Coraline: A Visual Companion ~Stephen Jones
–published 2009
–It Books
–240 pages
–Rating of art quality in the book: 3/5 stars
–Rating of written material: 5/5 stars
–Overall rating (factoring in Carl Math): 4.5/5 stars
Though still technically a month away, I found myself pouring a bit of lighter fluid on the flame that is beginning to grow for the R.I.P. V Challenge, when I discovered Coraline: A Visual Companion while wandering around the reference section of my local library this past Monday evening. I haven’t watched the film since just after its DVD release last summer, and haven’t read the novel since the inaugural R.I.P. Challenge in 2006, but when I saw the spunky heroine from Henry Selick’s incredible stop-motion adaptation on the cover, all my love of book and film came flooding back and I knew that my first act upon returning home from the library would be to crack it open.
And I did just that. 🙂
Let me start off by gushing that this is a wonderful book*
The *caveat being that it is a wonderful book if what you were expecting was an in-depth ‘behind the scenes’ discussion with author, film-maker and the vocal talent about the process of the writing of the book, the making of the film, and the realization of the characters in a 3-D format. If what you were expecting was a book filled with high-quality images from pre- and post-production, then some disappointment is sure to be registered, as can be seen in the negative reviews the book has received on Amazon.com.
I proved myself to be a less-than-astute observer of book titles in that it took the perusal of a few of the negative reviews to bring me to the realization that the book doesn’t exactly deliver on the promises of its title. Coraline: A Visual Companion does contain ample visual material, and some of it is fantastic. Especially enjoyable are the many pre-production design images by Dave McKean for the original U.S. hardcover edition and the pre-production design images for the film by Japanese illustrator Tadahiro Uesugi. One thing I do not want to see in any ‘visual companion’ of a film is the same images that I have seen everywhere else and the addition of these images, along with personal photos of Neil Gaiman and his children, photos of the actors performing dialogue, and photos of sets, props, costumes, etc. and the people who worked on the film made this especially enjoyable. In addition there are a number of nice full-page screen shots of the film itself. It is the varying degrees of the quality of these shots that elicits the many very legitimate complaints.
For reasons completely unfathomable, hi-res full-page images compete with very low-res, blurry, poor quality full-page images. For a film that was shot digitally with 3-D technology there is really no reason that makes any sense why all the images in the book would not be hi-res. There are also a few poster-art images and concept art images that appear as if the production team took the first image they found during an online search and blew it up well beyond its proper resolution simply because they wanted to fit said image into the book’s size format. Those instances of poor production value are really not excusable in a book that proves on so many other pages that there were high quality images to be had.
Negatives aside, I loved this book. It truly was a page-turner for me. I was spoiled in the early 2000’s with the behind-the-scenes access provided by the film-makers of The Lord of the Rings movies. It is that kind of access that I long for and rarely get when it comes to films. In many ways Coraline: A Visual Companion is a prose version of that kind of in-depth behind the scenes footage. As a long time fan of Neil Gaiman I had certainly read a great deal about the book in the many interviews he gave around the time just before and after the book’s release. Yet I found myself learning things that I hadn’t heard before, in particular a nugget about the kind of voice he was going for in the book which gave me one of those “lightbulb”, “angels singing” moments. Neil and his daughters Holly and Maddy are quoted several times throughout the book and as the original inspirations for starting and finishing the story it is fun to get their take on the story and on its realization in film.
Coraline: A Visual Companion is not a self-congratulatory “look what we did” ego boost for the people involved. It really is, in many ways, a love letter to the fans of both coming of age stories and people who feel an affection for stop-motion animation. I have long been a fan of director Henry Selick and to have this kind of access into his insight and his creative method was a real pleasure. Coraline–the movie, is one of only a handful of films adapted from books that I cherish that I have been overwhelmingly pleased with and this book is icing on the cake for what will certainly be one of the movies that is in my queue for at least one viewing annually.
If you are a fan this is a book that comes highly recommended by yours truly. I will certainly be keeping my eye out for a nice used copy as it is a book that I want to add to my collection.
For further information on Coraline, I point you to:
Coraline: An Unexpected Pleasure
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This book is a selection for the 2010 Support Your Local Library Challenge
Well those pictures sure look pretty 🙂
I really must see about rewatching Coraline at some point
Fence: I bought the special edition that has the 3-D version with the 3-D glasses. I have yet to try out that version to see if it in any way at all compares to seeing it in 3-D at the theater.
Oooh, I can’t wait to hear if it works then, do let us know
I have 4 lord of the rings books filled with photo’s and a few autographs to boot! I was just upset that they stopped having the LotR conventions before I could get more autographs in the books! I also have the King Kong book (jackson version) with Andy Serkis photo in it.. autographed!
I too have been thinking of RIP.. so much so that I am having trouble choosing books to read THIS month because I don’t want to read something I could use for RIP ! I can’t wait!!
The LOTR visual companions were stunning. I love Coraline (book and movie) and though I really, really shouldn’t do it, I’m looking forward to RIP 🙂
Maree: No, you definitely SHOULD do RIP!!! 😉 September/October reading simply must include at least one RIP type read.
Deslily: Those sound like wonderful treasures. I’m so glad you got to meet those folks, especially Andy Serkis who I know you are very fond of. I don’t have the King Kong book but I did get the King Kong Diaries DVD set with all the behind the scenes stuff on it. Very fun! I too am having a hard time not getting overly ambitious for RIP. The two months passes very quickly and I always have a lot going on that cuts into reading time. Still, I can’t wait. 🙂
What a great book to find in the library! I’m really looking forward to RIP too – going to start thinking what to read – makes me feel good about the evenings getting darker already.
so the RIP thing is about graphic novels and animation. I hadn’t understood that. I used to watch a great deal of it, from Disney to anime and stop-motion, but my interest has waned.
