Just got home from Henry Selick's 3D interpretation of Neil Gaiman's Coraline. Long live stop-motion.

This movie was really enjoyable, was visually stunning, and blew the pants off the last movie we saw at cinema: My Bloody Valentine 3D. I guess that's not saying much, though.

It's no secret that I prefer stop-motion to fancy computerified animation, and this film is a fine example of why. The set design, lighting, props -- everything -- were stunningly crafted, with an obvious amount of love and care for the medium. I was particularly fond of the scale model Volkswagen "New Beetle" that was used throughout the film. Someone spent a huge amount of time on that...

For me, though, the best thing about the film is that it completely eschews the standard cliche elements of this particular genre. [SPOILER ALERT] There is never an "and it might have been only a dream" or an "and it was all a dream -- or was it?" Everything is nicely self-contained, which is something of which other people exploring this genre ought to take note.[/SPOILER ALERT]

I do hope, though, that parents will heed the particularly frightening imagery found in the trailer, if only to ensure that future screenings didn't contain nearly as many crying children as the one I saw. Seriously, parents, don't bring your tiny ones to this movie.

I'm also glad that this movie might be the tipping point in people realizing that "From the director of The Nightmare Before Christmas" is not referring to Tim Burton -- it most certainly will be for this guy.