Neil Gaiman has released a sneak peek at some early, not-quite-final footage from Coraline. Based on Gaiman’s short children’s novel of the same name, Coraline is a young bored girl who discovers that bricked-up wall behind a door in her house leads to another dimension, where she has a different mother, and different father. A stop-motion film produced in stereoscopic 3-D from director Henry Selick, the guy behind The Nightmare Before Christmas, James and the Giant Peach and Monkeybone. the film features the voice talent of Dakota Fanning, Ian McShane, Teri Hatcher, and Keith David.
Neil Gaiman has yet to really impress me. I’ve me the man and interviewed him twice, and he’s intelligent, clever, and an over-all nice guy. I feel that I should like his material based off my professional interactions, but so far I’ve found myself underwhelmed by Mirrormask, Stardust and Beowulf. Not to say I didn’t like the films, I just don’t understand the huge cult following behind the projects that he creates. I have yet to read a comic or novel written by Gaiman, and maybe there is where I’m missing out. It seems to me that I like many of his ideas, but not the final film productions.
Coraline has a great concept, and the style seems very Nightmare-ish, but without the very cool Tim Burton stylings. What impresses me with this footage is some of the subtle animation. For example, watch the area of Coraoline’s back in the beginning of this clip. Watch the clip after the jump.
Coraline will hit theaters in 2008.
December 22nd, 2007 at 2:20 pm
I don’t know if it’ll be your cup of tea, but Sandman is really the primary reason why I’m crazy about Gaiman. It’s really one of the finest achievements in the fantasy genre ever.
December 22nd, 2007 at 2:34 pm
I have tried to pick up Sandman countless times, but the quality of the coloring on the art has always turned me off…
December 22nd, 2007 at 3:47 pm
“Neil Gaiman has yet to really impress me .. I just don’t understand the huge cult following behind the projects that he creates. I have yet to read a comic or novel written by Gaiman…”
That’s an odd statement. Sort of like someone saying they don’t understand why Stephen King is popular because you don’t like his movies, but have never read his books. The Cult of Gaiman has nothing to do with his movies.
December 22nd, 2007 at 4:33 pm
I am unabashedly a fan of Gaiman. That said, I’ve seen a couple of his movies and as much as it pains me to say this, they haven’t blown me away either. Gaiman is a master when it comes to wordsmithing, and if you were to pick up American Gods or Anansi Boys, you may agree. The Sandman series is considered his finest achievement, and I’m not going to argue that. I understand that the coloring is a bit uninspired, but if you look past that, you’ll find yourself wrapped up in a world that’s full of wonder and horror.
I think it goes without saying that writing comics/novels is obviously a completely different animal than screenwriting and moviemaking. If I had to guess, I’d say that Gaiman is in the process of learning to transfer his skills to the screen. It’ll be interesting to see what happens when he finally starts making Death: The High Cost of Living (a very popular 3-issue comic off-shoot of Sandman). He’s spoken about making it, but I haven’t seen nor heard of any confirmation that it’s being done. I believe in due time, Gaiman will find his voice in movies and hopefully blow us away!
December 22nd, 2007 at 5:41 pm
While the strike is on all of his new film projects have come to a stop. He is masterful when it comes to the short story, and American Gods works well because of this ability, as does Sandman. A recent re-release of The Sandman series is slowly coming out and the coloring has been reworked. The series was started in the 80’s so they didn’t have the coloring and artwork technology we have today. But it’s not really any worse than Watchmen.
December 22nd, 2007 at 6:01 pm
Just for the record, it’s “Coraline” not “Caroline.”
A friend of mine is one of the lead story artists on this project, and he’s quite excited by it. He’s a typically cynical animation pro - damn hard to impress - so if he’s charged up there must be something to it. We can hope!
December 22nd, 2007 at 6:48 pm
“I have tried to pick up Sandman countless times, but the quality of the coloring on the art has always turned me off…”
You’ll be happy to know that the early issues did have legitimate coloring issues, and they have re-colored the stories recently for the huge hard cover Absolute editions.
December 22nd, 2007 at 6:53 pm
Ary,
I know this, but for someone who is not a fan, it’s not worth the investment of a huge hardcover book to find out if I like the series. It’s a shame that they are waiting to suck all the money out of the Gaiman fans before releasing the re-colored editions in softcover
December 22nd, 2007 at 6:56 pm
Following on from Gabe K.’s comment, I feel that the problem with Neil Gaiman’s movies is the medium - he’s a fantastic prose writer because he understands the material and writes scenes with lots of subtext. However, he doesn’t create strong characters or dialogue - it’s very difficult to connect with any of his characters because they only outwardly display very basic emotions and responses, and he doesn’t give a lot of insight as to what they’re thinking or feeling internally.
I would argue that the one character that he’s had the most success with is Death, and that’s primarily because it was such an original anthropomorphism. I would also argue that the titular Sandman of the famous graphic novels was merely a MacGuffin to write about The Dreaming. It tends to be his highly stylized fantasy settings that captures the interest of readers rather than the actual characters within them.
Unfortunately screenplays tend to revolve around character and dialogue. In this medium, all the nuance that he typically packs into a scene has to be converted to a form that’s unfamiliar for him. The result is that his subtext becomes supertext - one of the more noticeable examples of this was in Beowulf when Hrothgar offers the dragon horn as a reward for defeating Grendel, saying “She will be yours forever” while Wealthow stands in the foreground. It’s clumsy phrasing used to bludgeon a point home to the audience (and it doesn’t help that Robert Zemeckis is not the most subtle of directors either).
I’m hoping that it’s just a matter of finding his rhythm and the right creative talents to work with, but since three of his projects have been flawed (although still acceptable) I’m starting to wonder if he’s simply not very good at it. In which case the best option would be to let someone who understands the source material adapt it for him (although I could understand his reluctance given what’s happened in the past with adaptations of Alan Moore’s works).
December 22nd, 2007 at 6:59 pm
I absolutely adore the novel Coraline, but I’m not a big fan of the clip I just saw. I think the story would have been much more intriguing and less comical/wacky in live-action, but that’s just me.
December 24th, 2007 at 12:18 pm
I just saw Stardust last night, and I was amazed at how good it was. . . I mean it looked like a listless fantasy flop when it came out. . . but I was suprised at how well it was done on several different levels.
January 7th, 2008 at 9:57 am
wow i love the book coraline it rocks dude i luv it
August 5th, 2008 at 1:08 pm
The reason I enjoy Gaiman’s work- beyond just the Sandman- is that as your read them you can see the movie playing out in your mind. He writes like he’s creating a script. I can always see the way the stories would unfold like a movie. I guess all books are suppose to in some way do that. I’ve never experienced it quite the way I do when I read Neil Gaiman’s stories. Mirror Mask I find to be incredible. I think its a style that you have to like- and it won’t appeal to everyone, but that’s a good thing. If he was liked by everyone he’d be pretty boring.