Mike here. This year I went to see a really cool animated movie back in the UK called ‘Coraline’.
マイクだよ。僕は今年イギリスで、『コラライン』というすっごく面白いアニメ映画を見たんだ。
‘Coraline’ is a stop-motion animated film based on the novel ‘Coraline’ by Neil Gaiman, and it is similar to the style used in ‘The Nightmare Before Christmas’ - I’m sure that you have all heard of this movie as I know that it’s huge in Japan! ‘Coraline’ has been a huge hit in the UK and America and has received rave review, one source gave it an 88% rating! The films features the voices of Dakota Fanning (I am Sam, War of the Worlds) as Coraline , Teri Hatcher (Desperate Housewives) as the Other Mother/ Coraline’s mother, Dawn French (Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban/The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe) and Jennifer Saunders (Shrek 2) as Ms. Spink and Ms. Forcible and Ian McShane (The Golden Compass) as Mr. Bobinsky.
『コラライン』は、『コララインとボタンの魔女』というニール・ゲイマンの小説を元にしたストップ・モーション・アニメーション(コマ撮りした映像をつなぎ合わせたアニメーション)映画で、『ナイトメアー・ビフォア・クリスマス』と似たスタイルの映画なんだ。 この『ナイトメアー・ビフォア・クリスマス』は日本でも大人気だった映画だからきっと皆も知ってるよね。『コラライン』はイギリスやアメリカで大ヒットして、映画関係者からも大絶賛されたんだ。この映画には、コラライン役で『I am Sam』や『War of the Worlds』に出ていたダコタ・ファニング、コララインの母親や他の母親役として『デスパレートな妻たち』のテリー・ハッチャー、『ハリーポッターとアズカバンの囚人』や『ナルニア国物語～ライオンと魔女～』のドーン・フレンチと『シュレック２』のジェニファー・サウンダースがスピンク役やフォーシブル役で、そしてボビンスキー役では『ライラの冒険 黄金の羅針盤』のイアン・マクシェーンが声優として出演しているんだよ。
Coraline - The Story Coraline Jones, a young and inquisitive girl with short, blue hair, moves to a small, rural apartment called ‘The Pink Palace’ with her mother and father. Although she is excited and curious about her new home she feels largely rejected and isolated by her parents who are too busy with their work to spend real time with their daughter. In an effort to curtail her boredom, Coraline sets off to explore her surroundings and on the way befriends an unusual boy named ‘Wybie’ with whom she quickly forms a ‘love-hate’ relationship. Also, she meets her neighbours two retired actresses, Ms. Spink and Ms. Forcible, who live together with their doted upon dogs, Mr. Bobinsky - an eccentric Russian ex-acrobat who claims to be training mice to play music and dance in his amazing circus, and a nameless black cat.
During her adventures Coraline discovers a magical door hidden away in one of the walls of her apartment. The door opens to a passageway which leads to the ‘other world’. In this ‘other world’ things are mirrored to Coraline’s own world (her apartment is exactly the same) except that it is much more cheerful and warmer than her own. In this world she meets her ‘Other Mother’ and ‘Other Father’ who look exactly the same as her real parents except that they have buttons sewn into their eyes. These other parents dote on Coraline and are much kinder to her - singing songs, enjoying delicious food and playing games with their ‘daughter’. Although, when Coraline goes to bed in the ‘other world’ she awakens back in her own world.
After many attempts to convince her real parents about the existence of the ‘other world’ Coraline returns to her room dejected. However, at night time the door opens again and Coraline returns each night to the other world to enjoy adventures with her other parents, watch a theatre performance by the ‘other Ms. Spink and Ms. Forcible’ and to see the ‘other Mr. Bobinsky’s’ amazing mouse circus.
Coraline enjoys spending time in the ‘other world’ so much that she asks her ‘other mother’ if she can stay. Delighted, her ‘other mother’ agrees but only on the condition that Coraline sews buttons into her eyes. Scared, Coraline tries to escape but is stopped by her ‘other mother’! It is then that Coraline realises that the ‘other world’ is not as nice as it seems and her real adventure to escape her terrifying prison begins...
‘Coraline’ Review: My first impression of ‘Coraline’ is that it is an amazingly put together film. The colours are vivid and really bring the characters to life and (in the case of the 3D version) literally off the screen! I went to see this movie with my sister in 3D and we were astounｄed by the quality of the effects - we literally felt like we were in the movie! I read that years of effort went into the making of this film and you can certainly see that when you watch it. Small things like the way Coraline purses her lips when she is thinking to the subtle insect-like movements of the ‘other mother’s’ limbs. If you are not blown away like I was at the animation you will certainly be sucked in by the clever story. Neil Gaiman put a lot of thought and imagination into this movie, and in some ways I see it paralleling some of the great stories like ‘Alice in Wonderland’ and ‘Hansel and Gretel’.
