Coraline - Be Careful What You Wish For

In 1978, claymation legend Will Vinton founded Will Vinton Studios, an animation studio dedicated to the art form. In need of funding in the late '90s, Vinton found an investor in Phil Knight, the co-founder of Nike, who would introduce his son Travis Knight to the studio as an animator. In 2002, Knight would acquire the studio and in 2005, would resurrect Will Vinton Studios, as Laika, named after the dog famously launched into space as a Russian flight test.

Based on the dark fantasy novel by Neil Gaiman, Coraline was adapted into then-upcoming studio Laika’s first major film production in 2009, directed by Henry Selick of The Nightmare Before Christmas fame. While I did not see this film when it first hit theaters (it was at a time when I was more sensitive to scary imagery such as those seen in the trailers), I have since gone back to it and have ended up seeing it three times, the first of which was through an underwhelming 3D home video release. While Laika’s animations have definitely improved over the years as they learn/discover new stop-motion techniques, it’s sometimes nice to go back and see where it all began, and after 9 years the movie holds up surprisingly well.

After moving to a new home (Pink Palace Apartments, a flat shared by other patrons) in a new state so her parents could pursue a book on gardening, Coraline Jones (Dakota Fanning) isn’t happy with the way things are; her parents generally ignore her as they hastily finish putting their book together to sell to a publisher and she meets a new kid named Wybie (short for Wyborne or “why born”) (Robert Bailey Jr.), whom she quickly grows to dislike. While exploring the house on the first day, Coraline discovers a small door hidden behind some wallpaper in the living room and gets her mother to open it with a special key inside the house, only to discover it had been bricked up. That night, Coraline is compelled to try the door again, this time entering a world where everything about the Pink Palace is exactly the same. However, she soon meets her Other Mother (Teri Hatcher) and Father (John Hodgman, singing voice by John Linnell), simulacra of her parents (except with black buttons for eyes) who will give her just about anything she wants. Though Coraline continues going back to the Other World at night, something sinister lurks within its inviting atmosphere.

The story is written well and is pretty easy to follow, making for a stronger narrative as a result. I have not read the book on which the film is based, though I will say the movie works well on its own, making it accessible to a wider audience. I do know, however, that the character Wybie was created for the movie, primarily so Coraline could have someone to talk to and make things more visually interesting. Whether not Wybie is a good addition to the story depends entirely on opinions from those who have actually read the novel, though I personally didn’t mind his involvement in the plot.

Coraline (Dakota Fanning, center) with her Father (John Hodgman, left)
and Mother (Teri Hatcher, right) in the real world.

The voice acting is also good, sporting some good talent from then-15-year-old Dakota Fanning as the titular Coraline, as well as a solid performance from the popular Keith David. Teri Hatcher (Coraline’s Mother and Other Mother) and John Hodgman (Coraline’s Father and Other Father) get points for being able to make each of their respective characters’ counterparts feel different from each other, adding to the sense of immersion in the film’s world. John Linnell from They Might Be Giants shows off his vocal talents when the Other Father sings, doing so in such a way that the shift between his singing and Hodgman’s speaking lines is almost seamless.

For Laika’s first movie, the animation holds up really well, setting the stage for future movies to come and proving the capabilities of stop-motion with the right talent. That said, the animation gets a little noticeably jerky at times, particularly in some scenes in the Other World, though considering the type of movie it is, it’s hard to tell whether it was done intentionally for atmosphere or if it was done by accident as a result of it being Laika’s first feature-length production. Fans of The Nightmare Before Christmas may find the art style to be somewhat reminiscent of that, although I chalk this up to both movies being directed by Henry Selick.

Coraline remains a great example of what can be done with stop-motion. The story holds up well and is backed by some amazing voice talent and animation, the latter of which would only be improved upon in future Laika films. I would recommend this movie to fans of stop-motion and/or Neil Gaiman’s body of work, particularly fans of the Coraline novel that have not seen the adaptation yet and want to form their own opinion. If you watch Coraline and enjoy it, I would recommend giving Laika’s other movies so far (ParaNorman, The Boxtrolls and Kubo and the Two Strings, as of this writing) a shot as well.

