Coraline (In Periodically Satisfying 3D!)

Impressions before seeing it
I thought Coraline looked cool (I had an idea once about a doppelganger universe), and then one of my Flixster buddies described it as being "packed with imagination and creativity". Well, to let you in on a little secret, that's the exact kind of description that will get me to see a movie. Then I discovered the DVD included a 3D version. Sold!

How was it?
My first concern upon seeing the included red and green style 3D glasses was that I wouldn't get much colour out of the movie except for reds and greens. Well, those were the most dominant colours of course but to my surprise other colours made it through just fine. Not to say that it's colourful in 3D (a lot of shots still contain a very limited number of colours), but what they've done is a sort of Pleasantville effect, where certain things become highlighted by tones contrasting the washed out look in the rest of the frame. So it's actually kind of cool even though we tend to prefer things in full colour. My second concern was that the old style 3D would not be as good as the theater 3D, and that one was correct. The effect here was hit and miss: some shots looked awesome (though not as protrusive as in the theater), but most had really no 3D whatsoever, making the lack of colour more of an issue again.

But as for the movie itself, I loved it. It is a pretty creative film, visually and storywise, and actually is probably too much for young kids because it can also be creepy at times. The voice acting was also top notch and even though the animation is stop motion it was very smooth, an improvement over The Nightmare Before Christmas. I guess my one small complaint with the writing is that Coraline is too perceptive. When you're a kid, you don't notice things like subtlety and underlying motives, you only see what's on the surface, and I think Coraline was getting a little too suspicious when her fake parents were being overly nice. But it didn't really bother me that much, Coraline is a fun and original movie.

Recommendation
Don't watch it for the 3D DVD, watch it because it's awesome!