Richard: hmmm…not sure where you got that from, but RIP is not about graphic novels and animation, although both have their place in mix. RIP is R.eaders I.mbibing P.eril so it is all about anything that one interprets as gothic, creepy, eerie, etc. Covers horror, suspense, mystery, thrillers, etc. It is a reading challenge but I always like to mix in other mood-appropriate media as the entire thing is scheduled around autumn and culminates on Halloween night. I certainly have my own Halloween-season rituals as far as films I watch and Nightmare Before Christmas, The Corpse Bride, and now Coraline all get a re-watch during the season.
I haven’t been as thrilled with the quality of story being told in traditional animation of late, but I am still very much enthralled with the stop-motion process, particularly because of the dedication spent in making it happen. It is such a painstakingly slow, deliberate process and yet lends itself to such imaginative results. I love the tactile, substantial quality of stop-motion animation.
Ah. Thanks for the clarification, Carl. Not that gothic, creepy, eerie, etc. is my cuppa, but I appreciate knowing.
Forgive me if I seem… a little down, just a ton of stuff going on just now, not all of it particularly happy. But then you’re busy too, we all are.
Sorry to hear that Richard. Feel free to shoot me an email. Its bad enough when bad things happen, but if your weather is as miserable as it is here (and I hope it isn’t) then that just makes everything worse. I’m busy, but it seems worse with the oppressive heat and humidity.
No worries, just wanted to make sure that you knew what it was about. As big a mystery fan as you are I have no doubt that participation will be second nature to you. 🙂
Shiny.
I have the visual companion book for Serenity with technical drafts, photos, words from Joss Whedon, and the script.
*sigh* Now I know I have to read the original novel. When did you say RIP V was beginning?
ds: Oh, definitely you should read Coraline. RIP V begins Sept. 1st and ends Oct 31st (although I generally ‘officially’ announce it a bit earlier and several of us choose to get a jump start).
Mish: The Serenity and Firefly companion books, and essay books, are really nice.
ds – I hope you get a chance to read the book. As nice as movie is, which I did like, the book is a lot better IMHO.
Okay, I definitely need to look for this one! Thanks for the review 🙂
“Though still technically a month away, I found myself pouring a bit of lighter fluid on the flame that is beginning to grow for the R.I.P. V Challenge..”
Yay! I’m so excited! I’m already working on my list. 🙂 And I think I’ll have to add this one too it. I love Henry Sellick’s work, I love Neil Gaiman, and I love Coraline; both book and movie. And I am fascinated by the whole movie process, when it comes to movies like this. Nightmare Before Christmas is definitely in the tippytop top five of my favorite movies ever. Thanks for the great review Carl, I’m off to see about getting this!
Okay, sorry to pop back in with this, but I’m still confused. Coraline is fantasy. The film is animation. In what way is this crime, horror or gothic?
I would say that Coraline is young adult horror more so than fantasy. Although I would add that horror and fantasy are hard to define which is why I’ve heard Gaiman refer to them usually under one umbrella such a speculative fiction.
I’m not sure that animation makes one difference or not.
Fair enough, Jeff. Thanks.
Richard, Jeff:
Yes, I would definitely classify Coraline as horror and not fantasy, or if fantasy only if it is some kind of fantasy/horror subgenre. Black Cat, creatures with button eyes, ghost children, a creepy, spider-like hand, confronting the idea of losing one’s parents, etc.
Last winter, I read Coraline and watched the movie with my 11-year old. The movie was okay, in my opinion, but the book was great. Actually, I thought the book was most certainly on the horror side for kids whereas I did not think the movie was creepy at all. I guess I did not “feel” the suspense with the movie as I did with the book and really…it does not take much for me to “feel” suspense with movies.
Also, just to mention, I am not a big fan of 3-D. Over the last year, I have seen two 3-D movies in the theater and was underwhelmed even though the movies themselves were great. Alice in Wonderland (loved that movie) and A Christmas Carol(have never appreciated the story until this past year and the movie was pretty good.). Out of those two, A Christmas Carol was far better in regards to 3-D.
Ibeeg: Alice’s 3-D effects were pretty gimicky. I didn’t feel the same way about Coraline. Avatar’s 3-D effects were amazing and a very immersive part of a just so-so film (in my opinion). I personally hope the 3-D fad plays itself out quickly.
I should note that I have not actually seen Coraline in 3-D. I watched the DVD with EJ, and opted to not view it in 3-D with the glasses that came along with the disc. If I don’t like 3-D in the theaters then I probably will definitly not like it at home.
My parents saw Avatar in a Imax theater with one of my girls…I think it was my oldest. Anyway, they seem to have liked the movie a whole lot. I think the 3-D visuals impressed them. Me…I don’t want to spend my time watching the movie. For some reason, it is not calling my name.
Oh, have you seen Inception? Have not…not yet anyway. But my parents took Evie see the movie. Evie liked the movie A LOT, and parents did too, most especially my Dad. This movie I do want to see but must wait until it is on DVD.
I’ve seen Inception three times actually, twice in IMAX. Can’t believe I haven’t done a review of it, it is a fantastic film, and amazing with IMAX picture quality and sound.
Did anyone see this in theatres? I wanted to go opening night but couldnt because I had to work