Coraline - The Book

anoldfashiongirl · Post by **anoldfashiongirl** » March 9th, 2009, 1:03 pm

I just finished reading Coraline. It's a really awesome book! I hope the movie doesn't stray from it. (::cough:: I'm sure it will)

Has anyone else read it?

gypsygirl · Post by **gypsygirl** » March 9th, 2009, 1:32 pm

Yes, I read it a couple of months ago after listening to the Graveyard Book. I really like his creepy kids' books.

harvey · Post by **harvey** » March 9th, 2009, 2:10 pm

Jami,

I just finished it last week. Catharine made a brief report on the
film (over in the Movies thread), in which she recommends reading
the book first. I liked the author's occasional funny turn of phrase or
unexpected comment about a character. And, as I'm a cat fancier,
Gaiman got his depiction of the cat exactly right.

The story reminds me of the movie The Curse of the Cat People (1944),
which I saw for the first time while reading Coraline. It's by famed
horror movie producer Val Lewton and was the first movie directed by
Robert Wise. It's considered by some as the best filmed study of child
psychology told from the perspective of the child, who, in this movie,
has a very active imagination. It's this, coupled with the threatening
things which happen, that I find similar to Coraline.

Curse is nominally a sequel to Lewton's first film, Cat People (1942)
(my favorite among his movies). Lewton's movies have little of the
standard elements of horror movies (such as blood and monsters);
I think of them as thrillers. An interesting bit of trivia is that sets from
Orson Welles' The Magnificent Ambersons (1942) were re-used in Curse.

bublsort · Post by **bublsort** » March 9th, 2009, 2:54 pm

my husband read the book and wants to see this, but I understand there's a cat involved and I can't watch a movie where a cat gets hurt or worse. And he claims not to remember what happened to the cat.

So if someone could tell me whether the cat suffers at all I would really appreciate it.

(Don't worry about spoiling it, I don't care.)

erin

harvey · Post by **harvey** » March 9th, 2009, 3:29 pm

bublsort wrote:my husband read the book and wants to see this, but I understand there's
a cat involved and I can't watch a movie where a cat gets hurt or worse.
And he claims not to remember what happened to the cat.

So if someone could tell me whether the cat suffers at all I would really appreciate it.

erin,

See the movie (based on my having read the book).

Clearly, your husband is not a cat fancier; must be one of them dog folk.

Nothing untoward happens to the cat (in the book), who is a secondary
hero of the story.

Gaiman so accurately portrays cat behavior that I'm looking forward
to seeing how well the movie captures this, including, but not limited to,
its motion as it moves about. I'm thinking of the movie Catwoman (2004).
Regardless of what else you may think of that movie, the CGI scenes near
the beginning of the gray tiger cat named Midnight were pretty spectacular.
However, as realistic at the cat appeared, there was, to my eye, something
slightly off about its motion. Nevertheless, very impressive.

Timothy Ferguson · Post by **Timothy Ferguson** » March 10th, 2009, 7:17 am

bublsort wrote:my husband read the book and wants to see this, but I understand there's a cat involved and I can't watch a movie where a cat gets hurt or worse. And he claims not to remember what happened to the cat.

So if someone could tell me whether the cat suffers at all I would really appreciate it. (Don't worry about spoiling it, I don't care.)

erin

He does get a fright at one point, but as I cat lover I give this book the seal of approval.

bublsort · Post by **bublsort** » March 10th, 2009, 1:54 pm

thanks guys

just so you know, I don't like when people get hurt either, but cats or other animals I find especially upsetting. now my husband is very happy though, because the 3D version is playing nearby and I hear it's pretty good.

erin

ceastman · Post by **ceastman** » March 10th, 2009, 8:25 pm

Yup. The cat gets a scary few minutes in the book, but doesn't even suffer as much as that in the movie. It is a most excellent cat - harvey, the moviemakers kept virtually all the cat's dialogue, verbatim, from the book.

-Catharine

anoldfashiongirl · Post by **anoldfashiongirl** » March 19th, 2009, 7:45 am

Jami,

I just finished it last week. Catharine made a brief report on the
film (over in the Movies thread), in which she recommends reading
the book first. I liked the author's occasional funny turn of phrase or
unexpected comment about a character. And, as I'm a cat fancier,
Gaiman got his depiction of the cat exactly right.

I'll have to go read it.

Yeah, I always try to read a book first before seeing it's film version. Like Inkheart. I want to watch that one too but wanted to read the book first. Just finished it, it's really good! Now I gotta find Inkspell.......

Oh yes, he nailed the cat perfectly! *technically speaking y'all*

bookslinger · Post by **bookslinger** » March 19th, 2009, 7:52 am

Loved it - Neil Gaiman is an excellent children's writer in my opinion, harking back to the old-school horror childrens stories of the past.