DVD Corner's blog

Coraline 4K UHD Steelbook Review

“Coraline” is Laika’s masterwork. 

Based on the Neil Gaiman novel of the same name, “Coraline” is a stop-motion animated film helmed by writer/director Henry Selick (best known for “The Nightmare Before Christmas”). The story follows a teen girl (the titular Coraline) moving to a remote apartment building with her workaholic parents. As Coraline explores the building and her surroundings, she comes across a door that leads to a world that looks similar to her own but has a few major differences. The world seems ideal, but something is very wrong with this place as the Other Mother (who looks like Coraline’s real mother) has an evil plan.

Over the past 13 years LAIKA has solidified itself as a premier animation studio (and easily the best in the game when it comes to stop-motion animation). Their puppets, sets, world building, and fantastical stories are a breath of fresh air in this franchise dominated world. Their first film “Coraline” remains their finest to date and has justifiably since gone on to become a cult classic. It’s a creepy dreamlike “be careful what you wish for” tale about reality, fantasy, family, and teen angst wonderfully brought to life by Henry Selick and the whole animation team (whose sets and character designs are hauntingly beautiful).

In typical LAIKA fashion, the voice cast is superb with Dakota Fanning making a perfect Coraline and Teri Hatcher giving one of her best performances in dual roles as the mothers from both worlds. The rest of the cast is nothing short of memorable with the likes of Keith David, Dawn French and Jennifer Saunders (always a nice combo there), Robert Bailey Jr., Ian McShane, and John Hodgman all turning in noteworthy voice acting performances.

Video/Audio:

Presentation: 1.85:1 2160p. How does it look? The 4K restoration is the main selling point of this new Shout! Factory release. The result is a quality upgrade. Not only are the colors more striking, but the stop-motion artistry of the film has never looked better. You can see so many details and feel like you are immersed in the world of this movie. 

Audio Track: Dolby Atmos. How does it sound? Also new to this disc is this 7.1 Atmos track with crisp music, dialogue, sound effects, and voice acting.

Extras (the same as last year’s Blu-ray release):
* Commentary by director Henry Selick and composer Bruno Coulais (on the 4K and Blu-ray)
* Blu-ray copy
* A booklet with an essay by film critic Peter Debruge.
* Feature-length storyboards
* Deleted scenes with intros by Henry Selick
* “Coraline” trailer
* 2 “Inside LAIKA” extras. The first is “Discovering The Characters Of Coraline” about the animation and character work and the second is “Revisiting The Puppets With LAIKA’s Animation Team” which shows off 7 character puppets.
* “Creepy Coraline” about the creepy aspects of the film.
* “The Making Of Coraline”- An expansive 10 part making of about everything from the voice cast to the sets.
* “Voicing The Characters” featurette about the voice cast.
* 3 still galleries.

November 27, 2022 - Posted by nicklyons1 | 4K UHD Review | Animated Movie, Coraline, Coraline 4K UHD Steelbook Review, Henry Selick, Laika, Shout! Factory