However, ‘Coraline’ is not just a pretty movie. Some scenes in the film are a little scary and, although I was not bothered by them, some very small children may find them a little creepy. That is not to say that this is a horror movie (it’s definitely not!) but it is much darker and deals with stronger themes than it’s cousin, ‘The Nightmare Before Christmas’.
All in all I’d give this movie 4 out of 5 for a brilliant piece of art but being a little heavy going for the smaller kids. If you enjoy beautiful animation, a heart pounding story line or if you just want to feel like a child again go and see ‘Coraline’ when it is released in Japan soon - you won’t be disappointed!
Apparently ‘Coraline’ involved the efforts of over 450 people in order to bring the movie to life, one person was even hired to knit the character’s individual pieces of clothing needles as thin as a strand of human hair!
In this scene the black cat is giving Coraline some advice about escaping from the ‘other mother’:
このシーンで黒猫がコララインに、「別のお母さん」から逃げるためのアドバイスをするんだ。
Cat: You realise you're going right into her trap.
（君は彼女の罠にはまっているって気がついているはずだ。）
Coraline: They're my parents!
（あの人たちはわたしの両親よ！）
Cat: Challenge her, then! She has a ‘thing’ for games. She won't be able to resist.
（彼女に挑むんだ！彼女はゲームが大好きで我慢できないんだ。）
have a thing for ~ I am obsessed by/ I really enjoy doing something.
"have a thing for"は「～に取り付かれている」、「～をすることが大好き」という意味だよ。
When you enjoy an activity, or if you have a particular hobby that you do a lot we can use the expression I have a thing for. In the above quote, the black cat that ‘She (‘the other mother’) has a thing for games’ - this means that she can’t resist playing games and likes them very much.
何かをすることを楽しむときや特別な趣味を持っているときは、"I have a thing for"の表現を使うことが出来るよ。上記の引用文”She(別のお母さん）has a thing for games"は「彼女はゲームをすることが大好きで我慢できない」という意味になるんだ。
I really enjoy photography and eating sashimi with lots of wasabi, so I might say something like:
僕は写真と、沢山のワサビと一緒に刺身を食べることが大好きだから、こんな風に言えるよ。
‘I have a thing for photography. I spend a lot of time taking photos around Japan’.
（僕は写真が大好きだ。僕は日本のあちこちで沢山の時を写真を撮って過ごします。）
‘I don’t know why but I just have a thing for putting lots of wasabi on my sashimi.’
（なぜか分からないけど、刺身に沢山のワサビをつけて食べるのが大好きなんだ。）
What do you have a thing for?Thanks for reading my movie blog and I hope you enjoy watching ‘Coraline’ soon!
"Welcome to Hollywood! What's your dream? Everybody comes here, this is Hollywood, land of dreams. Some dreams come true, some don't, but keep on dreamin'! this is Hollywood. Always time to dream, so keep on dreamin'."
One Point Phrase from"The Bridges of Madison County"
こちらは印象的だったフランチェスカのセリフです。
"When a woman makes the choice to marry, to have children; in one way her life begins but in another way it stops. You build a life of details. You become a mother, a wife and you stop and stay steady so that your children can move. And when they leave they take your life of details with them. And then you're expected move again only you don't remember what moves you because no-one has asked in so long. You never in your life think that love like this can happen to you"
"Regarding Henry" stars Harrison Ford and Annette Bening.
「心の旅」はハリソン・フォードとアネット・ベニングの主演映画です。
The Story of "Regarding henry"
Henry is a wealthy New York lawyer who is famous for being ruthless in court. He has a wife, Sarah, and a daughter, Rachel, but does not spend a lot of time with them. One day, Henry's life changes forever as he is shot in the head during a convenience store robbery. He recovers from his injuries, but has completely lost his memory. He must learn everything over again, including the names of his family. Henry slowly gets better, and spends more time with his wife and daughter. Henry learns more and more about his life, and realizes that he is a much better person now than he was before he was injured.
In Photo Journal 1 Day 3, you learned the phrase "a lot of" which is very useful, because it can be used with both plural countable nouns (like books, cats, and people) and uncountable nouns (like tea, chocolate, and bread).
Photo Journal 1のDay 3で皆さんは"a lot of（多くの）"という言い回しを学びましたね。それは複数可算名詞（books,cats,peopleなど）と不可算名詞（tea,chocolate,breadなど）と一緒に使うことができるのでとても役立ちます。
When we are speaking very casually, like Henry is with his daughter, we often change "a lot of" to "lots of". Please note--even though it's "a lot of" and "lots of", both phrases can be used with countable plural nouns or uncountable nouns-- there is no grammatical change.
ヘンリーが彼の娘と一緒にいるときのようにとても気軽に話すときは、 "a lot of"を"lots of"に変えることができます。 "a lot of"と"lots of"は可算複数名詞か不可算名詞と一緒に使われる言い回しであることを注意してくださいね。文法の変化はありません。
