Coraline Featurettes Take You Inside Neil Gaiman’s Brain

Neil Gaiman’s had his hand in a lot of Hollywood pots of late. Last year, he co-wrote the screenplay for Beowulf and saw his book Stardust make it to the big screen. But perhaps his most promising film project to date is dark fairytale Coraline, currently getting the stop-motion treatment courtesy of Henry Selick, who directed The Nightmare Before Christmas. Five new featurettes give us a glimpse of how Selick is bringing Gaiman’s vision to three-dimensional life.

Based on Gaiman’s book, Coraline centers on a young girl (voiced by Dakota Fanning) who is bored with her life and frustrated by her well-meaning, but neglectful, parents (voiced by Teri Hatcher and John “I’m a PC” Hodgman). One day, she discovers a doorway to an alternate version of her world where things and people seem, at first, much more interesting and likable than in her own dimension (for example: her father turns into a one-man They Might Be Giants cover band).

Animation studio Laika is using physical models and figurines to film Coraline in stop-motion, creating a much richer experience than most computer animation studios have been able to accomplish. The featurettes introduce us to the main characters and show the stark contrast between Coraline’s real world and the more magical, but sinister world she enters: