February 17, 2009

Coraline




I was so lucky to be at the screening of CORALINE on Sunday night as part of the Dublin Film Festival. In case you don't know it is a 3D animation based on Neil Gaiman's fantastic book of the same title. Neil was there on the night and introduced the film and did a question and answer session afterwards. Neil Jordan was also there on Sunday night. The two talked about their collaboration on Gaiman's The Graveyard Book. Neil Jordan is going to direct the movie version. You can read about it on Neil's blog here.

The movie was stunning, I was mesmerised. And all the more so as it was totally made by hand. Althea Crome a micro knitter knit all the little tiny jumpers that the characters wear, including the glow in the dark star jumper.
The 3D experience had a delicate touch, not heavy handed whatsoever. It was akin to falling through the rabbit's hole in Alice and Wonderland. The movie is directed by Henry Selick, whom Gaiman explained was actually the director of Tim Burton's The Nightmare Before Christmas.

Shane Prigmore was one of the artist's involved in the final character development. He says on his blog 'The team Henry compiled was not to be believed , and I was honored to be a part of it. Shannon Tindle , Dan Krall, and Myself , would be responsible for the FINAL CHARACTER DESIGN in the film.'

Go have a look at the amazing work, very inspirational!

4 comments:

valentina said...

I was there too, the film was amazing!

David Maybury said...

Damnit - missed ye again.

It was a great movie - almost better then Nightmare Before ;)

Unknown said...

Thanks for telling us about this - I didn't realise it was 3D. The micro-knitter link was a real eye-opener!

Niamh Sharkey said...

HI Valentina, Yes it was amazing I am reading the Graveyard Book too at the moment and really enjoying it. See you soon :-)
Yes The micro knitter boggles the brain!