Now this looks like it’s going to be an excellent movie. Henry Selick, who brought us The Nightmare Before Christmas, is directing a stop-motion animated version of Neil Gaiman’s award-winning graphic novel Coraline.

Gaiman’s work is usually extremely dark, and Selick doesn’t appear to have pulled any punches in his adaptation — the creepy button eyes, the menacing music and the cast of characters will surely give children nightmares for weeks. And we heartily approve of anything that terrifies children.

The animation may be stop-motion, but it’s anything but old-school. New animation and camera techniques have been developed for Coraline, which is going to be the first stop-motion film every shot in 3D.

IGN has been the place to go for up-to-date Caroline news, and they have an excellent set of exclusive preview videos. Personally, the mood and imagery remind me of Shane Acker’s excellent short 9, which is on Criticker in full, and well worth 10 minutes of your time.