It’s practically an iron-clad rule of turning books into movies: the movies are never as good as the book. … right? Well, say hello to the black sheep of the books-turned-movies film family: Neil Gaiman’s Coraline.

 What began as a bedtime story for his eldest daughter, and then later finished as a bedtime story for his youngest will be hitting the big screens (in 3D no less!) on February 6th. Featuring mysterious keys that fit into similarly mysterious doors, Other Mothers, eccentric neighbours that are equal parts disturbing and endearing, and button eyes, Coraline is not a typical run-of-the-mill children’s tale; it is a children’s story that heralds back to the origins of fairy tales, full of darkly delightful themes and imagery that makes the hearts of children and adults alike jump and skip and positively frolic. And all just in time to provide a much-needed breath of fresh cinematic air in the midst of what amounts to the annual Nile flooding of romantic Valentine’s comedies/tearjerkers. The timing couldn’t have been better, in this author’s humble opinion.

Due to a number of amazingly lucky turns of coincidence, I had the chance to attend a preview screening of said movie at the Scotiabank theatre this Monday. Neil Gaiman himself was also in attendance. The exact details of the chain of events that led from my gleeful yelps at one am on Saturday night to my presence in the assigned theatre come Monday morning are not of particular importance or interest, although I do suspect that I have now used up the entirety of my Strategic Reserves of Karma for the next decade or so. (And I was saving up for the 2012 Armageddon too. Sigh.)

Thus it came to pass that at approximately 6:45 pm on Monday the 2nd, I was jostling into the Scotiabank Theatre along with many other excited, chattering folk of all ages and walks of life for the preview screening of the Coraline movie. In a word, it was good. In two words, very good. And in slightly more words: (more…)