Dakota Fanning voices Coraline

Dakota Fanning and Teri Hatcher bring Coraline vividly to life through Henry Selick’s 3-D stop-motion animation – 4 stars ****

By W. H. Bourne

HOLLYWOOD, CA (Hollywood Today) 02/05/09 – “When you’re doing a voice performance you don’t really have your body and your facial expressions to portray things, so in the studio you have to push the envelope with your voice to get your point across,” says Coraline star Dakota Fanning. “You think, am I doing that right? Henry is very specific and very patient directing voiceover.”

“We had confirmed Dakota as the central voice, so I cut and tested about 70 actresses’ voices against Dakota’s,” says director Henry Selick. “Teri Hatcher went right to the top of our list. She has this warm, beautiful instrument of a voice.”

“As a mom, I know it’s hard to find quality entertaining movies for the family,” says Coraline star Teri Hatcher. “And, that’s what Coraline is.”

“Coraline’s mom has just moved,” says Hatcher. “It’s raining. It’s muddy. Nothing’s going right for her and her family. During one of our first recording sessions, Henry wanted her to say ‘shut up’ to Coraline. That line was a big deal for me, because I have never said ‘shut up’ to my own daughter in her entire life! But, I think a lot of moms will relate to her because she’s a good person who loves her child.”

“We record the voices first,” says Selick. “Then we have someone read the sounds so we know where all the mouth positions should be. Later, the animators match the stop-motion puppets’ mouth movements to the words that the actors have already recorded.”

“Sometimes it’s very challenging for the actors because they don’t have sets or props or costumes,” says Selick. “They haven’t seen their characters in action, unless there is some existing test footage. So they’re just doing pure voice work. They have to record numerous different versions so that one can change one’s mind about what might be needed for a particular scene.”

“What was helpful was, the first time that we recorded in the studio they brought in big pictures of some sets and all of the character models,” says Fanning. “Henry had given me pictures of what the house was going to look like. They were videoing me. So, if there was anything I happened to do, a gesture or a facial expression, they could put that into Coraline’s character. Coraline’s so scared, but she realizes she has to pull together and not let her fear overcome her,” says Fanning. “The trick with the voice was to be frightened and smart at the same time.”

For the character of Coraline, 28 different 9-inch-tall puppets were created. There were a total of 207,336 possible face combinations for Coraline and a total of 17,633 possible face combinations for Mother. At one point, Coraline shows 16 different expressions in a span of 35 seconds.

‘Coraline’ marks the first time that a stop-motion animation morphing sequence has ever been accomplished; the sequence runs for 130 frames, or nearly 6 seconds. Over 130 sets were built across 52 different stages at the studios; spanning 183,000 square feet, the 52 different stages were the most ever deployed for a stop-motion animated feature. The on-set 3-D photographic process for Coraline entailed shooting two pictures for each frame, a left-eye frame and a right-eye frame, with the same camera. It took an entire week of production, with a crew of over 300 people working on 52 stages, to complete 74 seconds of footage

“The miracle of stop-motion, and one of the reasons it’s so magical for me, is what you see when you see a stop-motion animated character come to life, an actual performance through the puppet by the animator,” says Selick. “They have to move forward, hitting their marks and saying the lines like any live actor would.”

“Coraline is very appealing to me,” says Selick. “I hope that she will be very appealing to children seeing the movie for a variety of reasons. She’s brave and imaginative and has an overwhelming curiosity. If she sees something interesting, then she has to know about it. I loved that her ‘grass is always greener’ scenario turns out to be scary. When Coraline, an ordinary girl, faces real evil and triumphs, it really means something.”

‘Coraline’
Running Time: 1 hr. 40 min.
Wide Release Date: February 06, 2009
Released both traditionally and in RealD (3D).
Rated PG for thematic elements, scary images, some language, and suggestive humor.
Distributor: Focus Features