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With their otherworldly colors and exaggerated lines, animated films offer an easy escape from reality. And while we can’t think of any reason why you might want to check out of this timeline, a bunch of great ones just hit streaming services.
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They include movies from one of the GOATs in stop-motion, Latvia’s first Oscar winner and a cult autumnal classic that’s actually a miniseries. Most of them are a little creepy, but hey, so is every Disney film:
‘Coraline’
The 3D stop-motion animation of “Coraline” floored audiences back in 2009, but the work that went into it is even more astounding. Oregon-based studio Laika filmed its handmade puppets across 150 sets in a 140,000-square-foot warehouse, each figure sculpted by hand and outfitted in custom outfits knit with needles about the width of a human hair. Together, it makes up the story of a lonely girl who stumbles into an alternate universe hiding in her family’s new home, where everything and everyone is the same, only better. But are they really? “Coraline” is still gorgeous and ghoulish all these years later, a memorable successor to director Henry Selick’s “The Nightmare Before Christmas” and “James and the Giant Peach.” Stream it on Hulu and Disney+.
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‘ParaNorman’
Keep the Laika marathon going with the studio’s second film “ParaNorman,” also streaming on Disney+ and Hulu. This time, the kid at the center of it all, Norman, can talk to ghosts. This comes in handy when the boy’s eccentric great-uncle entrusts him with lifting a curse on their hometown. To do that, Norman will have to track down another kid with clairvoyant powers who’s been dead for three centuries.
“ParaNorman” can be classified a ghost story or a zombie movie, but at its heart, it’s a coming-of-age tale of misfits embracing what makes them different — even if it’s ESP. The voice cast includes Anna Kendrick as Norman’s cheerleader sister, Leslie Mann as his mom, Elaine Stritch as his grandmother and John Goodman as the weird great-uncle.
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‘Over the Garden Wall’
The woodsy backdrop of this 2014 miniseries hits best in the fall, but if coffee shops can hawk pumpkin lattes in late August, you can start “Over the Garden Wall” a few weeks early. The Cartoon Network show plays like a fairytale in its telling of two brothers lost in a magical forest. This isn’t exactly Disney, though; the old-timey music and talking birds are hiding an odd, occasionally sinister energy. Dive into the forest with Wirt and Greg on Prime, which added the 10-part series to its library earlier this month.
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‘Flow’
The threat in “Flow” isn’t a ghost or creepy forest; it’s the flood surging through a black cat’s home. In search of higher ground, our feline hero leaps aboard a vacant boat which soon fills up with other animals seeking shelter. None of them talk, but “Flow” still conveys their developing friendship and fears through its exquisite animation. The 2024 Oscar winner — the first Latvian production to earn a statuette — is now available on the Criterion Channel.
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