Kubo and the Two Strings

In the realm of feature animation, stop motion isn’t a form that is seen that often, likely because the technique is very time-consuming. However, if done right, a studio can produce some very top-notch results, as proven by Laika. While I have not seen their first feature animation Coraline or their follow-up ParaNorman, I have seen, and was absolutely blown away by, The Boxtrolls, which has some of the best stop-motion work that I had seen up to that point. For this reason, I had been curious about their latest foray into this area of animation, Kubo and the Two Strings, and ended up getting much more out of it than I had anticipated.

Years after washing ashore on a beach, Kubo (Art Parkinson) takes care of his mother (Charlize Theron) in a cave on top of a mountain, while during daylight hours he tells stories to a nearby village by manipulating paper with his guitar. At night Kubo returns to the cave, where his mother tells him stories about his father, however she can only remember the details for so long. One day, the village is having a festival meant to celebrate passed loved ones, which Kubo decides to participate in in hopes of being able to communicate with his father. However, Kubo ends up staying out past sundown, which he is not supposed to do, and ends up being hunted down by a dark power.

Though the story is more that of the hero’s journey, there is enough of a spin on it that it comes off as more unique, helped by the movie’s world and setting. This helps to make the film easier to follow, which isn’t really a bad thing, and there is just enough depth in the narrative to make it believable and its mythos easily picked up by any viewer without having to explain that much. Without spoiling anything, the story, while kept upbeat by a number of humorous moments, also gets surprisingly deep in the way it handles a particular subject, and the final act actually had me in tears once the credits began to roll.

The animation, as come to be expected from Laika, is incredibly top-notch. Of note is the animation of paper, which can be seen folded into origami shapes and brought to life by the magic Kubo possesses in his guitar. The paper is animated so well that their movements feel very natural, especially when it can be seen folding and unfolding at will. Also of note is a scene involving a fight against a giant skeleton creature, as seen in trailers and TV spots, which is reportedly the largest rig ever produced for a stop-motion feature. The characters also interact seamlessly with water and smoke effects, and multi-layered scenery involving the village demonstrates just how much Laika is willing to push the envelope with stop-motion.

The voice acting is very good, especially amongst the lead characters played by Art Parkinson (Kubo), Charlize Theron (Monkey), and Matthew McConaughey (Beetle). While I am not that familiar with much of the actors’ previous works, their performances in this movie are excellent, working well with each of their respective characters’ personalities. The other voice actors, including those of the antagonists, are also done well, and the actors of the villagers (including a cameo from George Takei) do well in making their respective roles sound realistic. The music is also excellent, though some scenes without it work very well, plus the soundtrack includes a perfectly-timed cover of the Beatles song “While My Guitar Gently Weeps.”

If you are a fan of animation, especially in stop-motion, I would highly recommend seeing Kubo and the Two Strings. The animation is some of the best that has ever been produced and, while the story does get kind of deep, there is generally a more light-hearted tone as there are a lot of funny moments to keep it entertaining. It will make you laugh and cry, but most importantly, Kubo is a great movie for anyone looking for solid entertainment and storytelling this summer, animated or otherwise.

Ratchet & Clank (Film) - The Movie, Based On The Game

Having played practically the entirety of the Ratchet & Clank series and become a fan of it, I was immediately on board with the idea of a theatrical feature when it was announced a few years back. I became more interested in the movie after learning that not only was Insomniac Games, the creator and developer of the Ratchet & Clank series heavily involved in the movie’s production, but also that Rainmaker Entertainment was doing the animation (under their previous moniker, Mainframe, they did the animation for the Beast Wars and Beast Machines portions of the Transformers franchise, which were considered groundbreaking for their time and the former of which won a Daytime Emmy). As the release date got closer, I even replayed the original Ratchet & Clank game and spent a lot of time playing the re-imagining of said game just to keep myself hyped for the movie. Having seen the movie in 3D, though somewhat disappointingly in a largely empty theater, I would say that the experience and hype were definitely worth it.

