Coraline in Wonderland

If Alice in Wonderland were retold by the Mad Hatter, it might look something like Henry Selick’s 3-D, stop-motion Coraline, in which the bored, blue-haired 11-year-old of the title (voiced by Dakota Fanning) travels through the looking glass and ends up in a world that strangely resembles her own — except that everyone has buttons for eyes. Well, that plus the minor detail that Coraline’s rabbit hole is more of a papier-mâché umbilical cord extending from a small door concealed by living-room wallpaper. And instead of a grinning Cheshire cat, here we have a melancholic black stray who speaks — as cats are able to on the other side of that wall — in the distinctive tenor of John Carpenter sideman, Keith David.

Sun., April 5, 2009