Coraline (2009)

The dark and beautifully weird stop-motion animation "Coraline" is surely due some year-end Oscar love. It's neck and neck with "Up," maybe surpassing it, as my favorite animated film of the year. How much do I love this film? It struck me the same way David Lynch's surreal trips down warped minds get to me, and that is huge.

Based on a story by Neil Gaiman and directed by Henry Selick ("The Nightmare Before Christmas" - an absolute favorite), it follows lonely Coraline (voiced by Dakota Fanning) as she moves into an apartment of a strangely pink pink house with her busy garden magazine writer parents (voiced by Teri Hatcher and John Hodgman). She soon meets a geeky boy next door, an acrobat and two former actresses as her neighbors, but nonetheless feels neglected. Stranger still is the tiny door in her parents' living room that leads to a new world, perfect in every detail, form and action except that everyone has buttons for eyes. (Take that as no soul. Or just buttons for eyes.)

I won't spoil anything more because this is a brilliant film not so much for young children, but the child buried in all adults. It may actually be too scary for young children. The stop-motion animation and visual effects improve upon anything I've seen before, including the classic "Nightmare." The film isn't as much a take off of "Alice in Wonderland" as it is a prelude to "Pan's Labyrinth," where the magical world a child escapes to is far, far worse than the life they want to leave behind. (I say prelude as the book "Coraline" came out in 2002, and "Pan's" original-screenplay film was released in 2006.)

Hatcher is a marvel as the Mother, Other Mother (with the button eyes) and so much more, and who knew Hodgman (he of those IBM/Mac commercials) had such a stellar singing voice? Selick is an ace director, a creator of worlds more frightening, magical and deep than Burton has realized in a long, long time. Or Lynch. This will be on my year end best list. Gaiman is a god of writing. A