coraline movie review essay

Movie Reviews

Tv/streaming, collections, chaz's journal, great movies, contributors, a beautiful film about several nasty people.

Now streaming on:

The director of "Coraline" has suggested it is for brave children of any age. That's putting it mildly. This is nightmare fodder for children, however brave, under a certain age. I know kids are exposed to all sorts of horror films via video, but "Coraline" is disturbing not for gory images but for the story it tells. That's rare in itself: Lots of movies are good at severing limbs, but few at telling tales that can grab us down inside where it's dark and scary.

Even more rare is that Coraline Jones ( Dakota Fanning ) is not a nice little girl. She's unpleasant, complains, has an attitude and makes friends reluctantly. Nor does she meet sweet and colorful new pals in her adventure, which involves the substitution of her parents by ominous doubles with buttons sewn over their eyes. She is threatened with being trapped in their alternate world, which is reached by an alarming tunnel behind a painted-over doorway in her own.

Not that Coraline's own parents are all that great. They're busy, distracted, bickering and always hunched over their computers. They hardly hear her when she talks. That's why she recklessly enters the tunnel and finds her Other Mother and Other Father waiting with roast chicken and a forced cheerfulness. All she needs to stay there is to have buttons sewn into her own eye sockets.

"Coraline" is the new film by Henry Selick , who made "The Nightmare Before Christmas" (1993) and again combines his mastery of stop-motion and other animation with 3-D. The 3-D creates a gloomier image (take off the glasses and the screen is bright), but then this is a gloomy film with weird characters doing nasty things. I've heard of eating chocolate-covered insects, but not when they're alive.

The ideal audience for this film would be admirers of film art itself, assuming such people exist. Selick creates an entirely original look and feel, uses the freedom of animation to elongate his characters into skeletal spectres looming over poor Coraline. Her new friend, Wybie (Robert Bailey Jr.), is a young hunchback whose full name is Wyborn, and it doesn't take Coraline long to wonder why his parents named him that.

The Other Mother and Father (voices of Teri Hatcher and John Hodgman , who are also Father and Mother) essentially want to steal Coraline from her real but distracted parents and turn her into some kind of a Stepford daughter. Their house, which looks like Coraline's own, has two old ladies ( Jennifer Saunders and Dawn French ) in the basement, boarders who seem in retirement from subtly hinted careers in the adult-entertainment industry. The upstairs boarder is Mr. Bobinsky ( Ian McShane ), a sometime vaudevillian who has a troupe of trained mice. One of the rooms of the house has insects bigger than Coraline who act as living furniture.

It's more or less impossible for me, anyway, to be scared by 3-D animation. The process always seems to be signaling, "I'm a process!" I think it's harder to get involved in a story when the process doesn't become invisible. I hear from parents who say, "My kids didn't even notice the 3-D!" In that case, why have it in the first place?

Kids who will be scared by the story may not all be happy to attend, 3-D or not. I suspect a lot of lovers of the film will include admirers of Neil Gaiman , whose Hugo Award-winning novel inspired Selick's screenplay. Gaiman is a titan of graphic novels, and there's a nice irony that one of his written books has been adapted as animation.

I admire the film mostly because it is good to look at. Selick is as unconventional in his imagery as Gaiman is in his writing, and this is a movie for people who know and care about drawing, caricature, grotesquerie and the far shores of storytelling. In short, you might care little about a fantasy, little indeed about this story, and still admire the artistry of it all, including an insidious score by Bruno Coulais, which doesn't pound at us like many horror scores, but gets under our psychic fingernails.

Credit is due to those who backed this film. I'm tired of wall-to-wall cuteness like " Kung Fu Panda ," and wonder if Selick's approach would be suited to films for grown-ups adapted from material like stories by August Derleth or Stephen King .

And perhaps I didn't make it clear that it's fine with me that Coraline is an unpleasant little girl. It would be cruelty to send Pippi Longstocking down that tunnel, but Coraline deserves it. Maybe she'll learn a lesson.

Roger Ebert

Roger Ebert was the film critic of the Chicago Sun-Times from 1967 until his death in 2013. In 1975, he won the Pulitzer Prize for distinguished criticism.

Now playing

Matt Zoller Seitz

Rebel Moon: Director's Cuts

Simon abrams.

Not Not Jazz

It Ends with Us

Marya e. gates.

Tomris Laffly

Film credits.

