coraline

the talent behind this movie alone made me excited for it: its directed by the same guy who directed 'nightmare before christmas' and its based on the book by neil gaiman, a favorite author of mine.
the story is a simple one: a curious girl finds a door in her new house that leads to another strange new world. its a play on the old 'alice in wonderland' premise. the magic here is in the animation, its done in claymation, the same process used in 'nightmare before christmas' and 'wallace and gromit'. the style is made even more amazing through the use of the new 3D technology that has been used for the past couple years.
the film itself though is amazing! as coraline goes through the door into the other world she finds her family there, but slightly skewed. she meets up with some of her neighbors which leads to some amazing sights. all of this she finds wonderful and loves being there in that different world. slowly she starts to realize things arent as good as she first thought as everything begins to change and get pretty creepy. i've got to admit- this movie is really scary! i don't mean frightening or gory, it is rated PG after all, but there are some moments of real dread where you just know 'this isn't going to turn out well!' my heart was racing! i was originally thinking maybe this could be a movie i take my little nephew to, but i realized quickly that there is no way i would take him to see this- he would have nightmares for months! heck, i had nightmares after seeing it! it's intense at parts, but the magic and wonder of the film is so enchanting that i was blown away! i eagerly await seeing it again.