to learn that Henry Selick's recent animated adaptation was made using stop-motion: frame-by-frame manipulation of physical objects and sets. I look at the book with a similar sort of amazement bordering on disbelief. It's an remarkably meticulous and effective work, such a stylistic and formal balancing act that it almost seems fragile.

Coraline begins by lulling you into complacency. We know it's a "children's book," and the opening pages are filled with the lovable naiveté, repetition, and short, declarative sentences we usually associate with writing for tykes. And so we settle in for a gentle children's fantasy story. The title heroine will have an adventure – scary, but not too scary – learn some lessons, and give her parents a big hug when it's all over.

In a move that comes as little surprise to anyone who saw the opening weekend grosses for You Guys Are No Hannah Montana: The 3D Concert Experience, it appears that most 3D-equipped screens will be bringing back the critically acclaimed and fairly successful Coraline as a proper theatrical experience starting this Friday. (Make that one less excuse for the animation-savvy likes of Mr. Weinberg. Guy lurves the stuff.)

According to Box Office Mojo, seventy percent of Coraline's $17 million opening weekend was from 3D venues, and the film managed to gross nearly $54 million as a whole before the Jonas Brothers landed three weeks later. However, their $12.5 million opening weekend (compared to Miley Cyrus' twice-as-high opening on half as many screens) and subsequent 77% drop in attendance last weekend suggests that the remaining fortnight before Monsters vs. Aliens lands would be best suited to a film that might still draw a crowd, one of a significantly broader demographic appeal.

Okay, so all numbers aside, families who haven't seen it yet should find it considerably more inventive than the likes of Race to Witch Mountain (though I still wouldn't take the youngest tykes), and anyone else interested now has a chance to catch it proper before it's replaced by another 3D offering that I can only presently assure you will be equally worth your while and dollar.

I review a fair amount of children's and family movies, and often my eyes hurt from me rolling them so much because too many of these films rely on tiredly predictable plots, stupid animal jokes, morals so blatant that even the youngest audience members must be fed up, and poop jokes. (The same could be said about comedy films supposedly for grown-ups, but we'll argue that another time.) The idea seems to be that if a movie is squeaky clean and suitable for all ages, it doesn't have to be very good.

On the other end of the spectrum, I also watch well-made films like Wall-E and Ratatouille and now Coraline -- films that I enjoy very much. But are these really family films? How many children will like these movies, and what ages? Coraline is a bit scary at times and some kids are going to have trouble with it. But for children and adults who can appreciate the experience of a darker movie, Coraline is gorgeously fantastic, in all senses of the word.

Before I get started, I should probably let you know that I was a child of the 70's and 80's, so I'm used to a little more grit in children's entertainment (I mean, have you seen Jacob Two Two Meets the Hooded Fang?). But, the times have 'a-changed', and now parents are afraid to let their kids read Charlie Brown in case they get too depressed. Which is why I have to ask myself (and you) whether Neil Gaiman's Coraline will be too scary for its own audience? Focus Features have released the final trailer and an extra clip from Henry Selick's stop-motion animated tale, and it's as chock full of freaky imagery as you would expect from the man who brought us The Nightmare Before Christmas. But you still have to wonder: who was the film made for? Because it really isn't scary enough for the grown-ups, and yet it might be too intense for the kiddies (especially the wimpy ones ... only kidding).

The story of Coraline could have been taken right out of a fairy tale (like most of Gaiman's work). The action centers on Coraline, a young girl who enters a fantastical universe where everything seems to be the exact opposite of her life at home; attentive parents, constant entertainment, you name it. But here's the catch: to stay, you have to be willing to sew buttons over your eyes – and yes, it looks as creepy as it sounds.

What has to be one of the stranger, more unique ways I've ever seen a movie marketed, Focus Features created a video featuring Coraline's art director Bo Henry and his ... dancing mustache? Oh yes, through the magic of stop-motion animation, we have a man with a very large mustache that dances in tune to the music being played. There's not much else to it. That's the video. And it must have taken some real patience on Henry's part while making this, since he needed to sit still with the same facial expression while everyone screwed with his mustache. I hold my cup of ice tea high in the air for you, my good man. Salute!