Coraline (2009)

100 minutes

Dakota Fanning as Coraline

Teri Hatcher as Mother/Other Mother

John Hodgman as Father/Other Father

Ian McShane as Mr. Bobinsky

Robert Bailey Jr. as Wybie

Jennifer Saunders as Miss Spink

Dawn French as Miss Forcible

Keith David as Cat

Written and directed by

• Henry Selick

Based on the graphic novel

• Neil Gaiman

Latest blog posts

Apple TV+'s Pachinko Expands Its Narrative Palate For An Emotional Season Two

Tina Mabry and Edward Kelsey Moore on the Joy and Uplift of The Supremes at Earl's All-You-Can-Eat

The Adams Family Gets Goopy in Hell Hole

A Look Back at MUBI FEST CHICAGO

Advertisement

Supported by

Movie Review | 'Coraline'

Cornered in a Parallel World

• Share full article

By A.O. Scott

• Feb. 5, 2009

There are many scenes and images in “Coraline” that are likely to scare children. This is not a warning but rather a recommendation, since the cultivation of fright can be one of the great pleasures of youthful moviegoing. As long as it doesn’t go too far toward violence or mortal dread, a film that elicits a tingle of unease or a tremor of spookiness can be a tonic to sensibilities dulled by wholesome, anodyne, school-approved entertainments.

Books, these days, often do a better job than movies of parceling out juvenile terror. There is plenty of grisly screen horror out there for teenagers, of course, but younger children are more amply served by fiction from the likes of R. L. Stine, Roald Dahl and Neil Gaiman, on whose fast-moving, suspenseful novel “Coraline” is based. The film, an exquisitely realized 3-D stop-motion animated feature directed and written by Henry Selick (“The Nightmare Before Christmas,” “James and the Giant Peach”) has a slower pace and a more contemplative tone than the novel. It is certainly exciting, but rather than race through ever noisier set pieces toward a hectic climax in the manner of so much animation aimed at kids, “Coraline” lingers in an atmosphere that is creepy, wonderfully strange and full of feeling.

Its look and mood may remind adult viewers at various times of the dreamscapes of Tim Burton (with whom Mr. Selick worked on “Nightmare”), Guillermo del Toro and David Lynch. Like those filmmakers Mr. Selick is interested in childhood not as a condition of sentimentalized, passive innocence but rather as an active, seething state of receptivity in which consciousness itself is a site of wondrous, at times unbearable drama.

The governing emotion, at the beginning, is loneliness. A smart, brave girl named Coraline Jones, voiced by Dakota Fanning, has recently moved from Michigan to an apartment in a big pink Victorian house somewhere in Oregon. She is at an age when the inadequacy of her parents starts to become apparent, and Coraline’s stressed-out, self-absorbed mom and dad (Teri Hatcher and John Hodgman), who write about gardening, barely look up from their computer screens when she’s in the room. And so, like many a children’s book heroine before her, Coraline sets out to explore her curious surroundings, interweaving the odd details of everyday reality with the bright threads of imagination. She is accompanied from time to time by a local boy (Robert Bailey Jr.) and a talking cat (Keith David).

Like the best fantasy writers Mr. Gaiman does not draw too firm a boundary between the actual and the magical, allowing the two realms to shadow and influence each other. Mr. Selick, for his part, is so wantonly inventive and so psychologically astute that even Coraline’s dull domestic reality is tinted with enchantment. Her neighbors are a collection of eccentrics whose physical peculiarities match their quirks of character. Upstairs there is a Russian circus artist with the rasping voice of Ian McShane, while below a pair of aging burlesque performers twitter and chirp in the giddy tones of Dawn French and Jennifer Saunders, queens of British TV comedy.

A secret door in the wall, which opens only at night, leads Coraline to a parallel world that at first seems to fulfill her sad heart’s every desire. The versions of her parents who live there — a queen-bee “other mother” and her agreeable mate — are warm and attentive, and the pink house is a wild wonderland where gardens bloom in moonlight and every visit discloses new amusements. The oddball neighbors are there, in altered form, to enthrall Coraline with nightly spectacles — a dream vaudeville that will transfix the movie’s audience as well.

We are having trouble retrieving the article content.

Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.

Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and  log into  your Times account, or  subscribe  for all of The Times.

Thank you for your patience while we verify access.

Already a subscriber?  Log in .

Want all of The Times?  Subscribe .

• Skip to main content
• Keyboard shortcuts for audio player

• LISTEN & FOLLOW
• Apple Podcasts
• Amazon Music

Your support helps make our show possible and unlocks access to our sponsor-free feed.

A Better Home And Garden, But For Those Buttons

David Edelstein

In The Mist Of It: Coraline and her exasperating new friend Wybie navigate her gloom-shrouded new neighborhood. LAIKA Inc./Focus Features hide caption

In The Mist Of It: Coraline and her exasperating new friend Wybie navigate her gloom-shrouded new neighborhood.

