We watched “Coraline” in the theaters when it opened — goodness, i think we even went to see it ON opening weekend, which we never, ever do (crowds!).  But i like Gaiman and i love stop-motion animation and i really wanted to show my support for this project when and where and how it would count most: that is, with my money in a cinema on opening weekend.

We rented a copy of the DVD this week to consider it as a possible addition to our collection.

It’s interesting just how different my reaction was  1 year later.Last year i wrote:

I think i liked everything about “Coraline.”  The story translated really well to the screen: the pacing was just right, the voice acting suited each character.  And the visuals.  The visuals were perfect — very rich, very detailed, and perfect for the story.

This year?  Well, almost everything i wrote last year still stands — i loved the visuals, and i still think the pacing and voice acting was quite good.

Unfortunately, this year i was just completely put off by the story itself.  I really didn’t like that the story was “buck up, Coraline.  Your parents ignore you and you’ll just have to put up with it.  YOU be the adult.”  I also really, really, thoroughly did not like that the finishing blow to the Other Mother was dealt by Wybie.  Andy said: “I wouldn’t have minded if Wybie had assisted.  But it should have been Coraline who finished the job.”  Exactly.  I liked the way the Cat assisted Coraline with acquiring all of the eyes, but i hated how Wybie basically saved Coraline from the Other Mother’s hand.

And speaking of the eyes, why did Coraline only have to find 1 eye for each of the 3 ghost children?  The children seemed to have the usual complement of 2 eyes each.  Shouldn’t that be 6?  I don’t think i’m that bad at math.  And i’m not sure the economy of the story would have been thrown off if Coraline had simply had to find a pair of eyes in each of the 3 wonders.

So, alas, “Coraline” is off the list of DVDs i want to own.  And now i need to go back and re-read the novella.  I was underwhelmed last time; now i’m especially curious to see what i think of it.