Just saw utterly magical "Coraline"

[pegkerr]

elisem sent me a message: "Email me. Something cool has come up."

And indeed, something had. Neil Gaiman's book Coraline has been made into a movie of the same name, which will be released (in 3-D) in February. The director is Henry Selick, who did "The Nightmare Before Christmas." (see some photos of Neil together with the director here at an earlier event.) And a small, select screening was being held tonight here in the Twin Cities, attended by Neil and the director. Elise extended the invitation to us. (This was Neil's first opportunity to see it, and they wanted to get some kids' reactions, too.)

Fiona and I went. Delia is still a bit sensitive about movies that can be tense or scary, and so decided to wait. There were about fifty people there, and we got to talk with Neil and Mr. Selick afterwards. We were stunned and delighted with the movie; it truly is marvelous. The 3-D was perfect, the score was spot-on wonderful (I am certainly going to get the soundtrack when it comes out) and the movie was just delightful. Highly recommended. This one's going to be a hit.

Here is the trailer:

Here is the autograph of the book that Neil kindly signed for Fiona:

Neil's autograph for Fiona

So, yeah. Squee!

(Fiona said, "Boy, my friends are going to be sooooo jealous when I tell them tomorrow. . .")