"Coraline" / "Wendy and Lucy"
The past few weeks have been stagnant at local first run cinemas, as film fans get caught up with the Oscar nominees. The majority of films released have been unceremoniously dumped by their parent companies and left to fend for themselves. Some of this dreck, such as “Mall Cop”, with nothing but dreck to compete with, has done well at the box office. But this past Friday, we finally saw some choice films released in Toronto; a movie that will appeal to everyone, (and will hopefully do big business), and a movie that is finally getting its Toronto premiere, and by many accounts, really should have been among those Oscar nominees.
“Coraline“, an adaptation of the novella by Neil Gaiman, is the first feature in 9 years from Henry Selick, best known for his stop-motion animated films “The Nightmare Before Christmas” and “James and the Giant Peach”. Now, I know there are people who’ll read this and say “‘Nightmare’ was a Tim Burton flick!”, but they’d only be partially correct; while Burton co-wrote and produced the holiday classic, Selick was the director and animator.
“Coraline” is showing at cinemas all over town, but in my opinion, there’s only two theatres you should be seeing it at: The Silvercity Cinemas at Yonge & Eglinton, or The Queensway Cinemas. Why those two? Well, they’re the only cinemas advertising “Coraline” in 3D, and, according to Jennie Punter of the Globe and Mail, it’s “quite possibly the best 3-D movie ever made.” Why WOULDN’T you want to see this in 3D, given the choice?
(A trailer and brief profile of the second movie in this post’s title lies beneath the “e-fold”. Read more…