Regardless of its esteemed pedigree of writer Neil Gaiman and director/animator Henry Selick ("The Nightmare Before Christmas"), this creepy gothic kids' movie doesn't approach anything that the Brother Grimm cooked up on an off day.
The animation is never as inspired as the films that Aardman ("Wallace & Gromit") puts out on a regular basis. Little witchy Coraline Jones (voiced by Dakota Fanning) is bored with her milquetoast parents (voiced by Teri Hatcher and John Hodgman) and their 150-year-old house that they've recently moved into.
But Coraline's ennui fades when she finds a portal into a mirror reality where her parents are kinder and the house is better painted and has better lighting.
The only catch is that if Coraline wants to stay in the more festive reality, she'll have to have her eyes sewn up with buttons. Yes, with buttons.
The 3-D effects are less than impressive, and as a character Coraline is a shade too snotty to ever completely win over the audience.
Keith David adds pizzazz as the leathery voice of a quirky black cat that comes to Coraline's rescue, but it's not enough to save the movie from itself.
(Focus Features) Rated PG. 101 mins.
