Coraline is based on Neil Gaiman’s 2002 international best-selling book and his story has been brought to life on the screen by "The Nightmare Before Christmas" director Henry Selick. “No surely you mean Tim Burton” I hear you say. Although Tim Burton wrote and produced “The Nightmare Before Christmas” Henry Selick deserves the credit for introducing us to some marvelous stop-motion animation. “Coraline” has this similar quality and is the first high definition, stop-motion animated feature to be shot in 3-D.

Coraline is an adventurous 11-year old girl (voiced by Dakota Fanning) who has just moved to a new house in Oregon. Her parents (voiced by Teri Hatcher and John Hodgman) are both writers who work from home and are so involved in their laptops that they don’t devote any quality time to Coraline and as an only child has to make her own entertainment.

She starts to explore her new environment and discovers some weird and eccentric neighbours. There’s the two doddery old English actresses (voiced by French & Saunders) and an even more whacky Russian ex circus performer Mr Bobinski (voiced by another Brit Ian Mcshane). When she does finally come across someone her own age, a young boy called Wybie (also quite odd) Coraline just regards him as a strange annoying loser.

t’s when Coraline discovers a secret door in the house that the story really begins. After crawling through the small door she finds herself in an alternate world where she discovers her ‘other’ Mother who can’t do enough for her and her ‘other’ Father who is funny and attentive and their world seems exciting and full of fun. The other major difference between these alternate parents and her real family is that the ‘other’ couple has buttons for eyes as do all the inhabitants of this ‘Wonderland’.

Coraline travels back and forward from each dimension until one day the adventure turns dangerous, and her ‘other’ Mother (also voiced by Teri Hatcher]) has plans to keep her forever and wants to swop Coraline’s eyes for buttons to become like them. Coraline must count on her bravery and resourcefulness to save herself, her real parents and some mysterious ghost children. However, she does get a little help from her eccentric neighbours, Wybie and a talking black cat who curiously is the only other character who can travel between worlds brilliantly voice by Keith David ( the Dad in There’s Something about Mary and Childs in The Thing) Unlike most Disney animated films this Universal offering carries a PG certificate and with good reason. It scares the hell out of you! It’s the stuff nightmares are made of and kids and adults alike will just love it.

3D production is making a come back at the moment which isn’t a bad thing as long as it’s used for a reason and done well. Rather than just a gimmick the ‘eye popping’ 3D actually enhances the story and feel of the film and some of the scenes in ‘Coraline’ are stunning to look at.

Neil Gaiman had director Henry Selick in mind to direct an adaptation of his book since watching ‘Nightmare Before Christmas’ and ‘James and the Giant Peach’ and Gaiman had his agent send Selick a copy of his draft before the book was published. The choice of cast was spot on as well, everybody plays their part perfectly and French & Saunders seemed the natural choice after they had already added their voice talents to the ‘Coraline’ audio book. I can’t wait to see it again.