As a Christmas present to his fans, Neil Gaiman managed to wrangle some early footage from the upcoming animated film Coraline to show to the world. Although it’s just a short clip that doesn’t give much insight into what the movie’s actually about, the look of it is super cool and really unique.

Based on a novella written by Gaiman, it’s being directed by stop motion guru Henry Selick (yes, he of Tim Burton’s Nightmare Before Christmas), and yes, it’s also being given the full digital 3D treatment. It turns out certain prints of Beowulf in 3D earlier this year were blessed with a full trailer for Coraline as well, but it hasn’t made its way online yet.

I may have been one of the few people who was mostly unimpressed by the Gaiman-penned Stardust this year, but I am definitely stoked for this. A release date for Coraline has yet to be determined, but it will probably be late 2008 or early 2009. Check out a higher quality Quicktime version of the clip over on Neil Gaiman’s site.