"Coraline" and Why Creepy Movies Can be Good for Children

If it were suggested that you take your child to a movie whose focus was loneliness would you do it? The likely answer is no, but this is the concept of the new children's animated movie Coraline. It is a common thought that children's movie should contain no violence, no bad language, hardly anything upsetting at all. The likes of Tim Burton, Guillermo del Toro, and Henry Selick, the director and writer of "Coraline," disagree. You are probably more familiar with the works of Burton, whose films include "The Nightmare Before Christmas," "The Corpse Bride," etc. Coraline's parents neglect her and when she moves states her loneliness sets in and she begins traveling into a parallel world of her own where her parents are loving and doting and everything is more spectacular. While childhood is, for the most part, a time of bliss, it is also a time of uncertainty between true and fake. I think it is healthy to expose children to this at an early age. Yes the creepy visuals on the screen may seem a little unsettling, but children have such vivid imaginations these are the type of things they like to see. On that note, children enjoy a little bit of fear when moviegoing. They are so used to the same emotions they get from most "G" movies, a tinge of unease is exciting for them. Case in point: the wildly popular "Harry Potter" books are based on the life of a boy who was orphaned by his parents and can't seem to escape giant spiders and evil wizards who make it their sole mission to kill him.