Monday, October 27, 2008

New cartoon "Coraline" fuses stop-motion, 3-D

By Carolyn Giardina

LOS ANGELES (Hollywood Reporter) - Director Henry Selick describes his upcoming "Coraline" as a marriage of "old-fashioned" stop-motion animation with the latest 3-D techniques.

During a footage presentation Friday, roughly 20 minutes of Focus Features' "Coraline" -- the first stop-motion animated film to be produced in stereoscopic 3-D -- was shown. It was mostly finished, though it did include some temp music.

"Coraline" is an adaptation of Neil Gaiman's best seller, which follows a young girl who walks through a secret door in her new home and discovers an alternate version of her life. The film opens wide on February 6.

The clips shown Friday include the sequence where Coraline (voiced by Dakota Fanning) discovers and enters the alternate world. In that environment, Coraline encounters the "Other Mother" (Teri Hatcher), who tries to keep her from going home, as well as a variety of characters who perform circus-style acts. In another scene, the girls run from the home, but as Coraline distances herself, the colors and setting seems to wash away.

The clips demonstrated how Selick -- shooting his first stop-motion feature since 1993's "Tim Burton's The Nightmare Before Christmas" -- uses the 3-D format as part of the storytelling. For instance, the sequence in Coraline's real world is fairly shallow, while the director brings greater depth to the alternate environment.

"I love how 3-D captures the essence of stop motion," he said.

"Coraline" is being produced in Portland, Ore., at Laika Entertainment, the Phil Knight-owned facility that encompasses the former Vinton Studios.

Selick's "The Nightmare Before Christmas" has been remastered in stereoscopic 3-D and was rereleased in the format in fall 2006, last year an again this year.

Reuters/Hollywood Reporter

This is a great children's book which I highly recommend.


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