The plot of the movie is, of course, similar to that of the recent game based on this movie (including the plot twists aimed at Ratchet & Clank veterans), which is also based on the original 2002 game, but it flows more like a movie rather than the movie’s plot incorporated into gameplay. Plot elements from the original game are taken in an interesting direction in the movie, with some plot points cut where necessary to help the flow of the story. At the same time, it’s interesting how some gameplay elements from the games are used in the movie, such as the ability to switch between weapons on the fly (or Quick Select, as it’s called in the games) being explained by a device that allows the user to teleport weapons to their hand from an off-site storage locker. Like the re-imagined game, some retcons are made that I think make for a better story, such as the integration of Dr. Nefarious (Armin Shimerman) into the plot and Ratchet (James Arnold Taylor) being a selfless nice guy from the get-go rather than starting off as being a huge, selfish jerk to everyone around him. There are also some cleverly-inserted in-jokes from within the series and to other PlayStation titles, including a tease for the upcoming Sly Cooper movie.

In this continuity, Ratchet wants to join the Galactic Rangers.

The movie is well-casted in the voice department, with James Arnold Taylor (Ratchet), David Kaye (Clank), Jim Ward (Captain Qwark), and Armin Shimerman (Dr. Nefarious) returning to voice their characters from the games, as well as some actors you wouldn’t have expected to hear in Ratchet & Clank, such as Paul Giamatti (Chairman Drek), John Goodman (Grimroth), and Sylvester Stallone (Victor Von Ion); notably, Stallone’s widely-mocked slurred Rambo voice is not present, rather sounding more like his normal speaking voice. As I’ve said about the recent game, the voice actors are definitely bringing their experience with their characters to the table, and Giamatti and Stallone (for reals this time) provide interesting interpretations of the returning characters that they voice. Though new character Grimroth doesn’t get very much screentime, I still thought John Goodman did a good job in voicing the character, particularly in portraying the character’s master/student relationship with Ratchet.

Ratchet & Clank during their first meeting.

The animation is, put simply, amazing, as there was clearly a lot of care put into animating the characters and their body language, as well as Ratchet’s Lombax tail. The animation of the weapons and their abilities is also great at recreating how they function and making them work within the context of the movie. Though the Groovitron, one of my favorite weapons from the games, does not make an appearance, I think the movie worked well enough without it. Also, the music, while not remixing anything from the base game, is still great at capturing the essence of a given scene and character’s emotions (though I can’t recall if any of it is from the re-imagined game).

The Ratchet & Clank movie can be considered a good way to get someone into the Ratchet & Clank franchise, though it is clearly more aimed at Ratchet & Clank fans. There is some fantastic humor in the movie, both meta and not meta, as well as some bits of older-skewing humor that some audiences that fit within the PG rating would probably not get. While it’s funny how text-messaging jokes are incorporated, there is mention of “hashtags” at one point, though the reference is still funny within context since it’s very brief and is more non-specific. Overall, the movie is a well-made love letter to the 15 years of the Ratchet & Clank series and its fans, for whom this is definitely a must-see, and I advise staying through the credits. Since this joint-development between Insomniac and Rainmaker turned out spectacularly, this makes me more excited to see if the same result can be achieved with Sly Cooper when it makes its way to theaters.

The Boxtrolls

In late September, a movie called The Boxtrolls was released, adapting a novel by Alan Snow called “Here Be Monsters!”, Volume I of The Ratbridge Chronicles. Since I had read the book when I was younger, this movie interested me and I wanted to see how it handled the source material. Recently, I was able to see it via a free screening at Paramount Pictures, and, while it does differ from the source, I found it to not only be better than I thought, but also enjoyable in its own right.

A Boxtroll is seen carrying off a small child into a sewer in the town Cheesebridge, which leads an exterminator named Archibald Snatcher (Ben Kingsley) to bring it to the attention of Lord Portley-Rind (Jared Harris). A curfew is soon established on the town, with a deal made that if Snatcher can eliminate every Boxtroll, he will become a member of the White Hats, who control the town (yet care more about cheese than anything else). Meanwhile underground, the Boxtroll from earlier, Fish (Dee Bradley Baker), is looking for the child from earlier, a boy wearing a box that has adopted the name Eggs. Over the years, as the Boxtrolls scavenge for junk around the town at night, Fish raises Eggs as though he were a fellow Boxtroll, though by the time Eggs (Isaac Hempston-Wright) has become a young boy, the Boxtroll population has been dwindling due to capture by Snatcher.