• Director: Henry Selick
• Genre: Animated Fantasy
• Running Time: 101 minutes

Rated PG for scary situations and suggestive language.

Watch Clips

'I'm Way Too Old For Dolls'

Media no longer available

Source: LAIKA Inc.

'I'm Your Other Mother'

'I'm Wybie'

'Welcome Home'

What's Wrong With This Picture? Coraline's Other Mother smiles prettily, but there's something off-putting about those eyes. LAIKA Inc./Focus Features hide caption

What's Wrong With This Picture? Coraline's Other Mother smiles prettily, but there's something off-putting about those eyes.

Psst! Coraline and Mr. Bobinsky — her blue, 8-foot-tall circus-performer neighbor — share a secret. LAIKA Inc./Focus Features hide caption

Psst! Coraline and Mr. Bobinsky — her blue, 8-foot-tall circus-performer neighbor — share a secret.

Frame by frame, Henry Selick's adaptation of Neil Gaiman's Coraline is entrancing; it's among the most exquisite animated feature films ever made in this country.

The book is a nightmare variation on the old somewhere-over-the-rainbow fantasy: A little girl named Coraline moves to a rambling country house, where she has no friends and her busy parents brush her off. She longs for someplace better.

Then she finds a tunnel in a wall that leads to a parallel universe, where she has a nearly identical mother and father, except they dote on her. Goodies appear at her command, mice serenade her, flower gardens rearrange themselves in the shape of her face.

But there are hints of darker forces. Her Other Parents have black buttons in place of eyes, and when Coraline begins to chafe under their attention, her Other Mother's so-called love becomes possessive — even demonic. Gradually, we discern the warning at the heart of this great fairy tale: Sometimes, the people who love us with the most intensity do so for reasons that have nothing to do with us, but out of their own twisted needs. Coraline is a be-careful-what-you-wish-for story, and a testimonial to self-reliance.

To tell this tale on film, Selick employs old-fashioned stop-motion animation — that's where you put puppets on miniature sets and move them a teeny bit, shoot a few frames, and move them again. The puppets have wide, smooth faces on stick legs and necks; their jerkiness is barely perceptible, but enough to make the movie feel lovingly handmade.

Selick worked with the Japanese illustrator Tadahiro Uesugi, and they've come up with a look that's part Tim Burton, part Pinocchio, part Japanese wood block. But that doesn't do the film justice; it has a palette all its own.

The movie is in 3-D at about half of its theaters, and you should see it at one of those: You'll feel as if you're floating through this dollhouse world along with the wide-eyed heroine. The ravishing score, by Bruno Coulais, moves almost imperceptibly from childlike enchantment to thunderstormy, Night on Bald Mountain dread.

I wish I could leave it at that, but unlike Gaiman, Selick isn't a brilliant storyteller. For reasons I can't figure out, he gums up a lot of what the book got right — among them the laws of the universe. Coraline can now go to sleep in one world and wake up in another, which makes the tunnel seem less vital. He creates a male peer for Coraline, a nerd called Wybie who undercuts the bell-jar isolation she suffers in the book, and who plays way too big a role in the climax — which ought to be Coraline's triumph. (Did the studio want a boy character for commercial reasons?)

The real mom and dad, voiced by Teri Hatcher and John Hodgman, aren't just quietly neglectful here; they're appallingly mean and insensitive. In one scene, as Coraline pleads for attention, her mom snaps that she's too busy, tossing her a package that contains a doll Wybie left for her. It looks like Coraline, only with black-button eyes.

The problem with a real mom who's that unpleasant is that Coraline's goal — to get back to her real home after she's trapped in the other world — doesn't have the emotional oomph it does in Gaiman's book.

But the movie's visuals are so rich that in the end, the flaws don't matter: The images have the emotional oomph.

In the alternate world, nothing is what it appears to be. Facades pixelate and dissolve; figures don't move of their own accord — they're animated and controlled by the monstrous Other Mother.

Director Selick might be more invested in creating phantasmagorical set pieces than in spinning a coherent yarn, but in a strange way that works for the movie. Coraline, after all, is fighting within the film to hold her own against an animator; that she holds her own against her virtuoso director is icing on the cake.

Related NPR Stories

Henry selick, keeping stop-motion moving ahead.

The Definitive Voice of Entertainment News

Subscribe for full access to The Hollywood Reporter

site categories

‘coraline’: film review.

