Coraline Review

That's Coraline, pronounced 'Caw-a-lyne'. Not Caroline. Or Carolyn. Seems the only people to get that right are Coraline's mum and dad. All four of them. Four? Well, after her family moves into the gothic 'Pink Palaces Apartments' in Oregon, Coraline (voiced by Dakota Fanning) discovers a parallel dimension, accessed through a tiny door in reception.

There she discovers a spellbinding, candy-coloured mirror world, in which parents mark II are never too busy to play with her. They prepare dinner tables laden with mouthwatering roasts (and a literal gravy train) and compose songs (They Might Be Giants-penned songs but, really, you can't have everything) on magic pianos, dedicated to the very ground on which Coraline walks. The kind of stuff her workaholic, self-absorbed real-world parents have neither the time nor inclination for. "Rain makes mud, mud makes a mess" Mom no. 1 (Teri Hatcher) snaps when Coraline wants to go out and splash around. Conversely, Other Mom (also Teri Hatcher) just adores mud, glorious mud. "Mud facials, mud baths, mud pies...!"

Oh yes, the perfect parents in every way. Well, okay, there are the buttons. You're looking at the buttons, right. The black buttons Mom and Dad 2.0 have in place of their eyes. Maybe it is a bit yucky. Only now, Other Mom's insisting that Coraline has the same operation. And when she resists, things suddenly turn very nasty. As that mysterious talking cat (Keith David) warned her all along, "You probably think this is a dream come true - but you're wrong." And when Mom No.2 transforms into the awful spider-hag we guessed she was all along, Coraline must get herself, her real parents and some other trapped souls the heck out of this poisoned domain, before her eyes get poked out with sewing needles. Button Moon it ain't.