By YONG SHU HOONG

CORALINE (PG)
Animation/100 minutes
****

BLAME it on technology.

The art of animation has become so shockingly real that it's getting harder and harder to distinguish computergenerated scenes from liveaction sequences.

In contrast, Coraline (based on the best-selling graphic novel by British author Neil Gaiman, who'll be in town this weekend for the Singapore Writers Festival) takes the approach that animation should remain animation, and that it's all right not to strive relentlessly for realism.

Famous for directing the Tim Burton-produced The Nightmare Before Christmas (1993), Henry Selick once again relies on hand-crafted, stop-motion animation to make the world of Coraline come alive.

The film kicks off with young Coraline (voiced by Dakota Fanning) moving into a large, rickety house that has been subdivided into different apartments.

Left to her own devices by her busy parents (Teri Hatcher and John Hodgman), Coraline explores every nook and cranny of her apartment - and finds a small, mysterious door.

She unlocks the door to find a tunnel, through which she discovers another apartment identical to her own - except that it's better decorated and inhabited by a different version of her parents.

Her 'other parents' may have black buttons for eyes, but they are what she has always wanted her real mum and dad to be: caring parents who pay attention to what she says, serve scrumptious meals and actually come across as cool and fun.

As the adage goes: Be careful what you wish for. But as this story proves, children often need a hard lesson to learn that the grass is not always greener on the other side.

The Other Mother is not what she seems, and Coraline finds herself trapped in an evil web of that mother's making.

Fanning and Hatcher (who also voices the Other Mother) are well cast in their roles. But the supporting characters - like rotund former showgirls (Jennifer Saunders and Dawn French), a Russian acrobat (Ian Mc- Shane), Coraline's neighbourhood playmate, Wybie (Robert Bailey Jr), and a talking cat (Keith David) - are equally memorable.

Thanks to respected Japanese illustrator Tadahiro Uesugi - the film's visual designer, who taps on influences from 1950s and 60s American illustrations - every frame of the film is a work of art to be relished.

Suitable for the young and old, this charming tale reminds us of our childhood sense of adventure, curiosity, fears and yearnings.

The fact that it can be viewed in 3-D is an added bonus but, as far as movie magic goes, Selick, Gaiman and Uesugi have already cast a potent spell.

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