In what has been a very good year for animated features, Henry Selick’s “Coraline” sometimes feels overlooked alongside the juggernaut that is “Up” and the new critics fave “Fantastic Mr. Fox.” But Selick’s dark, creepy and delightfully imaginative take on Neil Gaiman’s novel, the first animated film to be released in 2009, remains one of the year’s most favorably-reviewed films, and a heavy favorite to land one of the five slots in the expanded Oscar animation ballot.
Before “Coraline,” Selick was best known for directing “The Nightmare Before Christmas” for writer-producer Tim Burton. A pioneer both in the fields of stop-motion animation and 3-D (before “Avatar,” “Coraline” was widely acclaimed as the best film use of the technique to date), he talked to theWrap about a career spent painstakingly making odd little puppets do strange things.
“Coraline” came out way back in February. Are you tired of talking about it yet?
Well, I figure I spend half my time promoting my last movie, and the other half figuring out what my next project will be. But we were the first film out this year, so you’re just happy if people still remember you.
Between “The Nightmare Before Christmas” and “Coraline,” did advances in technology make things easier for you? Or is stop-motion such an old-fashioned process that it’s immune to that?
Actually, “Nightmare” was much easier to make than “Coraline,” for a variety of reasons. We were fearless making “Nightmare.” We built a solid little team of animators, lighting people, puppet makers … And we weren’t worried about failing.
Also, because of Tim, and the power he had after “Batman,” I had everything I needed to make it work. I’d get memos from [Disney executive] Jeff Katzenberg full of all these notes, and I’d call up Tim and say, “What should I do about all of these suggestions?” Tim would say, “If you like them, use ‘em. If not, ignore ‘em.”
And the process was harder on “Coraline?”
With “Coraline,” we were trying to go back to a more handmade style, with as little CG as possible. We wanted the characters to be alive, and our standards were higher. And also, we were aware of the stakes, and thinking, let’s not f--- this up. Plus, it took about five years to find a studio and a distributor. The pressure was much higher.
I’d think that after “Nightmare,” studios would trust you.
Remember, “Nightmare” wasn’t considered a hit at first. It wasn’t even considered a Disney film – it was Touchstone, because we were too weird for Disney. It wasn’t until the cult of “Nightmare” grew that it got to the point where Disney finally looked at it as a real Disney movie. About five years ago they finally embraced it, and then it was like, ‘Oh, we’ve always loved this film!”
Also, after “Nightmare” was when [former Disney chief] Michael Eisner pulled the plug on all 2D animated work and said, “CG is the future, that’s where the money is.”