Not only is Henry Selick's charming "Coraline" a terrific children's story, adapted from a novel by Neil Gaiman, but this is the first stop-motion feature ever made in 3-D.

By Kirk Honeycutt

Kirk Honeycutt

• Share on Facebook
• Share to Flipboard
• Send an Email
• Show additional share options
• Share on LinkedIn
• Share on Pinterest
• Share on Reddit
• Share on Tumblr
• Share on Whats App
• Print the Article
• Post a Comment

Just when it appeared adult themes, in films such as “Mary and Max” and “$9.99,” were going to run away with stop-motion animation, up pops Henry Selick (“The Nightmare Before Christmas”). Not only is his charming “Coraline” a terrific children’s story, adapted from a novel by Neil Gaiman, but this is the first stop-motion feature ever made in 3-D. If Focus Features can bring in mainstream audiences with its marketing, “Coraline” could become a solid family hit.

Related Stories

Bill maher is confused why charli xcx labeled kamala harris "brat": "it sounds like trump", justin and hailey bieber welcome first child together.

The other tenants are an eccentric lot. There’s a small, talkative boy Wybie Lovat (Robert Bailey Jr.), a scruffy cat, two aging British actresses (Jennifer Saunders and Dawn French) and a Russian circus performer (Ian McShane). None succeeds in jolting Coraline out of her doldrums, though.

Then she discovers a secret door. She climbs through a long passageway into an alternate reality of the Pink Palace. Mother and Father are warm and attentive here. Mom, who never cooks, tends a hot stove bursting with savory goodies, while Dad instead of writing is composing music. But Coraline knows her real dad doesn’t write music. Then the eccentric neighbors perform all sorts of amazing vaudeville acts. And the cat (Keith David) talks! The only upsetting thing about this Other Mother and Other Father is that instead of eyes they have black buttons like dolls.

Coraline enjoys return visits to this alternate existence, which she swiftly determines is better than her real one. Before making a choice between the two households, though, the Other Mother shows her true colors: She not only schemes to keep Coraline in the alternate world, but her real parents disappear. Now it’s up to Coraline to save herself and her family.

Perhaps its me, but those 3-D glasses still weigh somewhat heavily on the bridge of the nose. But it’s a small price to pay for such smart family entertainment.

THR Newsletters

Sign up for THR news straight to your inbox every day

More from The Hollywood Reporter

Ryan reynolds on why rob mcelhenney’s ‘deadpool & wolverine’ cameo got cut: “sometimes have to kill your darlings”, how to watch the ‘halloween’ movies in order, denzel washington says “there are very few films left for me to make that i’m interested in”, jason momoa, dave bautista action comedy ‘the wrecking crew’ adds temuera morrison, jacob batalon (exclusive), ‘fantastic beasts’ actor dan fogler to play ‘batman’ producer michael uslan in stage play (exclusive), how giovanni ribisi ended up photographing ‘strange darling,’ one of 2024’s best-reviewed films.

A Context Analysis of the Coraline Movie Essay

• To find inspiration for your paper and overcome writer’s block
• As a source of information (ensure proper referencing)
• As a template for you assignment

Coraline is a masterpiece of modern animation directed by Henry Selick. Initially, it was created by Neil Gaiman, and for the first time, this character and the whole universe appeared in the author’s children’s story with the same name back in 2002. Having moved to a new house, Coraline tries to live an ordinary life; parents are busy with their affairs and have little interaction with their daughter. One fine day, the girl discovers a door that leads her to an alternative life, where her parents surround her with care, and everything seems different (Selick). However, one day, Coraline realizes something is wrong with the “other parents,” when the girl is offered to replace her eyes with buttons. She decides to outwit the “other mother” to save the true parents and escape the fantasy world that has become a nightmare. The adequacy of the plot, courage, and common sense of the main character are the main reasons why the picture resonates with the audience.

The real world, where the real Jones family lives with their neighbors, is painted in gray and dull colors. In another one, everything is completely different: bright and tasty food for dinner, delicious popcorn with cotton candy in the circus, but something is still wrong. The fact is that in the reality, Coraline feels out of place, and no one cares about her and her desires.

It is noteworthy that people and their clothes in the real world stand out noticeably against a gray background. In an ideal world, the characters merge with the background or look lighter. This difference can be explained by the fact that the real parents of the girl, as well as their neighbors, are real people, not fictional. They all have dreams, desires, goals, and thoughts, unlike dolls, which only play their roles in the world of the witch. In an ideal world, only the scenery and background are ideal, but people are the true value in the present. The main lesson learned from a frightening fairy tale is that every seemingly ideal world, no matter how similar it looks to the true one, turns out to be only a clever fake.

