Hey everyone. Capone in Chicago here.

I've never read the Neil Gaiman novel that inspired director-adapter Henry Selick to create this magnificent work of stop-motion animated art, and frankly I may never want to. I certainly have nothing against Mr. Gaiman's writing, but Selick has done such a complete and fulfilling rendition of the world inhabited by young Coraline Jones that my heart and imagination are stuffed to capacity.

Selick has wowed up in the past with such film miracles as THE NIGHTMARE BEFORE CHRISTMAS and JAMES AND THE GIANT PEACH. He's even played God for Wes Anderson, who charged Selick with inventing new species of undersea life for THE LIFE AQUATIC WITH STEVE ZIZOU. And who better to literally invent life forms. He has promoted and elevated the art of stop-motion filmmaking to such a degree, I can't imagine studios not taking a step back from so much CG animation and try having this level of patience with the creative process. In every conceivable way, CORALINE is a celebration of the riches and beauty of all things handmade. Not only is everything we see on screen made by hand, but the story itself is about creating a world by hand.

But I also adore CORALINE because it celebrates the role of fear in a child's life. As much as parents try to protect their offspring from all things dangerous, kids will always find something to be scared about, so why not throw them in the deep end of this thrill that featured all manner of perilous elements, including sharp objects--some aimed right at your eye (did I mention that if you see this film in anything other than 3-D, you're missing three-quarters of the film?)--evil creatures, giant bugs that look like furniture, ghost children, dead animals, and loads of other devices aimed at freaking out kids and adults alike.

The blue-haired Coraline is voiced with rebellious girlishness by Dakota Fanning, who may seem like an obvious choice, but she's fantastic here. And the worst thing that could happen to a child her age has happened--she's bored. Her parents (John "I'm a PC" Hodgman and Teri Hatcher, who might do the best work of anyone in the film) are co-authoring a gardening book, and are on a tight deadline, leaving them no time to entertain their only child. While exploring the world around their new home, Coraline meets Wybie (Robert Bailey Jr.), an inventive little brat who, by default, becomes Coraline's best friend. He gives her a rag doll with buttons for eyes that bears an almost scary likeness to Coraline. In an effort to kill time, Coraline also meets her new neighbors, including a pair of elderly former actresses Misses Sprink and Forcible (an appropriately teamed Jennifer Saunders and Dawn French), who have a brood of terriers (both living and dead) living with them. She also films amusement with an upstairs neighbor, the acrobatic Mr. Bobinsky ("Deadwood's" Ian McShane), who is in the process of training a group of jumping mice for a special kind of circus act.

One night, Coraline discovers a small door behind some furniture. Although during the day with her mother watching, the door had only bricks behind it, at night, the door opens to a long tunnel leading to, well, a version of the house she already lives in. Only in this Other World, everything is exactly how Coraline would like her life to be. Her parents are attentive to her every need and whim, the neighbors are far more entertaining, and Wybie is rendered speechless. But eventually the price for all this perfection reveals itself, and if you've seen even one commercial or trailer for the film, you know what that is.

To go into too much more detail about the plot of CORALINE would be to spoil the exciting process of discovery that Selick has in store for you. There are healthy doses on insanity, especially when it comes to Coraline's Other Father. This is not to say that her Other Mother is much better, but the less said about what happens to her character the better. And then there's the mysterious black cat (voiced by velvet-throated Keith David), who seems to have the ability to travel between the real and Other World as easily as our heroine. If I had to pick a character whose likeness I'd like on my shelf, I'd pick the Cat; he's a badass.

There's both a sparkling innocence and a terrifying underbelly to CORALINE, and I love how Selick underscores both. The Other World is lush, colorful and so very alive, while the real world is dreary, dirty and rundown. It isn't hard to imagine any child choosing fantasy over reality, like Alice going through the Looking Glass or black-and-white Dorothy landing in Technicolor Oz. We know it's not a safe place, but that isn't going to stop us from having fun with it for a while.

The final third of the movie is as suspenseful as just about anything I've seen in the animated world. What I admired so much about CORALINE is that it's about a resourceful, intelligent, fearless female character that I honestly believe young girls can admire, despite her occasional lapses into disobedience. Not to come off like I have some grand feminist agenda, but Coraline stands as one of the great animated ladies in history, and she manages to be so without being a princess, needing a man (unless you count a male cat) to save her, or even having much in the way of fashion sense. The film is a glorious look into an utterly original world in which things made my hand are both cherished and feared (as they should be), and brains count for something. I can't think of a better combination. We're a little over a month into the year, and I've already found my first candidate for one of the best films of 2009.

-- Capone
capone@aintitcoolmail.com