One thing I can give praise for right away is the animation quality. Though not often seen nowadays, the movie is rendered using stop-motion, and the end result is glorious. It’s evident that the care was taken with the animation and time and effort was spent creating elaborately detailed sets and (very expressive) character models. There is a small amount of CGI used here and there, mainly for things like fire, smoke, or gas, but even then it’s amazing what was accomplished with the medium and the end result is a sight to behold.

A group of the titular Boxtrolls.
In front from left: Shoe, Fish, Bucket

Another point of praise is the voice cast, which includes Nick Frost and Simon Pegg alongside names like Steve Blum, Dee Bradley Baker, Ben Kingsley, and Tracy Morgan. While these voice actors, some of whom I was surprised (in a good way) to see in the credits, did really well in their parts, with Blum and Baker being very well-seasoned in that line of work, I felt that the characters were very well-cast, including Isaac Hempton-Wright as Eggs and Elle Fanning as Winnie Portley-Rind. While the Boxtrolls themselves don’t have much in the way of dialogue, let alone full words, the voice actors that played them did really well in giving them full emotional range.

I also enjoyed the music of the movie, and not just the background tracks. There are at least one or two points in the movie where a character sings (though it’s not a musical and the songs are relevant to the plot), and they are not only sung well, but also a little catchy. A song that plays during the credits is “The Boxtrolls Song”, notably written by Eric Idle of Monty Python fame, which is well-executed and fits in with the tone of the movie.

As it’s been a while since I’ve read the original book, I can’t really go into much detail about what makes the movie different from the source. However, I do remember enough to say that, between both versions, cheese is very important to the story, which becomes evident the more you watch it (also, “Ratbridge” became “Cheesebridge”, but I didn’t really think that detail was worth getting hung up over). While I’m aware that the two stories are not identical, the differences give the movie a separate identity, plus it tells an enjoyable story regardless.

It's a good read anyway.

Also, while it isn’t anything like with the Marvel Cinematic Universe, I would advise you to stay during the credits. There is an additional scene that you don’t want to miss and must be seen to be believed.

Whether you’ve read the book or not, The Boxtrolls is a very fun movie. The animation is spectacular, the voice acting is amazing, and its music is well-orchestrated. If you’ve read the “Here Be Monsters!” novel by Alan Snow, this movie may be worth checking out, so long as you know going in that’s it’s not a direct translation. If you haven’t read the book, I would still recommend this movie, especially if you have children and/or are a fan of the stop-motion medium. Even with the differences in story, The Boxtrolls stands up on its own merits and is an excellent display of animation that shouldn’t be missed.

The World's End - A Fitting Conclusion to an Epic Pub Crawl

One thing Edgar Wright is probably known for directing is Scott Pilgrim vs. the World, a film adaptation of Bryan Lee O’Mally’s Scott Pilgrim series of graphic novels from Oni Press. What he is probably known more for, however, is the Three Flavours Cornetto Trilogy (aka the Blood and Ice Cream Trilogy), a series of three comedy films written by him and Simon Pegg that each feature a particular flavor of Cornetto ice cream which reflects what each movie is about. The three movies in this series are Shaun of the Dead, Hot Fuzz, and, most recently, The World’s End. Usually when I see a movie in a theater, I see a lot of ads for movies that, for the most part, don’t really hold my interest that much, if at all. However, The World’s End actually looked funny to me, and when I found out who exactly was involved with it, I decided I needed to watch it, my previous experiences with Scott Pilgrim and Shaun of the Dead giving me an idea of what I was in for (at the time I first saw this movie, I had not yet seen Hot Fuzz). Coming away from this movie, despite how I felt about the ending, I found it to be quite a load of fun.

