According to a recent interview, Neil Gaiman wanted Henry Selick to do a stop-motion adaptation of Coraline even before the book was released to the public. Gaiman said that Selick’s first draft of the screenplay was “too much like the book and we needed to expand it.” And my question to that is “WHY???”
At its heart, Coraline is a fairy tale, and to have watched Selick’s meticulous work in driving a stake into that heart was at times more than I could bear. Maybe I’m being a purist, not only for the book itself but for fairy tales in general. As metaphors for growing up or lessons on leading a good like, fairy tales need only the hero to get their point across, mostly that life is a solitary adventure and that one is totally responsible for one’s own actions. They may not always start out capable, but by the end of their stories, fairy tale heroes (usually) accomplish their aims and have become clever and apt. If this is so, then why did Coraline herself have to be less capable in the movie than she was in the book? Why did she need Wybie to help her execute her less-than-clever plan at the end? I really disliked Coraline’s coming into her own being shoved aside like that for… what? The sake of having a sidekick-cum-knight? The boys in the audience who think girls need a boy’s help? For girls who thought they didn’t need a boy’s help? For a man who makes his living by writing good stories, it’s amazing to me that Gaiman willingly lets others treat them this way.
This is not to say that I didn’t enjoy the movie. I did. Seeing the puppets move, their hair ruffle, their bodies jump and twist, and knowing the time and effort the stop-motion animation process requires was stunning (even moreso in 3-D). If I had a complaint at all (beyond the above), it was that Teri Hatcher was Madea levels of mad as the real mother. So much so that I thought the movie was going to be some kind of reversal of the book, much the way Gaiman took on Snow White in his Snow, Glass, Apples. Sadly, I was instead forced to watch an intolerable (and at times violently uncomfortable) mother-daughter dynamic that begged for court-ordered emancipation. Why Hatcher went to this extreme and why she was permitted to do so is a question I hope someone will answer one day.
All in all, had I not read the book, the movie of Coraline would have been satisfactory, but like so many adaptations of popular books, the movie doesn’t live up to Gaiman’s written words. And it’s his own fault.
This is almost a “WTF?!” moment for me. I’m waaaay behind in what’s new in children’s literature, but I can’t believe that there wasn’t a book published in 2008 that could have won the Newbery over The Graveyard Book. And this is coming from a Neil Gaiman fan! The concept of the book – an orphaned baby taken in and raised by ghosts as one of their own – is solid and exciting, but its execution lacked the toothiness and strong characterization I’ve come to expect from Gaiman. No one, not even Bod, was treated to the depth they deserved. I wanted to be happy or sad or scared for these characters (especially Silas and Miss Lupescu), but I didn’t. Is that a fault on my part or Gaiman’s? Who knows? Good on him and all, but I found Coraline to be a much more satisfying read, and to the best of my knowledge it didn’t receive any awards (the up-coming feature film notwithstanding).
Mr. Gaiman’s response to the news (as eloquent as ever) is on his blog.
Robert Langridge‘s Kirby Alphabet has been making the rounds through the comics bolgosphere and finally got down this way. It’s not as charmingly grisly as Edward Gorey’s The Ghastlycrumb Tinies, nor as fresh as Neil Gaiman’s
The Dangerous Alphabet, but it’s cute. I’m happy Etrigan was included (but how could he not have been?).
–Thanks to Andy Mangels!
About four weeks ago, my friend Michelle started asking me if I wanted to go see Beowulf on November 16th. While unusual for her (Michelle, much as I love her, is no great fan of the classics. Moreover, she asked me three times about going. After the second time, I was going to call her husband and warn him about her having a pod with his name on it waiting at home.), being a Brit Lit geek and Neil Gaiman fan, I was hardly going to say no.
Yeah. Then I started to see the trailers.
And not the trailers I had been seeing. Beowulf was sold high and low at Comic-Con this past July, much like Stardust was in 2006. And let’s talk about that particular piece of effluvia for a moment. I loved the Stardust comic books (if they can be called that). Together, they were a beautiful piece of work that was not embarrassed to reveal the cruel nature of fairy tales perfectly exemplified when the incarnate star evaluates her Earth-bound situation in a single word: “fuck.” Gorgeous drawings. Lyrical prose. Well-rounded characters. And a pat, but satisfying, ending.
Throw all that away and you have the movie Stardust; truly, no relation to the book. Complaint #1: Claire Danes as Yvaine?!? This is the girl who smiled her way through Brokedown Palace and Princess Mononoke. All the appeal and interest of white rice. Take this as you will, but in the IMBD entry for Stardust, she’s listed below Ditchwater Sal (then again, Robert Deniro is listed below Claire Danes for his… let’s call it a “role”, just for the sake of argument. The only thing I liked about that was the role-reversal of his faux gay pirate being beaten up by real-life poofter Rupert Everett). Complaint #2: the Hollywood ending. There just had to be a fight, didn’t there? And not jut swords clashing but headless capering corpses, witch guts, a tearless reunion and a “let me shimmer” moment the likes of which hasn’t been seen since Mac and Me. Gag.
But back to the Beowulf trailers.
Different trailers. Newer trailers. Trailers that made me think, “I can’t believe XBox has jumped on Beowulf for video game fodder. I wonder if this will make kids read the poem. Nah.” but then turned out to be actual trailers. This trend in using digitally enhanced live action hopefully will not last long.. well, let me qualify that. If this is a related process to what was done in Sin City and A Scanner Darkly, why did Beowulf have to look like Final Fantasy XII? Real people are made to look like video games? Why not just use real people? Does wiping out texture and color tones equal artistic film-making? Did that work out well for Ralph Bakshi’s Lord of the Rings (a movie I love, actually).
The long and the short – Neil Gaiman needs to get out of Hollywood, just like Stephen King does. They may be great in their writings, but so far, no one has gotten a handle on how to make them into decent cinema.
