Coraline

The thing that instantly blew me away about Coraline (in 3D) was the depth of the world created by Henry Selick. Coraline is the demented spiritual cousin of The Nightmare Before Christmas (also directed by Selick) with traces of Being John Malkovich and Spirited Away in the bloodline.
i would've sworn the film was CGI even though I am aware of Selick's stop motion work (Nightmare Before Christmas, James and the Giant Peach) because the animated movement was so smooth and in tune with Coraline's world. in an interview Selick stated that there is some digital manipulation of the image but it is def stop motion. For instance they would use two parts for the head, a top eye expression and the bottom mouth, and then digitally erase the horizontal crease in the middle. For the cool 3D effect Selick stated that in order to capture Coraline's point of view he had to photograph the right and then left view because the space between her eyes wasn't wide enough to fit the lenses next to each other at the same time. Whatever the reasons Coraline visually stuns, especially in a sequence where all the color drains from the screen and the already multi-dimensional Coraline now exists in a nether region not unlike a particular incident in a Daffy Duck cartoon.
Coraline is a young girl who finds a secret passageway in the new house into which her parents have moved. Once through the looking glass Coraline discovers an alternative universe with really cool parents, the kind of place a kid wants to stay forever. There's just one catch. In order to stay you have to have buttons sewn into your eyes. At this point whatever idyllic visions Coraline has conjured are merged with that moment in The Diving Bell and the Butterfly where Bauby has one of his eyes sewn shut.
Coraline has great creepy moments for adults and yet retains an innocent charm for all ages. Puppetry for the digital age is Selick's bag. Dakota Fanning who voices Coraline has a double double as she also debuts this weekend in the sci-fi thriller Push.