Coraline

***Coraline*** is a 2009 American stop motion animated dark fantasy horror film written and directed by Henry Selick, based on Neil Gaiman's novella of the same name. Produced by Laika, as the studio's first feature film, it features the voice talents of Dakota Fanning, Teri Hatcher, Jennifer Saunders, Dawn French, Keith David, John Hodgman, Robert Bailey Jr., and Ian McShane. The musical score was composed by Bruno Coulais. The film tells the story of its eponymous character discovering an idealized alternate universe behind a secret door in her new home, unaware that it contains something dark and sinister. Her friends, a stalkerish boy named Wybie and a stray black cat, help her set things right and become closer to her parents.

Just as Gaiman was finishing his novella in 2002, he met Selick and invited him to make a film adaptation, as Gaiman was a fan of Selick's other stop-motion projects, *The Nightmare Before Christmas* (1993) and *James and the Giant Peach* (1996). When Selick thought that a direct adaptation would lead to "maybe a 47-minute movie", the screenplay had some expansions, like the introduction of Wybie, who was not present in the original novel. Selick, looking for a design away from that of most animation, discovered the work of Japanese illustrator Tadahiro Uesugi and invited him to become the concept artist. His biggest influences were on the color palette, which was muted in the real world and more colorful in the Other World, similar to *The Wizard of Oz* (1939). To capture stereoscopy for the 3D release, the animators shot each frame from two slightly apart camera positions. Production of the stop-motion animation feature took place at a warehouse in Hillsboro, Oregon (near Portland).

The film was theatrically released in the United States on February 6, 2009, by Focus Features after a world premiere at the Portland International Film Festival on February 5, and received critical acclaim. The film grossed $16.85 million during its opening weekend, ranking third at the box office, and by the end of its run had grossed over $324 million worldwide, making it the third-highest-grossing stop-motion film of all time after *Chicken Run* (2000) and *Wallace & Gromit: The Curse of the Were-Rabbit* (2005). The film won Annie Awards for Best Music in an Animated Feature Production, Best Character Design in an Animated Feature Production and Best Production Design in an Animated Feature Production, and received nominations for an Academy Award for Best Animated Feature and a Golden Globe Award for Best Animated Feature Film. It has developed a cult following in the years since its release, and has been considered one of the greatest animated films in modern times. It later premiered on Cartoon Network in Latin America. With the production of Coraline, LAIKA would become the first company to make a feature-length film using replacement faces made by a 3D Printer.

## Plot

Coraline Jones has to adapt to life in the Pink Palace apartments, an old house in Ashland, Oregon, after moving from Pontiac, Michigan. Her parents have to work and ignore her. She crosses paths with a black cat and Wyborne (or "Wybie"), the landlady's grandson, who leaves her a ragdoll lookalike. It leads Coraline to a small door with a brick wall behind it. That night, a jumping mouse leads Coraline back to the door, now a portal leading to the Other World, an alternate universe where her parents are button-eyed doppelgängers who lavish her with food and attention.

Upon waking, Coraline has returned to the real world. Wybie recounts how his great aunt disappeared. Coraline meets the other residents of the Pink Palace: upstairs, the Amazing Bobinsky, an eccentric Russian liquidator-turned-gymnast who owns a mouse circus; and downstairs, retired burlesque performers April Spink and Miriam Forcible. Bobinsky and Ms. Spink (who reads tea leaves for Coraline) warn her about the Other World.

Coraline goes back nonetheless by purposely baiting the jumping mice with cheese and sees that her Other Father has a wonderful garden. The Other Wybie, who is mute, accompanies her to see Bobinsky's dancing circus mice. When Coraline returns again to the Other World, this time during the day, the cat tells her he can traverse the two worlds. She watches Ms. Spink and Forcible perform. Afterwards, the Other Mother offers to let her stay permanently if she has buttons sewn over her eyes which horrifies Coraline. She desperately tries to fall asleep and even after waking remains in the Other World. When she tries to escape back through the door to her world, the Other Mother half-transforms into an arachnid-like form and imprisons her by throwing her into a mirror that leads to a dark room.

There, three ghost children, including Wybie's great aunt, tell Coraline how *the Beldam* (i.e., Other Mother) used the ragdolls to spy on them. After sewing buttons over their eyes, the Beldam robbed them of their souls. Coraline can free them by retrieving the essences of their souls, trapped in the "eyes" of the ghost children. After promising to help them, Other Wybie helps her return home.

The Beldam has kidnapped her parents, forcing Coraline to return to the Other World with a Ouija planchette from Ms. Spink. The cat suggests Coraline propose a game: if she can find her parents and the three "eyes", the Beldam will let them all go free; if not, Coraline will finally accept the Beldam's offer. As Coraline finds each "eye", parts of the Other World turn lifeless as the entire dimension gradually disintegrates. During the search, Coraline encounters the clothes that Other Wybie was wearing on a flag pole, implying that the Beldam killed him for helping her escape before.

The Beldam has assumed her final form. The ghost of Wybie's great aunt warns that the Beldam will not honor her bargain. Coraline tricks her into opening the door to the real world by claiming that Coraline's parents are behind it. Coraline throws the cat at her and takes the snow globe with her imprisoned parents. During the battle between the Beldam and the cat, the cat claws aways at her button eyes. As a last resort, the Beldam creates a giant spider's web in the floor. Coraline narrowly escapes through the door, severing the Beldam's hand.