Selick, Henry, director. Coraline. Pandemonium Films, 2009.

• “The Kingdom of Heaven”: Explaining the Jerusalem’s Fall
• “A River Runs Through It”: The Novella vs. The Movie Adaptation
• Myth Cycles in American Gods by Neil Gaiman
• Fantasy in "Neverwhere" by Neil Gaiman
• The Novel “The Ocean at the End of the Lane” by Neil Gaiman
• “Ruby Bridges”: Theme, Content, Characters, and Personal Reflection
• The Film "A Girl Walks Home Alone at Night" by Ana Lily Amirpour
• “Korean Film: History, Resistance, and Democratic Imagination” by Min et al.
• "The Shinning" Directed by Stanley Kubrick
• Moonlight by Barry Jenkins: A Movie Analysis
• Chicago (A-D)
• Chicago (N-B)

IvyPanda. (2022, December 2). A Context Analysis of the Coraline Movie. https://ivypanda.com/essays/a-context-analysis-of-the-coraline-movie/

"A Context Analysis of the Coraline Movie." IvyPanda , 2 Dec. 2022, ivypanda.com/essays/a-context-analysis-of-the-coraline-movie/.

IvyPanda . (2022) 'A Context Analysis of the Coraline Movie'. 2 December.

IvyPanda . 2022. "A Context Analysis of the Coraline Movie." December 2, 2022. https://ivypanda.com/essays/a-context-analysis-of-the-coraline-movie/.

1. IvyPanda . "A Context Analysis of the Coraline Movie." December 2, 2022. https://ivypanda.com/essays/a-context-analysis-of-the-coraline-movie/.

Bibliography

IvyPanda . "A Context Analysis of the Coraline Movie." December 2, 2022. https://ivypanda.com/essays/a-context-analysis-of-the-coraline-movie/.

Review: ‘Coraline’

• Copy Link URL Copied!

The third dimension comes of age with “Coraline.” The first contemporary film in which the 3-D experience feels intrinsic to the story instead of a Godforsaken gimmick, “Coraline” is a remarkable feat of imagination, a magical tale with a genuinely sinister edge.

The story of an 11-year-old girl’s adventures in an alternate universe, “Coraline” comes by its disturbing qualities honestly, through the efforts of writer-director Henry Selick and novelist Neil Gaiman. It may be rated PG, but it is more suitable for adults than the very small among us.

Gaiman, one of the premier dark fantasists of his generation, wrote the original novel, which has been translated into 30 languages and sold a million copies worldwide. As for Selick, his past as the director of the deliciously creepy “The Nightmare Before Christmas” tells you everything you need to know.

If you’ve seen “Nightmare,” you know that Selick is the preeminent practitioner of stop-motion animation, which makes “Coraline” the first 3-D film to be made in that painstaking, labor-intensive process that involves the frame-by-frame manipulation of three-dimensional models. Stop-motion and 3-D may seem like strange bedfellows, but in fact they complement each other beautifully.

That’s because while stop-motion creates a fantastical imaginary world, the addition of the third dimension makes it so unblinkingly real we feel we could walk around in it. The third dimension is how the universe rattling around in Selick’s head gains authenticity on-screen, and to watch it unfold that way makes the theatrical experience feel special in a way it often hasn’t in years.

Coraline Jones, the film’s feisty heroine (expertly voiced by Dakota Fanning), is introduced with a crisis on her hands. She and her unnamed parents ( Teri Hatcher and John Hodgman) have moved from Michigan to dark and rainy Ashland, Ore., taking up rooms in a large Victorian called the Pink Palace, where Coraline is bored, bored, bored.

That’s in large part because her parents are oblivious to her existence and given to saying things like “I’m really, really busy” whenever she tries to get their attention. Even the appearance of a local boy named Wybie ( Robert Bailey Jr.) doesn’t help.

So Coraline is more than delighted when she discovers a hidden door in the house that opens onto a rabbit hole that leads down to a parallel world. There she meets her Other Mother and her Other Father, the attentive, devoted parents she’s always wanted. They look and sound like her real parents, with one unsettling exception: Their active eyes have been replaced by large black buttons.

Everything in this other world is livelier and more exotic than the one upstairs. Even Coraline’s neighbors, the furtive acrobat known as the Amazing Bobinsky ( Ian McShane) and the retired actresses called Miss Spink and Miss Forcible (the British comedy team of Jennifer Saunders and Dawn French) are much wilder and crazier down here than in the real world.

