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Feb. 10th, 2009 11:11 amI meant to post this yesterday, but Coraline came in third in the weekend box office tallies with 16.8 million. I assume that's a good showing... according to the story it's about what the director's other two films managed (Nightmare Before Christmas, James and the Giant Peach), but not as much as other animated films.
Neil Gaiman had pointed out in his blog that the movie needs to do well in its first week. It's the first movie from a brand new studio (based in Portland) and has no marquee star names attached to it, and while it will almost certainly live on via DVD sales for years, a movie gets forever judged by how well it does at the box office. A good first week gives it a chance to stick around and draw more people in.
I'd still like to see it in 3 D actually. ^_^
I just re-listened to one of the NPR reviews of the movie, and they pointed out that the storyline is a bit off from the book. I guess in the book the boy Wybie does not even exist... the reviewer felt that his very presence and his role in the climax takes away from the heroine a bit. Also, her real parents are portrayed as not just distracted and inattentive as in the book, but as cold and cruelly neglectful, making one wonder why she is so desperate to get back to them. Also, at one point Coraline travels between worlds while asleep, which also isn't in the book and kind of breaks down some of the internal logic of the story -- why does the tunnel exist between the worlds if there are other ways to get there?
Of course the movie is so amazing visually that these things don't really hurt it, but these are the kind of story details that a studio like Pixar never messes up on, which is why they have been so incredibly successful. It makes you wonder how well this new studio might fare in the future.
Neil Gaiman had pointed out in his blog that the movie needs to do well in its first week. It's the first movie from a brand new studio (based in Portland) and has no marquee star names attached to it, and while it will almost certainly live on via DVD sales for years, a movie gets forever judged by how well it does at the box office. A good first week gives it a chance to stick around and draw more people in.
I'd still like to see it in 3 D actually. ^_^
I just re-listened to one of the NPR reviews of the movie, and they pointed out that the storyline is a bit off from the book. I guess in the book the boy Wybie does not even exist... the reviewer felt that his very presence and his role in the climax takes away from the heroine a bit. Also, her real parents are portrayed as not just distracted and inattentive as in the book, but as cold and cruelly neglectful, making one wonder why she is so desperate to get back to them. Also, at one point Coraline travels between worlds while asleep, which also isn't in the book and kind of breaks down some of the internal logic of the story -- why does the tunnel exist between the worlds if there are other ways to get there?
Of course the movie is so amazing visually that these things don't really hurt it, but these are the kind of story details that a studio like Pixar never messes up on, which is why they have been so incredibly successful. It makes you wonder how well this new studio might fare in the future.
