Q: There have been many stories in the past where a child, unhappy with his or her parents, goes off to to a fantasy world or adventure and later develops a new appreciation for mom and dad. What was it about Neil Gaiman's story that stook out in your mind?

HENRY: I think that he understands that you need to go to a very dark place and triumph for the win. He doesn't dial back on the creepiness or scariness. It's that much more in tune with the Brothers Grimm or even early [Walt] Disney, like what he did with Snow White. That's one thing I liked, his fearlessness, but then these malicious storytelling and attention to details. Button eyes: Why is that so creepy? I love the characters. I felt in reading the original manuscript which I read two years before the novel was published, I felt like I found my lost brother (laughs). There was just this creative connection with him. I loved Coraline. I loved that she doesn't have powers and super skills and that she's a regular kid who manages to beat such a dark, evil and twisted force.

Q: Was there anything about the story that you identified with personally?

HENRY: Certainly there was that universal idea that you all wish for other parents when you're a kid, or another brother or sister. I certainly learned to appreciate my parents in different ways. They hadn't gone to college. My mother would pick me up in a really old junkie car. I look back and it didn't mean anything but when you're a kid, you're embarrassed by that. That feeling of wanting to change your life was something there. Also Coraline is attracted to this idea of danger when she finds this deep well in the back of the property. In the book, the old ladies warn her, "You want to know about this but keep away." Well sure enough, it's the first thing she goes looking for. You have fears as a child where your imagination takes over. You really believe monsters are on the other side of the closet door. With every kid, I think there are connections with their fears.

Q: I was reading an interview from a few years ago where you weren't sure if this film was going to be done with CG, live-action, stop-motion or a combination of the three. How did that process come together and at what point did the 3-D aspect of things come into play?

HENRY: It's hard to explain the evolution of the film. When I read it, I saw it as animation. In 2000 I took it to our producer Bill Mechanic who also loved the book but he had a deal where he wasn't allowed to do animated films because he was distributing through Disney. So either we developed it as live-action or we could not develop it. It started out with live-action but I was always secretly writing it to be animated in the time it took to get [the project] on its feet. I did a 3-D rock video 20 years ago from the ViewMaster Corporation. You know those people who made those wheels, you put them in a viewer and you click on it and you get a 3-D image?

Q: Oh yeah...

HENRY: They were trying to branch out into other things. I was hired and this guy whose system it was, Lenny Lipton, I was really impressed with Lenny and so I would check in with him from time to time to see how his system was developing. Flash forward to right now, it's Lenny's system that's the primary one in theaters now. He hooked up with this company RealD so 20 years ago I had that first experience shooting in 3-D and meeting a guy who was going to develop this modern system. When we were shooting "The Nightmare Before Christmas," there were a couple members of the crew who shot 3-D stills as a hobby and they would choose the stills and put it in the viewer. There was always this sense that we wish we could share the experience with an audience because they weren't really getting what the 3-D was showing.

With stop motion, everything is real. Everything really exists. So all of this stuff in the background: the desire for 3-D, the technological development with Lenny and the timing that came together as we started getting "Coraline' up onto its feet into production – storywise I was searching for my "Wizard of Oz" moment of going from black and white to color and I realized 3-D could do that. That's how we were going to enhance this other world, this fantasy world and differentiate it from the real world. It's a convoluted story but that's how it all happened and joined up.

Q: How did doing the movie in 3-D inform the cinematography, set design and overall choices? With 3-D, some might say that "less is more" where you have to walk a fine balance between not throwing too many things out at the audience but also doing enough to keep it fun and interesting.

HENRY: I think you got a pretty good handle of how we learned to incorporate that "less is more." If you have things come off the screen too often, it's often taxing and also limits your edit choice. It can be very painful to edit if things are jumping out of the screen. Starting with the story we were going to shoot the story with some 3-D, I came up with this idea of what I call "crushed space" where a lot of the sets in the real world have very little depth to them. The floors, walls and ceilings are raked steeply. One of the smallest sets was the kitchen in the real world. There's a kitchen in the real world and there's a copy in the other world. The kitchen in the real world is about one and a half feet deep but the kitchen in the other world is four feet deep.

Shooting in 3-D, we get a sense of "I can breathe here. It's not so claustrophobic." It was, in a more subtle way, of giving you the idea of freedom in the other world. Also with the concept of the story, Coraline is sucked into this other world where things appear to be better. And that's kind of what we did. When we go into the other world, we want to draw the audience into the screen. Most of the 3-D takes place behind the screen. There's only a handful of those gimmick moments where things come off the screen.

Q: How involved was Neil in the creative process? It still feels very much "you" but at the same time, true to Neil's work.

HENRY: In writing the screenplay, I luckily had a very long time to get it to work. Initially I was collaborating real closely in the first draft. That first draft was a stillborn piece. It didn't work. It was too faithful to the book and didn't translate to the film. Neil wasn't leaning on me to be a big part of it. I was more leaning on him because I was so awe of the book and writing ability. After the failure of the first draft, I decided to go off on my own, no matter how much time it would take. That was sort of liberating. I started shifting things from the book, like changing the setting to the US. I brought in another character for Coraline to directly play off and some larger and smaller adjustments. At the end of that, even though it's different from the book, in a few ways that was the screenplay that worked. Neil was always supportive. Honestly in the vision and look of it, he's totally supportive. It's like planets that only cross each other paths once in a while. It was really important to keep Neil in the loop once in a while.

Q: It seems the industry is moving towards this idea that 3-D is the solution to get people coming back to movies in theaters again. What are your thoughts about the future of 3-D films?

HENRY: If every screen right now supported 3-D and every movie was shot in 3-D, I don't think 3-D will completely turnaround the fact that there may be less people going to the movies. It's for the right sort of movie and using it well for a certain story. I can't support that idea that if every film was shot in 3-D, people would come. I'm a little worried that too many films will be shot in 3-D without it really being necessary. I don't know if "The Wrestler" needs to be in 3-D.

Q: What about traditional animation, like stop-motion? In an age where CG animated films are becoming more common, do you think there's still a place for stop-motion animation?

HENRY: I certainly hope so. When you look at the numbers, none of the stop motion films have done that initial huge business like the CG films. Of course, people want to back whatever is most successful. If you stand back a little, at least in the case of "Nightmare," it has had a very, very long life. I think stop-motion ages really well because it's already old-fashioned the first time you see it. It's an ancient way to make a film. I think there's a vitality and energy to it because of the flaws. You can't do it perfectly because of the bumps and flaws. It stutters and it has its own unique energy. So far, it's much less expensive to do than making CG films. It's about a third of a cost compared to something done by Pixar or Dreamworks [Animation]. So the question is: Will there be risk takers who will support it? We will have to see.

Q: There seems to be this renewed interest in "The Nightmare Before Christmas" with the theatrical rerelease and the release on Blu-ray. Have there been any talks or thoughts regarding any sequels?

HENRY: No one's talked to me in recent years. A few years back, Disney spoke to me and the sad thing was at the time, they said, "If we do a sequel, it will have to be CG." I was really disappointed. I asked why and they didn't think stop-motion was a viable way to make movies. I don't think they would say that now and I don't think Tim would allow a CG sequel. There's been a few stories proposed and a few discussion but that's really Tim [Burton]'s decision. John Lassiter, from Pixar, is heading up all Disney animation and he goes way back with Tim. He might possibly persuade Tim to do it. But I kind of think not.

"Coraline" opens in theaters in both 3-D and 2-D Friday February 6.