It’s in this thrilling other world that the combination of stop-motion and 3-D really comes into its own. A jumping mouse circus has 61 mice on-screen (and took 66 days to animate), and an entire audience of Scottie dogs, 248 strong, watches a theatrical performance. It’s impossible not to be impressed.

The more wonderful this world becomes, the more the Other Mother pressures Coraline to stay forever, to trade in her eyes for buttons. It becomes harder and harder for the girl to return to her real home, and the entire experience turns slowly but inexorably into the kind of nightmare you can’t wake up from no matter how hard you try. Advised by a self-possessed talking cat ( Keith David), Coraline has to realize what is important in life and fight to keep herself and her family alive.

To bring this complex, unexpected world to the screen required a punishing investment of time and energy. “Coraline” spent two years in preproduction and then shot for 83 weeks on more than 50 small stages at Laika, an Oregon animation studio owned by Nike’s Phil Knight.

Every frame of film, wrote director of photography Pete Kozachik in American Cinematographer magazine, was “so dearly bought.” But while you’re watching “Coraline,” you are aware of none of that. Instead, you are captured completely by what is going on. How rare, and how wonderful, is that?

[email protected]

More to Read

Review: Gender-swapped ‘Company’ revival dazzles, capturing the spirit of Sondheim

Aug. 3, 2024

Review: ‘Clue: Live on Stage’ reinvigorates the 1985 movie with mindless fun

Aug. 1, 2024

Review: How far for a true taste of Baja? To the center of this modern Mexican tasting menu

The biggest entertainment stories

Get our big stories about Hollywood, film, television, music, arts, culture and more right in your inbox as soon as they publish.

You may occasionally receive promotional content from the Los Angeles Times.

Kenneth Turan is the former film critic for the Los Angeles Times.

More From the Los Angeles Times

‘My Lady Jane’ fans rally behind online campaign to save Prime series from cancellation

Aug. 23, 2024

Judge Mathis’ wife files for divorce from TV personality after nearly 40 years of marriage

How Intocable’s Grammy-winning sound began with dreams, a cow and imagination

Hollywood Inc.

Disney fined $36,000 after crew member fell to his death on Marvel TV set

Coraline Review

08 May 2009

100 minutes

Adults leaving screenings  of Coraline have been overheard fretting about how scary it is — and they’re right: it’s terrifying. Children leaving the cinemas, though, have just been bouncing and laughing. Strange, perhaps, but then, this is a strange film. As creepy as it is charming, as bizarre as it is beautiful, this is a true horror movie, but also a warm, brightly coloured children’s fairy tale about the magic behind the everyday.

And don’t forget, children are more resilient than we think. The Wizard Of Oz’s flying monkeys, the set-up of A Little Princess or the Child Catcher in Chitty Chitty Bang Bang are all terrifying at the right age, but it’s rare we remain traumatised by the encounter. Instead, the sight of a young protagonist defeating the forces ranged against him/her by an adult world is one that empowers, leaving kids not cowed but exhilarated.

Our heroine is certainly the sort of role model that any kid could wish for: Coraline — voiced with a Midwestern twang and a whole lot of attitude by Dakota Fanning — is smart, funny and ultimately very courageous. She’s also self-centred, sometimes grumpy and frequently awkward, but this is a well-developed character rather than a Disney princess. She gets irritated when her name is mispronounced, misses the friends she left when she moved home, and has a habit of swinging on a door and making conversation when her parents have no time to listen.

In her defence, her neighbours — Mr. Bobinsky (Ian McShane), the Russian eccentric upstairs and Misses Spink and Forcible (Jennifer Saunders and Dawn French, respectively), two dotty English retired actresses downstairs — do all get her name wrong, while baffling her with their eccentricities. And her parents, voiced by Teri Hatcher and John Hodgman, do leave her to her own devices as they try to rebuild their business in a new town. So who could blame her when she follows a jumping mouse through a hole in the wall, into another world with an ‘Other Mother’ (Hatcher) who is devoted to satisfying her every whim, an ‘Other Father’ who spends all his days dreaming up tunes to sing her praises, and neighbours who put on shows for her amusement?

There’s just one catch: they want to steal her eyes and replace them with buttons. It’s at this point that most of the adults in the cinema start wincing. Coraline, understandably hesitant to agree to such terms, balks, and another side to her Other Mother emerges.

It’s in the Other world that Henry Selick’s gorgeous stop-motion imagination is given full reign. The real world is as bleached of colour as possible, but the Other world is (initially at least) bathed in vibrancy, and there are scenes in the delicately realised gardens that will take your breath away. Hummingbirds call Coraline’s name and glowing snapdragons form a portrait of her that’s only visible from far above — say, aboard the Praying Mantis tractor that her father rides. Touches of CG have been used here and there for full ‘how did they do that ?’ effect, but most of the real magic is in the stop-motion detail: the arch of an eyebrow perfectly expressing a character’s attitude, the shine on the icing of a cake making it look edible; the glint on a silver claw adding to its menace.

