When it comes to the enjoyment and appreciation of movies, I have found that there is often a fine line between seeing a film as reality and seeing it as an art form. On the one hand, perhaps the greatest praise I can give a film is that, even if only for an hour and half, part of me believes it to be true. But at the same time that I love those movies that draw me into their realities so much that I almost feel like I have been a part of their story, sometimes it is actually in recognizing the unreality of what is before me that I appreciate a film the most. And in a medium where new realities come into being and entire stories and characters are brought to life on a daily basis, very often, within the very evolution that brings every film into existence is a story just as interesting as the film itself.

Just watching the credits at the end of almost any movie, the extent of time, effort, and creativity that goes into making any film cannot be ignored. To me, the most interesting type of film to note every person and task that was a part of its creation is the animated feature. Within the world of animation, one of the most intriguing forms of creation is that of stop-motion animation. And in Coraline, the newest stop-motion animated feature by animator/director Henry Selick and the first stop-motion animated feature to be filmed in 3-D, the combination of a story that explores the concepts of alternate realities, creation, and creators with the actual creative process that brought the movie into being only makes the final product that much more fascinating&ellips; not to mention an intriguing meditation through which to contemplate God the Creator and His creation.

My frame was not hidden from you when I was made in the secret place. All the days ordained for me were written in your book before one of them came to be. (Psalm 139: 15, 16)

In production for over 18 months following two years of pre-production, Coraline pretty much emboides the creative theme of no-effort-spared-and-no-shortcut-taken. While the opening scene in the film depicts one doll being mechanically taken apart and reconstructed to represent a different person, each puppet in Coraline is handcrafted to suit its character and every task its character is destined to perform. To construct a single one of the main human puppets, ten individuals put in three to four months to of solid work. Ready to play the part of Coraline were not one but 28 different puppets of various sizes. In one scene involving 248 Scottie dogs, not even a single dog is a replica of any other. And even after each puppet was made, there was still the matter of costumes, hair, and makeup.

When I was woven together in the depths of the earth, your eyes saw my unformed body. For you created my inmost being; you knit me together in my mother's womb. (Psalm 139: 16, 13)

Unlike most previous stop-motion features, Coraline added even more dimension to its puppet players by foregoing the use of replacement heads and using replacement faces instead. Based on scans and castings of the original puppets, the replacement faces were built by CG artists, printed out on 3-D printers, and then painted by hand. In addition, characters' faces were divided in two, with one set of replacements for the lower half and another set for the top half. As a result, where The Nightmare Before Christmas' Jack Skellington had only 150 possible facial expressions, Coraline has over 200,000 potential ones.

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