Coraline Review

         The movie Coraline, opening in 2009, stars Dakota Fanning, as Coraline, and Teri Hatcher, as the voice of the other mother. The director Henry Selick, creates a dark, sinister story based on a book written by Neil Gaiman. The picture uses stop motion filming to tell a story about a family who moves to Ashland, Oregon and finds danger lurking in their new house.
         Feeling bored and neglected by her parents, Coraline decides to explore her new house. While exploring, she meets her quirky neighbors, Mr. Bobinsky, Miss Spink and Miss Forcible. She also meets her land lady's grandson, who later becomes her friend, Wybie. Also, when Coraline is exploring, she finds a small door. She begs her mother to open the door and then finds it to be bricked up.
        Later that night, Coraline chases a mouse to the door. She then sees that it is open and not bricked up anymore. She goes into the door and ends up in a parallel world.  The new world has her parents with buttons for eyes and all of her dreams come true. She falls asleep in the other world and wakes up in her real world.
       Coraline continues to go to the other world for a few more nights. Then one night, Coraline's other mother tries to get her to stay with her in the other world forever. After Coraline refuses and demands to go home, the other mother traps her in a mirror. The other Wybie helps her escape to her real world. But, when she returns to her world she finds out that her real parents were captured and stuck in the other world. Coraline then decides that she must go back to save her parents.
       Coraline uses stop motion to make the story come alive. Stop motion is a technique used in film making that makes objects that are physically manipulated seem as if the are moving on their own. The objects are photographed, moved slightly and then photographed again. This is repeated thousands of times to create scenes in the movie. One scene can take several weeks to create using the stop motion technique.
      This picture is a very ominous yet interesting story. The animation keeps the viewers engaged and interested throughout the whole movie. I give it two thumbs up but I do caution parents to see the movie before they show it to their children. There are some moments in the movie that may disturbing for young children. But I do encourage and recommend that adults and teenagers see this wonderfully created movie!

   

Up All Night: Snooze Fest or Exciting New Season?

       Up All Night has begun its second season this year in September. Even though there are a few plot twists and a new character, the show starts off to be pretty boring. Throughout the show, it is very unexciting with a few interesting moments.
       The show kicks off with Reagan, Chris, and Scott (the newly added character) talking about remolding their bathroom. Reagan, played by Christina Applegate, is skeptical about having her brother Scott, played by Luka Jones, remodel her bathroom. But Chris, played by Will Arnett, reassures her and makes her feel like she needs it. Then to add a plot twist, Ava, played by Maya Rudolph, comes in with news that The Ava Show is cancelled. This news sends Ava and Reagan into a panic; they question what they should do with their lives now that they have lost their jobs. While panicking, Reagan finds her baby Amy's binky. When she found this, she realizes she wants to stay home with her baby. She feels as if she is missing out on her baby's childhood by working. Ava takes this as her and Reagan breaking their partnership because they won't be working together anymore. Next, Chris decides to stop being a stay at home dad and get his old job back as a lawyer.
        Ava is taking Reagan's choice to stay at home really difficultly. She goes over to Chris and Reagan's house to have Chris help pick out her outfit for her new job interview. She does this to make Reagan think she doesn't need her anymore and to make her jealous. Reagan realizes this but still rushes to try and save Ava from her wardrobe malfunction at her interview. Ava refuses her help and ends up tanking her interview; she blames Reagan for her mistakes. At this point, the two decide not to be friends anymore.
        Chris has his first day back at work and doesn't like it. He misses being home with Amy all day. Then, Chris goes with Scott to his work and sees how horrible Scott's boss is. Finally, Chris comes up with the idea of him and Scott starting their own contracting business.
        Reagan and Amy's feud continues until they see an old photo of them together and remember their good times. They realize they can't live without being each others friends, and ultimately decide to become friends again. And, they realize that they were never really mad at each other, they were just mad about their show being cancelled.
        The new season of Up All Night has added a new character and sent the show in a different direction by cancelling the Ava show, which was the main plot for season 1. The normally funny show was quite boring to start off with. There were few exciting moments, but luckily Ava saved the show from being completely unwatchable. With her witty and humorous comments, she lightened the mood of the show and made it a little more enjoyable. I look forward to seeing more of Ava and will continue to watch the show despite it's rather uninteresting start.