An extra breath of wonder is added if you manage to see this in 3-D: insects fly around your head and flowers bulge from the screen. While there’s relatively little 3-D-sploitation, in general the technique is used strictly to augment the story, and suffers few of the focus or blurring problems that have lessened the technique’s impact in other films.

And then there’s horror in the last act as the Other Mother’s disguise falls away and her true intentions are made clear. There are chase scenes, hiding scenes and puzzles to be solved as Coraline, never one to shirk a challenge, tries to save herself, her parents and the Other Mother’s previous victims. Swinging her blue bob, and with a determined glare in her expressive eyes, you’d be a fool to doubt that she’s up to it.

Related Articles

Movies | 16 08 2024

Movies | 31 07 2024

Movies | 27 07 2024

Movies | 11 07 2024

Movies | 09 07 2024

Movies | 21 12 2023

Movies | 07 06 2023

Movies | 04 07 2022

Dakota Fanning, Teri Hatcher, John Hodgman, Ian McShane Henry Selick Henry Selick (based upon novel by Neil Gaiman) Rated PG 100 Mins. Focus Features

Home — Essay Samples — Entertainment — Film Analysis — Depiction Of Mental Issues In The Movie Coraline

Depiction of Mental Issues in The Movie Coraline

• Categories: Coraline Film Analysis

About this sample

Words: 3221 |

17 min read

Published: Apr 11, 2022

Words: 3221 | Pages: 7 | 17 min read

The essay analyzes the 2009 stop-motion film "Coraline" and delves into its underlying psychological themes. It explores how the movie, despite being perceived as a children's film by some, actually contains dark and unsettling imagery with inner meanings. The analysis suggests that "Coraline" may be interpreted as a portrayal of mental illness, specifically schizophrenia, in the character of Coraline Jones.

The essay points out various elements within the film that could be indicative of Coraline's mental health struggles, such as her perception of an alternate world and her deteriorating sense of reality. It discusses her symptoms, including cognitive disorder, paranoia, and disorientation, which align with characteristics of schizophrenia. Additionally, the essay highlights moments of suicidal behavior, insomnia, and social withdrawal in Coraline, suggesting a connection to her mental health challenges.

Furthermore, the essay considers the possibility of childhood abuse as an underlying factor contributing to Coraline's mental illness. It explores how the Other Mother in the alternate world could represent a traumatic experience from her past.

Cite this Essay

Let us write you an essay from scratch

• 450+ experts on 30 subjects ready to help
• Custom essay delivered in as few as 3 hours

Get high-quality help

Prof. Kifaru

Verified writer

• Expert in: Literature Entertainment

+ 120 experts online

By clicking “Check Writers’ Offers”, you agree to our terms of service and privacy policy . We’ll occasionally send you promo and account related email

No need to pay just yet!

Related Essays

4 pages / 1729 words

2 pages / 843 words

1 pages / 484 words

2 pages / 982 words

Remember! This is just a sample.

You can get your custom paper by one of our expert writers.

121 writers online

Still can’t find what you need?

Browse our vast selection of original essay samples, each expertly formatted and styled

Related Essays on Film Analysis

Crafton, D. (1999). The talkies: American cinema's transition to sound, 1926-1931. University of California Press.Koszarski, R. (2009). An evening's entertainment: The age of the silent feature picture, 1915-1928. University of [...]

Dead Poets Society, a masterpiece directed by Peter Weir, is a must-watch movie for teenagers. This film features three main characters: Robin Williams as John Keating, Robert Sean Leonard as Neil Perry, and Ethan [...]

Introduction to the movie "Legally Blonde" and its perceived stereotypes Discussion of how Elle Woods defies stereotypes and transforms into an empowered woman Challenging the "dumb blonde" stereotype [...]

Inside out is a film that revolves around Riley and takes us on an emotional journey she experiences throughout the entire film. There are three main psychological principles that are very evident to me in the reading as well as [...]

In China, the name Hua Mulan (???) has been connected with the term ‘heroine’ for hundreds of years. Hua Mulan has become a symbol of heroic behavior. Her character has inspired many Chinese women to defy traditional gender [...]

"The Impact of The Lord of The Rings on popular culture" The Lord of the Rings is one of the most popular and spectacular series of all time. The movies are based on the books written by J.R.R Tolkien and since the publication, [...]

