There have been many movies where children have been chased by adults or monsters. Some of those movies include The Witches, Home Alone and Pete's Dragon. More recently however movies with this plot line have begin to resemble adult thriller or horror movies in some ways. Not that anyone is having their head chopped off but there is certainly more of a sense that something is out to get you. Also, the darker color schemes seem to be somewhat inspired by horror/thriller movies. Two movies really stand out to me as being a Children's scary movie and they are Lemony Snicket's a series of Unfortunate Events and Coraline.
Lemony Snicket's a Series of Unfortunate Events is about three siblings who can not seem to catch a break after ever since their parents died and their house burnt down. The dreaded Count Olaf has a vendetta out for the children and tries to hunt them down throughout the coarse of the entire movie.
The aesthetic that they chose to illustrate that plot with is stimulating and fun. The movie has a very eerie yet vintage appearance to it. Nothing appears to be new and everything appears to be old or delicately hand crafted. It's very much as if the Victorian era met today's arabesque patterns and Gothic clothing. Stripes and swirls can be found in nearly every scene on clothing, furniture or trinkets. The colors used were browns and monochromatic schemes with small pops of muted color. There is something to be said about the whimsical nature of the set. Especially Count Olaf's house where no two lines seem to be running parallel. In fact the count himself seems to be a little angular with his bushy eyebrows heading back across the sides of his head and his hair coming to a point behind him. Jim Carry does a fantastic job of exaggerating those lines to the camera.
Coraline is about a little girl on an adventure within her own house and property. Her parents are normally quite busy but Caroline discovers an alternate reality where her parents are perfectly attentive. Once she figures out something is terribly wrong she has to figure out how to fix the situation which turns out to be a rather complex puzzle.
The vintage theme is still there although it seems to have more of an influence of Portland (where the movie was created). Bungalo homes were very popular (here) in Portland during the 1920's era. Coraline's house could very well be one of these homes, complete with moldings, built ins and secret doors. The movie has a similar vintage quality to Lemony Snickets but is different. While lemony Snicket's had monochromatic tones with pops of mostly muted colors, the colors in Caroline are monochromatic with pops of bright color. In fact color plays a really big role in the movie. In the real world, there are no bright colors other than Coraline's outfit, but once she enters the alternate reality everything seems more vibrant and fun. When things start unraveling we see the colors deteriorating in the alternate realty. The surrounding around the house turns white like a blank canvas and the house its self turns gray brilliantly depicting the transformation of comfortable and fun to trickery and evil.
Image SourcesLemony Snicket's a Series of Unfortunate Events is about three siblings who can not seem to catch a break after ever since their parents died and their house burnt down. The dreaded Count Olaf has a vendetta out for the children and tries to hunt them down throughout the coarse of the entire movie.
The aesthetic that they chose to illustrate that plot with is stimulating and fun. The movie has a very eerie yet vintage appearance to it. Nothing appears to be new and everything appears to be old or delicately hand crafted. It's very much as if the Victorian era met today's arabesque patterns and Gothic clothing. Stripes and swirls can be found in nearly every scene on clothing, furniture or trinkets. The colors used were browns and monochromatic schemes with small pops of muted color. There is something to be said about the whimsical nature of the set. Especially Count Olaf's house where no two lines seem to be running parallel. In fact the count himself seems to be a little angular with his bushy eyebrows heading back across the sides of his head and his hair coming to a point behind him. Jim Carry does a fantastic job of exaggerating those lines to the camera.
Coraline is about a little girl on an adventure within her own house and property. Her parents are normally quite busy but Caroline discovers an alternate reality where her parents are perfectly attentive. Once she figures out something is terribly wrong she has to figure out how to fix the situation which turns out to be a rather complex puzzle.
The vintage theme is still there although it seems to have more of an influence of Portland (where the movie was created). Bungalo homes were very popular (here) in Portland during the 1920's era. Coraline's house could very well be one of these homes, complete with moldings, built ins and secret doors. The movie has a similar vintage quality to Lemony Snickets but is different. While lemony Snicket's had monochromatic tones with pops of mostly muted colors, the colors in Caroline are monochromatic with pops of bright color. In fact color plays a really big role in the movie. In the real world, there are no bright colors other than Coraline's outfit, but once she enters the alternate reality everything seems more vibrant and fun. When things start unraveling we see the colors deteriorating in the alternate realty. The surrounding around the house turns white like a blank canvas and the house its self turns gray brilliantly depicting the transformation of comfortable and fun to trickery and evil.
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0339291/mediaindex
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0327597/mediaindex
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