Neil Gaiman and "Coraline"

We took ourselves off to the cinema on Sunday evening to see the wonders of 3D, brought up to date in "Coraline". My last, and only, previous experience of 3D at the cinema was way back in the genre's eariest days in the 1950s: "House of Wax" with Vincent Price. With a pair of cardboard spectacles on my nose, one lens red t'other green, I felt I was going cross-eyed and didn't enjoy the experience one little bit.

We felt that technology having sped ahead as it has in the last 50-odd years, things 3D-wise must have improved in leaps and bounds. We decided to find out.

Things have improved, for sure!

Plastic spectacles now replace the cardboard and red/green lens of the old days, they are to be left for re-cycling after the show. 3D effects in "Coraline" were truly special. The most dramatic effects were used sparingly - items seem fly right off the screen and settle somewhere just beyond the seat in front of you. For most of the time, the 3D effect was kept subtle, simply adding depth to the scenes, not detracting attention from the storyline.

"Coraline" is an adaptation of Neil Gaiman's graphic book of the same name. The movie has received very positive reviews, so far.
I admire Neil Gaiman, his work, and his style. My post from August 2007, "Stardust" and Neil Gaiman investigates his natal chart. He has Sun/Mercury/Neptune all within a 9 degree spread of Scorpio. That's a condensed version of who he is : Scorpio reflects the darkish flavour of his storytelling, even when it's in the form of a tale for children. Mercury, the writer's planet is close to his Sun (self). Neptune, planet of creativity, dreams, imagination lay close to Sun and Mercury. That Scorpio trio provides a thumbnail sketch of this talented writer. (More at the earlier post, linked above.)

I notice that transiting Pluto is currently conjunct Neil's natal Jupiter at 2 Capricorn. Robert Hand in his book "Planets in Transit" says that this conjunction can denote great success in any endeavour or it can mean that people in power will strongly oppose efforts.....depending on what the native is trying to accomplish and how. It would seem that the first option fits best, in view of "Coraline's box office success. Most commonly the transit works out well with a rebirth of optimism and hope, especially if working on something beyond personal glory, which will benefit society at large. The transit can also mean a re-birth of faith and spirit in the life of the native.
(Chart shown is set for 12 noon in the absence of time of birth).


I was amazed by the technology and amount of work involved in the production of this stop motion animated movie. Animation director, Henry Selick did a wonderful job. I enjoyed the premise of the fairytale plot with an embedded message. Yet, I still feel unable to say the movie was as excellent as it could have been. Parts of it dragged a little. The husband agreed on this. For my taste, the film would have been very much better at around an hour or an hour and 10 minutes, cutting around half an hour from current length. I understand that Neil Gaiman's book is short enough to read at one sitting, which indicates to me that trying for 1 hour 40 mins of run- time might have been a bit of a stretch. A shorter movie with an accompanying mini-cartoon might have filled the bill better, at least for our tastes.

Children will love the movie, though I think parts of it might be a tad scary for the very young ones, especially those of sensitive nature.

One other tiny complaint - there was no credit roll of the cast members at the end of the movie. We had to go home to the computer to find out which voice belonged to which of the stars listed at the beginning of the film. I'm still not certain which of the two eccentric ladies was Miss Spink and which was Miss Forcible (voices by Dawn French and Jennifer Saunders). Perhaps a second viewing of the movie, in DVD form, is needed to straighten out remaining doubts and queries.

Neil's blog/journal is HERE. He mentioned the other day that he's also on Twitter. How does he do it all?

I think the best of Neil Gaiman in film form is still to come. He's brilliant, prolific and young enough to have many more movies in him.

"Stardust" and Neil Gaiman

A name for movie buffs to watch in the near future will be Neil Gaiman, born November 10 1960 in Portchester (Portsmouth), UK. He's the author of "Stardust" a book made into a movie, just released. A couple more films based on his writing are due for release later this year. He has lived in the USA since the 1990s.

Gaiman is another writer of the J.K. Rowling, Douglas Adams, Terry Pratchett style. Fantasy, magic, fairytales, all spiced with humour and a soupcon of modern-day "cool", are his stock in trade. He started out writing for comics (known to the elite as graphic novels). I felt I'd seen Neil Gaiman's name somewhere before - he wrote "Don't Panic", which is the story of Douglas Adams' wonderful "Hitchhikers' Guide to the Galaxy", and its rise to fame.



(12 noon chart above, no birth time available)
The planets fall into one half of the chart - this configuration is known as a "bowl" pattern by astrologers. I've noticed that it's quite common among famous people. This may be due to the energy of the chart being concentrated on just six zodiac signs - more intense focus on the chosen career or interest, perhaps?

Sun, Mercury, Neptune all in Scorpio at 18, 11 and 9 degrees respectively. And some synchronicity here - I wrote about planetary nodes yesterday - well Neil Gaiman's natal Sun is on the planetary South node of Mercury at 18 Scorpio ! What better line-up for a fantasy writer? Mercury (writing planet) and Neptune(fantasy) in Scorpio (magnetic) conjoin to give his pen, or typing fingers, that essential touch of magical know-how. I don't know his time of birth, but whatever it is, the Moon would have to be in showy Leo.

I was at first surprised to find there are no planets in Air signs in this chart. The element of Air in astrology is usually connected to communication, e.g. writing. Perhaps the unknown ascendant provides some balance. But on second thoughts, Neil Gaiman isn't a cool airy intellectual, he's a storyteller, a weaver of magic, as described by those Scorpio planets.

This author is prolific, in addition to his other work he even writes a blog daily (HERE) - how surprising is that? Saturn in the sign it rules, Capricorn, is opposite Mars in Cancer, forming the base of the "bowl". Mars trines and Saturn sextiles Sun, indicating that energy for, and application to his work are permanent factors in this man's personality. Venus in Sagittarius trines Uranus in Leo. I wonder if Venus in Sagittarius relates to his immigration (I have this placement too).

We saw "Stardust" at the weekend. I enjoyed it, but didn't feel it was a good as it could have been. The basic plot was fun, but I was jarred by some of the dialogue and a few of the performances were definitely second-rate. I'd have preferred to see unknown actors playing the lead parts. Claire Danes (the fallen star) and Charlie Cox (the hero) had little appeal. A couple of unknown amateurs could probably have brought more magic to these characters. Ricky Gervais's dialogue, and costume for me, was way out of place. I felt quite embarrassed! None of this is the fault of the author, of course. I haven't yet read the book "Stardust", but I intend to do so, as well as another of Mr Gaiman's works "American Gods".

There's an illuminating article about Gaiman, from 2005 in the UK Daily Telegraph HERE, also an hour long YouTube presentation "Google Authors" featuring Neil Gaiman . I found it fascinating. He comes over as a very likeable guy, and he looks SO Scorpio! An audience member asks him, towards the end of the interview, whether he's interested in Tarot. He is. Of course!