Anyone seen this? I borrowed it from a friend and we had to turn it off half way through! Felix was hiding behind the chair and ended up in tears and for ages afterwards was screwing his eyes up trying to get the images from his head (he told me this, I was not just guessing). Even Isaac said to me that actually, he was pretty glad I turned it off, it was quite scary. Sinister is more accurate a description. It's not ghoulish or horror-like, of violent. Just this undertone of doom, anxiety and general sinister-ness.
Story: girl moves to new apartment building with her rather neglectful self-occupied parents. She finds a doll that looks exactly like herself (blue hair, yellow raincoat) though it's pretty old. Then discovers a wallpapered over tiny doorway and in the middle of the night follows a tripped out tunnel into a parallel universe - finding her 'other' parents. Only these are the ones she always dreamed of - loving attentive, mum cooks great food, fabulous garden etc etc. Except. They have buttons for eyes. Like the doll. I won't give the game away if you fancy watching it (sans children if they are sensitive or under 10-12). Pretty chilly.
Images portraying preoccupied parents (on laptops) notions of parents not being good enough, or the super hyper parenting that is seen to devour their children. Boy with mouth sewn into a smile/grimace. Dead ghost children (previous victims). You get the idea.
I kinda liked it for myself, even though it made me uncomfortable (sometimes in a film that can be ok). Although the next day, I guess after having absorbed it, chatted together, they both came to me begging to be allowed to watch the end as they were sure she'd triumph (she does, ok, I spoiled it). Kids! It was day time, so I sat with them and they seemed pleased with the ending, and it finished something of for them that I think might have been left open had they not watched it. They ran around for a bit with some buttons on their eyes (freaks) and laughed and then forgot all about it. Phew.
Our local arty cafe shows free kids films on a Sunday morning and this was one of them that was tired to make and could not (thank goodness!). We did catch Ice Age 3 last week and this weekend it's Up showing which I will take the boys too. there is something great about watching a film for free in a downstairs cafe. We don't have TV and this is a good compromise. Plus it feels like a real treat.
Anyone else see Coraline and like /dislike it? What about your kids?
12 comments:
Jenna saw posters and asked about it, but we'd seen adverts online and told her "one day, not yet!" I think sometimes the atmosphere is a bigger deal than specific themes or events - that's certainly the case for Jenna anyhow!
Haven't seen Coraline but wanted to give a small warning about Up. My 7 year old, who is quite sensitive to any kind of "peril" in movies, was absolutely terrified by it and had nightmares afterward. There are some very sweet and funny moments, but also scary ones- evil man chasing the "good guys" with a gun, mean guard dogs on the chase. A happy ending, but pretty intense there in the middle. Of course, it depends on what your boys find scary...
Meredith
We have an almost 11 yr old and she loved it. It is one of her favorites, got it for Christmas. Her and hubby have watched it multiple times. But I do see where it might be distressing for a child younger than 10.
Blessings
Diane
We borrowed this from the library and have to say I really liked it and so did my daughter who is 4. We watched it together and she loved it. She is okay with some "peril" - she likes Tim Burtin's "The Nightmare Before Christmas" and "Corpse Bride" too, and Coraline has a similar atmosphere to it.
I think at all ages children and adults have different levels of what you find scary, I never find films scary and have seen many of what people consider to be the scariest in my time.
I haven't seen it myself but two of mine have been traumatised by it whilst with friends. Lib (11) went to see it at the cinema with a group of friends but she had to go out as she was so frightened by it. Daisy (8) saw it a couple of w'ends ago at a sleepover party and I was furious that we weren't asked first if it was ok! When we got the invite she said they'd be watching Harry Potter not Coraline! I'd have definately said no in advance. Daisy watched it all the way through (she's a sticker) but has had nightmares since. She said she kept seeing bits of the film whenever she closed her eyes during the daytine too and that lasted for a couple of days. Although I haven't seen it for myself, I really question it's PG rating. Anything that can give Daisy nightmares has got to be pretty strong stuff!
Talie
x
This was leant to me and I had no idea what it was; had a quick look online saw it was animation so sat and watched it with Rye.
It is really rather chilling; however it all seems to go over Rye's head, and I'm not entirely sure why but he loves it and asks to watch it quite frequently.
But then I suspect he's too young to understand the storyline.
We haven't watched it, I am VERY cautious about children's films, mostly because I am so sensitive to films myself. I will warn DH though as he often comes back with a film every so often for the children to watch!
My youngest (9) had this book for her book club a while ago and a lot of the girls were a little disturbed! It is very strange but my children have a leaning towards the strange and spooky so they were fine. I would be very careful with this as it was originally in the young adult section of Waterstones but it's now crept into the childrens section.
We found Coraline really creepy. I'm not sure I'd have taken him to see it if I'd seen more detail about it first though.
We have the film and surprisingly the boys love it. They don't find it scary but do wonder about why the "othermother" wanted to keep Coraline, whether she was sad that she had no children, and why she wants to hurt them if she does want them. I think they see in the film from a logical POV, in that they didn't really see the sinisterness of it but instead saw the reasoning of why what was happening happened? Although I have to say if I had known what it was like I probably would not have let them watch it as it is typical Tim Burton. But once they had seen it I didn't see the point in preventing them from seeing it again and it is now a favourite. It also opens up quite a few discussions about families and behaviours.
My biggest two both loved it (they're 3 and 6) but they love nightmare before christmas and corpse bride too!
I thought it was an awesome film but... it scared me (and hubby!) and got my heart racing so i would think twice about showing it to kids. Even older ones - it's one of those films with images that really stay with you.
Neil Gaiman, who wrote the book, wrote it as a crossover for older kids AND adults - so in a way it could be seen as just an animated adult film... I do think they should have put an advisory rating on it - or even a 12...
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