I absolutely love stop-motion animation- the process by which such movies as Wallace and Gromit, The Nightmare Before Christmas, and James and the Giant Peach are animated. This poster is from the new stop-motion animated movie Coraline, directed by Henry Selick (The Nightmare Before Christmas and James and the Giant Peach) and based on Neil Gaiman's acclaimed novel. I adore this poster. The use of ciaroscuro and a muted palate that consists of soft lights and dark darks, really makes this poster pop out- using high contrast to it's advantage. The rule of thirds is also used from the top to the bottom of the poster, separating it from dark to light, then dark again. The way the poster is framed in darkness is also not just a stylistic choice- it suggests the dark, mysterious content of the movie.
Even the text suggests the tone of the movie. The whispy quote floating in the light serves as a device to vaguely illustrate a plot point or theme of the movie. The font chosen is both whimsical and foreboding, and almost looks as if it were scraped out of the light by a finger. The font used for the title is similar, in that it is whimsical and made of light. It also uses a button substituted for an "o" and a stylized cat used for the "l" for movie tie-ins. These are clever substitutions, but I think that it would work better had they only chosen one; it begins to look a little unbalanced with both.