The snow globe back home is broken and Coraline reunites with her parents. They have no recollection of the ordeal, but having finished their writing, they are nice to Coraline. Her mother buys her the gloves that she always wanted and they do plan a garden party. That night, the freed ghosts warn Coraline that the Beldam is trying to get the key to the small door. When Coraline goes to the well to get rid of it, the Beldam's severed hand attacks her, trying to pull her back to the small door in the house. Wybie comes to the rescue and destroys the hand with a large rock, so that they can finally get rid of the key. The next day, all the residents of the Pink Palace apartments come to the party. Wybie brings his grandmother, so that Coraline can reveal her missing sister's fate.

## Why It Rocks

1. For the first time ever, it jump-started the stop-motion company, Laika as the feature film, which is popular and continues to make more stop-motion films that is never done before.
2. Just like the novel, the film is anything but pure shock value, as it has a genuine and robust plot, lore, and message.
3. It is extremely faithful to the original novel, and even expands on some parts. For example, it introduces Wyborn (or Wybie, as he's often called), a geeky but nervous 11-year-old grandson of Coraline's landlady. He was also created for the film in order to make Coraline's character appear more social to the audience, and his creation certainly succeeded in that.
4. The stop-motion animation is wonderful and heavily detailed, especially by 2009 and Laika's, the first feature one, standards.
5. The atmosphere has a creepy and cool look, which fits the mood of the story perfectly. The backgrounds are also absolutely dazzling. From being dark and bleak to geometrical, they all look completely and utterly breathtaking.
6. The Other Father produces a great song on the piano, "They Might Be Giants."
7. The movie has a lot of likable characters, most notably one of the main protagonist, Coraline herself. Wybie is also entertaining, as is the stray cat.
	* Speaking of Coraline, she goes through a great deal of tangible and strong character development over the course of the events of the film. She starts off as a bit of a spoiled brat, but only because she feels ignored by her parents due to them becoming so busy after moving into the Pink Palace due to everything going on at the time that they couldn't make much time for her. But after getting stranded in the other world, she learns to become more selfless and courageous in order to survive and protect those she cares about.
8. Coraline and Wybie's interactions with each other are entertaining, as well as having amazing chemistry.
9. The Other Mother is a very threatening, scarier and amazing antagonist. Especially in the climax where it's revealed that she tricks kids into thinking that she genuinely loves them so that she can trap them in the other world, not to mention the scene where she turned into a **giant spider** to fight Coraline.
10. The soundtrack by Bruno Coulais is beautiful.
11. There are lots of nice cameo in this movie, such as the director Henry Selick, George Selick, Jerome Ranft and Christopher Murrie-Green.
12. Amazing voice acting. Dakota Fanning in particular does a great job voicing Coraline. The same can be said about the other voice actors in the film, who also fit their roles well, but it's extremely impressive given how young she was at the time.
13. Much like *The Nightmare Before Christmas* and *James and the Giant Peach*, it shows how Henry Selick has amazing skills as a director.
14. The movie has a fairly suspenseful story with many great twists and turns. Especially the reveal of the Other Mother's true identity and intentions as the Beldam.
15. The ending (which has the final remain of the Beldam, her still-moving hand, return, but Coraline and Wybie dispose of it by dropping a rock on top of it before sealing it's remnants into a bag and dropping it into a well) is very great and unexpected.
16. Although the horror factor is somewhat toned down from the original novel, the film remains incredibly loyal to it and has the charm and creepiness as well. The changes it makes from the original book also make sense and are interesting, such as the addition of Wybie. Neil Gaiman being heavily involved in the production also helped.
17. Certain lines and moments are pretty funny without trying too hard to make the audience laugh, such as when Coraline is in the Other World and asks the stray cat why he can suddenly talk, to which he answers *"I just can!"*.
18. The scene where Coraline sees that her parents aren't home is emotional and touching, especially when Coraline sets up pillows to look like her parents and says goodnight to them before she starts crying.

## Bad Qualities

1. Despite being an family film, there are some too scary, fri and inappropriate moments that even many will be scared for a PG-rated family movie, such as:
	* The Beldam sewing buttons over peoples' eyes.
	* The infamous "One, Two, Three" scene, where the Other Mother transforms into a grotesque version of herself, not helping is that there is full on **crackling** during her transformation.
	* The Other Wybie having his mouth stitched into a permanent grin after the Beldam catches him looking unhappy.
	* The Other Miss Forcible and the Other Miss Spink doing a performance whilst wearing revealing clothing.
	* The Other Father complimenting the Other Mother's *"golden chicken breast"*, to which she responds with an *"oh, you!"* wave.
	* At a few points, the Mom says that Mr. Bobinsky is **drunk**.
2. There are a few errors, though they may be hard to notice. For instance, at one point, the Other Father presses the "F" key on the piano when the sound is really an "F#". There's also a part where Coraline drops her notebook and, in one shot, you can see the wires holding it up.
3. Wybie doesn't contribute much to the film, though this can be attributed to the fact that he didn't exist in the original novel.

## Reception

*Coraline* has received wide acclaim from both critics and moviegoers alike for its vivid stop-motion animation, engaging story and likable characters. On review aggregation website Rotten Tomatoes, the film holds an approval rating of 90% based on 268 reviews, with an average rating of 7.81/10. The website's critical consensus reads "With its vivid stop-motion animation combined with Neil Gaiman's imaginative story, *Coraline* is a film that's both visually stunning and wondrously entertaining". On Metacritic, the film has a weighted average score of 80 out of 100, based on 38 critics, indicating "generally favorable reviews".

Roger Ebert gave the film three stars out of four, calling it "a beautiful film about several nasty people", as well as "nightmare fodder for children, however brave, under a certain age."

In retrospective years, it has amassed a strong cult following.