‘Coraline’ may be unnerving for the kids

I was once accosted by a parent who wanted to know why I didn't warn people that "Finding Nemo" was "dark."

Lesson learned: You never know what's going to frighten some children. Given that, I'd say that if "Nemo" were too dark for your kids, or the post-apocalyptic "WALL-E" too bleak, then stay far away from the 3-D "Coraline," the most unnerving kids movie in many a full moon, and also one of the best.

It's directed by stop-motion genius Henry Selick ("The Nightmare Before Christmas"), and adapted from a book by Neil Gaiman, who just won the Newbery Medal for another book about an orphan who's raised in a cemetery by ghosts. One of his lighter works.

His "Coraline" is a through-the-looking-glass, over-the-rainbow story of a headstrong preteen girl who wants to trade her drab life and her strict, inattentive parents for something better.

When mom and dad transplant her to an isolated old mansion, she gets her wish - there is a strange portal in the magical (haunted?) house, leading to a colorful alternate universe where Coraline (voice of Dakota Fanning) has things her way.

Any grown-up would tell Coraline to be careful what she wishes for, but in her fabulous new world, there is no dissent. The world is sunny, the flowers in bloom, her parents compliant, the plates full of pancakes with whipped cream faces, and bothersome boys have their mouths removed when they talk too much.

Well, that last bit is a little creepy, Coraline has to admit. And there are other disquieting things - her blank-faced "parents" have buttons for eyes, and their pod-people behavior begins, finally, to make her suspicious.

Coraline senses that the more time she spends there, the more she's in danger of being trapped by whatever malevolent force has engineered this too-perfect world.

It's a world that makes unprecedented use of stop-motion puppeteers and 3-D technology (try to see it at a properly equipped theater), though not in the way you might expect.

Selick doesn't throw stuff at your eyes, or engage in the kind of stunts you might have seen in "My Bloody Valentine" or "Journey to the Center of the Earth." Here, the 3-D is used to deepen Coraline's Oz-like retreat, at first to make it wondrous, then gradually to make it more distorted and threatening.

Threatening enough to frighten younger children, particularly when you factor in towering witches and imprisoned souls. And in "Coraline," there is no counterbalancing roster of lovable characters, no reach for comforting emotion. Even Coraline's ablest ally is a slinky black cat (Keith David), helpful but hardly adorable (though a nice change of pace in our current dog-dominated movie realm). In fact, it may be wrong to think of "Coraline" as a kids movie at all. With its overt criticism of instant (or even delayed) gratification, and implied endorsement of tough-love parenting, it may be more of a fist-pumper for mom and dad. *