Coraline is awesome animation.

I mean really awesome. Just on a technical level alone it demands and earns your applause (which it won at the show I attended). As a showcase for animation...things like this should remind those who don't already know it that well, there's animation and then there's animation.

(Technically, the dragon in Dragonheart was animation. You see what I mean?)

I don't know enough about the differences in technique between stop-motion and CGI to say why this is, but there's something about the way the stop-motion figures move which seems more...human. I love what CGI can do in a movie like The Incredibles but sometimes it's missing a beating heart, which Coraline has.

Yet it's an utterly fantastic world, absolutely gorgeous.

I think it'll also prove to be the kind of movie which lingers in the memory: I'm already anxious to see it again on DVD--and wondering about extras--on my own. When I can think about it a little more deeply and not be keeping one eye (at least mentally) on the nephew.

From one viewing I can say this thing: It's smart and funny and...nightmarish. And beautiful.

(That all goes for the score by Bruno Coulais, about which I wanted to be sure to say a special word, too.)

Fair warning if anyone reading this has young children they're thinking of taking: It is a little scary in one or two places. But I think not intolerably so, as long as they can close their eyes when they want to and there's a grown-up nearby.

My nephew is seven now and he was a little scared, but I think he also had fun. Consider the child in question and act appropriately.

Perhaps you shouldn't know much more about the story than you can get from the trailer,

...but I will say this: The cat is alright!

Reportedly the film's done very well for its opening weekend, which doesn't really surprise me. There was a line at the box office and the theater was almost full on a Sunday afternoon.

You want to see this one, you really do.