But on a related note, Coraline looks pretty good. Based on the book by Neil Gaiman and directed by Henry Selick (The Nightmare Before Christmas), Coraline stars Dakota Fanning as a girl who walks through a secret door and finds and alternate version of her life where things are similar, but better. However, when her alternate parents try to keep her, Coraline must find a way back home before the life most important to her ceases to exist. It sounds trippy as all hell, and definitely worth a screening. Coraline hits theaters on February 6.

Thank you, Henry Selick. I now feel like one of the wimpiest women on Earth. An awesome, new, full-length trailer for Coraline has popped up online. You can see it above, or head over to Yahoo to see it crisp, bigger, and HD (which is so totally worth it). Anyway, why do I feel so wimpy?

After starting out just like an episode of Pushing Daisies, the trailer shows the cute blue-headed girl named Coraline walking into a bathroom, getting annoyed by a frickin' colony of millipede-like things (large silverfish, seamonkeys?!) and ... crushes them with her hand. The things are the size of her pinky. I once called for mallet reinforcements when I found a slithering millipede the size of my pinkie. Her hand work is very impressive (and gory -- they do show the gelled remains smushed against the tiles ... yum!). I think she just might be the toughest kid, or woman, to grace the movies. At the very least, she could out-tough Willie Scott with both arms tied behind her back!

If Coraline is right up your alley (and it should, because the film looks amazing), head through the jump for some featurettes about the girl who finds herself in the land of button-eyes.

[via Ace Showbiz]

I'm a grown woman that has been a fan of Neil Gaiman for many years; and still, Coraline manages to freak me out every time I see those little button eyes. The first teaser for the big-screen version of Gaiman's fantasy is now over at MovieWeb. Granted, it would probably be a lot more exciting if it was actually in 3-D (the trailer tells you to put on your glasses, so this must be the one that will screen in theaters), but for anyone who is a fan of Gaiman's dark fairy tales, you'll be glad to know that the film seems to have gotten the tone of Gaiman's work pitch perfect.

Coraline is the story of a small girl who travels into a fantasy world where everything is familiar but nothing is quite right. There is an 'Other Mother' who is the spitting image of her own, but with the frightening distinction of having buttons for eyes. Coraline's adventure leads her to become the savior of her family and the other children trapped in this world, while hopefully getting them all back to the real world.

Teri Hatcher voices the 'Mothers', Dakota Fanning is Coraline. The cast also includes Jennifer Saunders, Dawn French, and John Hodgeman (also knows as 'The PC'). Stop motion master Henry Selick directed the flick based on Gaiman's novella. Last December, Gaiman had posted a short clip on his personal site, but this is the first official trailer I've seen so far.

So, could it be a little too creepy for kids? (The tag line sounds like something from a supernatural thriller.) Maybe, but I miss the old days when children's entertainment had a little more 'bite.' Coraline is scheduled for release in 3-D format on January 18th, 2009.

One thing that has always impressed me about the work of Neil Gaiman -- even though the man writes fairy tales, he never sugar-coats it for the kids. Case in point: the author is now hosting a clip from the upcoming adaptation of Coraline on his personal web site, and it can probably be summed up in one word -- creepy. Based on Gaiman's Hugo award winning novella, the story focuses on a young girl who discovers an alternate world with very twisted versions of her home and family -- for starters they all have buttons sewn over their eyes. The young heroine is then charged with rescuing her family and freeing the souls of trapped children from the clutches of the "other mother."

Coraline stars the voice talents of Dakota Fanning, Jennifer Saunders and Dawn French (or as I like to call them: one of the funniest comedy duos of all time), and Teri Hatcher (Desperate Housewives) as the "other mother." The film was directed by Henry Selick, who is a stop-motion animation vet and is probably best known for directing Tim Burton's A Nightmare Before Christmas and James and the Giant Peach. Stop-motion animation is probably one of the most painstaking processes around, so I can only imagine how long it took to create the clip on Gaiman's site. Not to mention the fact that this film will be the first to use stop-motion animation in a 3D format. It almost makes you forgive the fact that it's going to a full year before Coraline finally hits theaters on January 16th, 2009.

[via ComingSoon.net]