Laika hopes 'Coraline' shows the stop-motion way

Like everything the 56-year-old Selick does, "Coraline's" look is certainly distinctive. As a visit to the Hillsboro warehouse dramatized, it's the result of more than two years of precise craftsmanship, including tasks as delicate as sewing tiny costumes and assembling complex, miniature metal armatures that permit a full range of movement. In addition to using electrically powered tools, designers also worked with surgical equipment, including tiny curettes and forceps.

"In a 4-inch cat, you will have about 100 parts," said Georgina Hayns, the head of puppet fabrication, a department that made nearly 200 different puppets, many of which are one-ninth scale, or about 7 inches tall.

Bo Henry, a longtime Selick collaborator and Laika's construction head, said that in a world narrowly focused on computer animation, "Coraline" had to search around the world for film artists proficient in physical animation and scenic design, rather than computer animation.

"There is still a pretty good stable, but 10 years from now, that will be a very valid question," Henry said.

Which raises another question: Does stop-motion animation occupy an increasingly shrinking niche?

"We like stop-motion," Selick said after he completed work on his film, "but we'll have to see how 'Coraline' does."

Selick has been encouraged that directors Wes Anderson ("The Fantastic Mr. Fox"), Nick Park (an untitled "Wallace and Gromit" movie) and Tim Burton ("Frankenweenie") are making or developing new stop-motion movies.

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3-D vision

"Coraline" was shot in 3-D, using small medical cameras to navigate the diminutive sets, which is both a sales hook and a challenge. Because theater owners have been slow to convert cinemas to the digital projectors needed for the immersive presentation, there are scarcely more than 1,000 domestic screens booked to show "Coraline" in 3-D. And most of those theaters are committed to play Disney's Jonas Brothers concert movie starting Feb. 27.

"We are suffering from a glut," Selick said, "of too many 3-D movies and not enough screens."

James Schamus, whose Focus Features is distributing "Coraline," said he was confident audiences would respond to Selick's singular vision.

"It's crazy -- it stretches things to a level you can't imagine," Schamus said. "What's amazing about 'Coraline' is that it's a family movie that is also on the cutting edge."

Like many parents, though, Schamus is unsure how appropriate the film might be for young children, particularly those younger than 8 years old.

"You have to remember that Henry is a kid in a way," Schamus said of Selick. "He's an adult person who maintains an open window into what it's like to live in the mind of a child."

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john.horn@latimes.com