In his teenage youth, Gary King (Simon Pegg) and a group of friends, Peter (Eddie Marsan), Oliver (nicknamed “O-Man” for his “6” birthmark) (Martin Freeman), Steven (Paddy Consindine), and Andy (Nick Frost), attempted a pub crawl in Newton Haven known as the Golden Mile, which would end with the titular pub, The World’s End. While in psychiatric therapy 20 years later, Gary is asked if he ever regretted not completing the Golden Mile, which leads him to try and get the group back together so he may reattempt the pub crawl and get to The World’s End like he wanted. His old friends aren’t exactly willing to go along with him, since they are busy with lives of their own, but somehow he manages to talk them into doing it (even lying a little to get his way). When the group goes through each pub, it is evident that things have changed since they were last there, but Gary doesn’t seem to care. At the fifth pub, however, while his friends discover his treachery, Gary gets into a fight with a teenager in the bathroom and things turn for the weird when he discovers the teen to actually be mechanical, spouting blue fluid after the teen’s head is knocked off. When Gary’s friends try to confront him, they end up having to fend off a group of the mechanical teens, at which point their pub crawl suddenly becomes a lot more complicated.

The movie presents itself well as a comedy, not stopping with the laughs even when the more serious side of the story is unfolding. The jokes have excellent timing and hit more often than not. Not only that, but the jokes don’t feel forced or out of place and come off as more natural in the grand scheme of things. The sci-fi elements of the story, namely regarding the robots (who rather insistently are not actually robots), are actually rather intriguing and give the movie a great amount of depth, presenting much darker implications the more we learn about them. The main characters of the movie also have their own amount of depth; while they appear one way on the surface, you begin to react to them differently when you learn more about their respective pasts. The amount of depth in this story is rather unexpected, but I mean this in a good way since you wouldn’t expect it just by watching the trailers. Personally, I wasn’t sure what to make of the ending, since I thought it could have ended better, but despite my mixed feelings on this the story is still very well-written.

Gary King holding up a map showing the gang's previous Golden Mile attempt.

While The World’s End has a good amount of laughs mixed in with a surprisingly complex story for a comedy film, the special effects presented also deserve some praise. The “robot” effects are done in a way that looks seamless and blends in with the real-world surroundings rather than coming off as out of place. The movie doesn’t come off as a CGI fest like other modern movies, but when the effects do show up they are done rather masterfully, to where the more I think about them, the more I wonder how difficult some of the effects were to pull off.

The acting is also really good, special mention going to Simon Pegg and Nick Frost, the two actors most common to the Blood and Ice Cream Trilogy. After seeing Shaun of the Dead, it is evident to me that Pegg and Frost seemed to have switched character types, which actually shows that the two actors have quite a bit of range, displaying their acting talent nicely. This is not to say any of the other actors didn’t perform well; I could really tell what the characters were feeling and I reacted accordingly, which shows a nice bit of acting talent on their end as well. Some actors in the movie have actually appeared in previous Wright/Pegg works in different ways, including Shaun of the Dead and Hot Fuzz, which gives them a good amount of experience that shows in their performance. Equally good is the background music, which matches the tone of each scene very well and helps push the weight of important scenes whenever it shows up.

During my time with this movie, I couldn’t help but notice some similarities to Shaun of the Dead, but in an observational sense. Both this movie and Shaun of the Dead revolve around pubs in some fashion, each has a (still funny) gag where Simon Pegg’s character attempts to jump a fence only for it to fall over, and the “robots” of this movie are in a way similar to the zombies in the other. This isn’t to say these similarities take away from The World’s End, but it does seem to help enforce the relationship between them and Hot Fuzz.

Of course, since this movie is the third part of the Three Flavours Cornetto Trilogy, it would be a good idea for me to mention which flavor of Cornetto ice cream relates to this film. It’s the Mint flavor, and it shows up near the end of the movie; when you are aware of the ice cream being present in each of these movies, you may find yourself looking for it here, but trust me when I say you’ll know it when you see it.

Overall, The World’s End is a very complex and funny movie. It doesn’t hit you over the head with how complex it is like some other movies do, rather it’s more of a subtle complexity that really adds a lot of depth to the film and helps it stand out from a lot of other comedies. It is possible to go into this film without having seen Shaun of the Dead or Hot Fuzz, but if you have seen and enjoyed one or both of these movies, or are a Simon Pegg or Edgar Wright fan, chances are very high you’re going to love The World’s End. Considering Edgar Wright’s track record, I have faith in him directing the Ant-Man movie that opens Phase 3 of the Marvel Cinematic Universe in 2015.