Matinee Melee

Holly Leber: Let’s get this out of the way up front; Tim Burton has nothing to do with “Coraline.” The film is directed by Henry Selick, who helmed “The Nightmare Before Christmas,” which Burton wrote and produced. Clear? Good.

“Coraline” is, in a word, freaky... in a good way. A lot of other words could be used, but if there was just one, that would be it. Macabre works, too. This is proof that animation does not necessarily translate to kid-friendly. It’s fairly fabulous, but in a mind-bending kind of way.

The film tells the story of Coraline Jones (voiced by Dakota Fanning), a cooler-than-thou teen who moves to an apartment in a dilapidated house with her negligent parents. She discovers that through a crawl space is an odd, Stepford-esque reflection of her life. But when alterna-Mom tries to steal her eyes and her soul, Coraline has to save herself and her new dead friends, who are trapped in crawl space purgatory, from the wrath of the wicked Mom-doll. It’s all very strange and weird, and raises the question, who comes up with this stuff?

Casey Phillips: Before I discuss anything terribly relevant, a warning. If you or your child are afraid of spiders, ghosts, dislodged eyeballs, appendages made of needles, melted faces, disemboweled dolls or gigantic roaches or rats, you might consider passing on “Coraline.”

Despite its engrossing modern fairy tale trappings and intriguing visuals, “Coraline” is not the kids’ movie it appears to be. Much like its story of an other world where things are not what they seem, “Coraline” is darker and more twisted (read: French) than other kids’ movies.

Nevertheless, those who can avoid being blind-sided (as I was) by how grown-up this kids’ movie can be will find a worthy follow up to Selick’s “The Nightmare Before Christmas.” The animation and textures pop off the screen, particularly in 3D, and the storytelling is extremely effective, if more than a little unnerving. Be prepared for an enjoyable mind trip.

Holly: Sitting in the movie theater, I kept trying to imagine how the film could have been done in live action. I pictured a scowling Dakota Fanning with indigo hair crawling through a greenscreen tunnel and Teri Hatcher with cobalt contacts and Edward Scissorhands-like appendages. To do that, however, would have put “Coraline” firmly in the horror genre.

Which is not to say that animation makes this a lighthearted sunshine flick. The use of the 3D drawings provides a quirk that gives the movie a charm, if a strange one. Frankly, it wouldn’t have worked as a live-action movie. It would have been another ingenue-being-chased popcorn shoveller, and, frankly, there are too many of those slithering about the cinematic scope.

Casey: I’m not a huge fan of Dakota Fanning (for more insight on the subject, see “War of the Worlds”), but she was cast well for this role, which required her to be spunky, rebellious and whiny. Given her natural predisposition toward those qualities as a teenager, she knocked it out of the park. Of equal note was Keith David, who voices a “Shaft”-like cat and is kind of under-appreciated as the poor man’s James Earl Jones or Morgan Freeman.

The score by French composer Bruno Coulais (“They Might Be Giants”) adapts with the plot to lend weight to the transition between the surreal dreamlike and nightmarish scenes. It’s fascinating to listen to the tone of the music shift from upbeat and circus-like to slightly demented and uncomfortably off-kilter. Not exactly toe-tapping, but certainly effective.

Holly: Surreal and off-kilter are good words to describe the whole experience of watching “Coraline.” Coming out of the theater, I had the same sort of feeling I’ve had after being slightly anesthetized or coming out of a place with strobe lights. It was oddly, bizarrely, blissfully disorienting.

E-mail Holly Leber at hleber@timesfreepress.com or Casey Phillips at cphillips@timesfreepress.com