Stop-motion is an ill-used technology that has more or less lain dormant since the quasi-retirement of Ray Harryhausen. When married to the right material, stop-motion is a fantastic experience, and in the hands of Henry Selick, a blessed union that will live happily ever after.

Selick, the twisted taleteller behind those favorites of the Hot Topic set: “Nightmare Before Christmas” and “James and The Giant Peach” (“Monkeybone” can be stricken from the record) strikes gold again with the azure headed misfit “Coraline.”

The story of the titular Coraline isn’t anything new or incendiary but funneled through the mind of Selick, whose presentation is so fresh and imaginative, the experience is new and fun.

Uprooted from her native Michigan, Coraline (Dakota Fanning) is thrust into a world of eccentrics and drunks, where she doesn’t know anybody save for her neglectful parents, who sometimes appear to regard her as the bane of their existence. She makes an acquaintance with local rapscallion Wybie (Robert Bailey, Jr.), the grandson of Coraline’s landlord, and seemingly the only person with knowledge of the house’s malevolent history.

Through sheer boredom, Coraline discovers a hidden door in their house that leads her on a Carrollesque adventure into the “other” world. In the other world, where people unexplainably wear buttons for eyes, everything is as Coraline would want it. The “other” world is seemingly perfect and everyone appears happy, but there is an overwhelming sense of dread and menace when Little Girl Blue spends her time there.

Coraline’s “other” mother is the driving force behind the bombast and spectacle, the likes of living plants and breakfast for dinner feasts that Coraline experiences down the rabbit hole. The other mother wants Coraline to stay, to love her forever and ever, but Coraline wants none of it. Coraline wants nothing more than to return to her bleak, mundane existence in the real world, and with that single act of defiance, Coraline finds her parental figures “adult napped” upon her return and she must be their savior.

Teri Hatcher’s voice work as mother/other mother is apathetic and creepy, respectfully. Mother is convincingly disdainful towards Coraline, and other mother is downright intimidating. The voice work in its entirety is commendable for the quirkiness and authenticity it lends to the eccentricities of the house’s residents. Jennifer Saunders and Dawn French bring a hint of world-weariness and indifference to the likes of Miss Spink and Miss Forcible, two aged flappers still stuck in their glory days.

The real standout is Ian Mcshane who brings Coralie’s upstairs neighbor Mr. Bobinski to life. Bobinski is the impresario behind the lackluster mouse circus that provides much of the agitation in the other world, and a man with an affinity for smelly cheeses.

Much like the other stop-motion entries in Selick’s oeuvre, Coraline would be a perfect kid’s movie were in not for the fact that it’s not really intended for children. The film packs more originality and fantasy than the typical fare haphazardly thrown together to entertain/sell toys to children nowadays. And unlike the director’s previous attempts, Coraline is too much of a slow burn to gather the cult following The Nightmare Before Christmas has garnered.

Beautiful and impressive, charming and odd, Coraline is like a fantasy world lovechild of Jim Henson and Tim Burton, but doesn’t quite know who it wants to appeal to. Coraline is worth a watch, but it’s not going to have the legacy of those previously mentioned mad geniuses brainchildren that will captivate the imagination of children and remain lifelong favorites well into adulthood.