Coraline (2009) ****

While I prefer Neil Gaiman's 2002 novel, particularly due to the unnecessary addition of the Wybie character in the 2009 film, Henry Selick's Coraline is nevertheless a fantastic work of stop-motion. The film could stand to be ten minutes shorter but the visuals are so awe-inspiring and the craft on display is so mesmerizing that it is easily forgivable. The recently released 4K UHD looks and sounds stupendous.

Bruno Coulais' score is one of my favorites (he manages to out-Elfman Danny—at least anything he's done since the '90s) and it's just as enjoyable outside the film. Unlike so many animated films (of any discipline) of the last twenty-odd years, I mostly love the character designs in Coraline, which is something that will determine whether I even watch an animated film. I am of the (unpopular?) opinion that Coraline is superior to Selick's most well-known film, The Nightmare Before Christmas (1993) (review).