Related Topics

By clicking “Send”, you agree to our Terms of service and Privacy statement . We will occasionally send you account related emails.

Where do you want us to send this sample?

By clicking “Continue”, you agree to our terms of service and privacy policy.

Be careful. This essay is not unique

This essay was donated by a student and is likely to have been used and submitted before

Download this Sample

Free samples may contain mistakes and not unique parts

Sorry, we could not paraphrase this essay. Our professional writers can rewrite it and get you a unique paper.

Please check your inbox.

We can write you a custom essay that will follow your exact instructions and meet the deadlines. Let's fix your grades together!

Get Your Personalized Essay in 3 Hours or Less!

We use cookies to personalyze your web-site experience. By continuing we’ll assume you board with our cookie policy .

• Instructions Followed To The Letter
• Deadlines Met At Every Stage
• Unique And Plagiarism Free

Log in Create an Account

Coraline (2009)

5,175 reviews

When Coraline discovers a secret path to a parallel universe, she finds a seemingly perfect world but not everything may be as it seems.

Age group 7–14 years

Duration 100 mins

One of the best animations.

11 May 2018

This film is one of the best animations that I have seen. It has lots of plot twists to keep the audience interested. I love the mix between thriller and a bit of comedy, which is what most younger audiences prefer. I felt like the soundtrack was a big part of the film creating suspense and helping the viewer to feel emotion/understand the movie better. The music also adds effect to relieving and happy parts of the film which helps the audience to understand what is happening in the film. There are many characters who support Coraline in the movie. Especially the cat who helped Coraline along the way by giving her tips about what she needs to do during the film. The villain was a witty character who lures Coraline away. The only bit that I didn't like was how the movie dragged on, repeating parts that didn't need to. But I loved the storyline of the movie. The ending of Coraline leaves the audience asking questions.

More reviews (5173)

Average rating

Sort reviews by

Viewing 0 of 0 Reviews found.

Related Films

Corpse Bride (2005)

Enchanting stop motion feature from the imagination of Tim Burton, set in a 19th century European village, following the spooky adventures of Victor.

1,365 Reviews

7+ years 74 mins

The Nightmare Before Christmas (1993)

Stream on Into Film+

Brilliantly dark and amusing stop-motion animation - Jack Skellington attempts to change his sinister ways and celebrate Christmas on a huge scale.

3,020 Reviews

7–14 years 74 mins

Matilda (1996)

Adaptation of the popular Roald Dahl book about a girl with sunny self-reliance and special powers who attends a school with a bullying headmistress.

5,497 Reviews

7–14 years 98 mins

Edward Scissorhands (1991)

Stream on Into Film+ Premium

An unfinished humanoid created by an old inventor attempts to fit in within his new suburban surroundings.

2,647 Reviews

11–16 years 105 mins

Coraline Review

Your changes have been saved

Email is sent

Email has already been sent

Please verify your email address.

You’ve reached your account maximum for followed topics.

The Crow Review: A Gruesome Reboot Falls Far Short of the Classic Original Film

The killer review: doesn't hold a candle to the original but not a dud either, catching dust review: a tense & unpredictable domestic violence thriller.

Henry Selick, the stop-motion animation genius behind “James and the Giant Peach” and “The Nightmare Before Christmas”, returns with another stroke of brilliance – “ Coraline ”. Adapted from the Neil Gaiman graphic novel, Coraline is the story of a bored little girl who gets much more than she bargained for in a delightfully dark fairy tale. Voiced by Dakota Fanning, Coraline and her parents move into the Pink House, a ramshackle Victorian with the oddest tenants. There is the acrobatic Mr. Bobinsky (Ian McShane) and his trained circus rats upstairs. While the aged retired actress sisters Miss Miriam (Dawn French) and Miss April (Jennifer Saunders) live downstairs with their legion of Scottie dogs. Coraline has no other playmates her age except the annoying Wybie (Robert Bailey Jr.), whose grandmother owns the Pink House, and is surprised she would rent the place to a couple with children.

Coraline , in her boredom, finds two strange objects, a doll of her likeness with button eyes and an old key. One night while everyone else is asleep, a mysterious door appears. She uses the key to open the door and is transported into a world that looks like hers, but is much more wonderful. There, her other mother and father cook the best meals and have all the time in the world to spend with her. The other Mr. Bobinsky delights with amazing performances of his talented rats. And the other Miss April and Miss Dawn put on shows that have their Scotties barking in glee. But there’s something odd about this ‘other’ place. The other Wybie cannot speak, and seems terrified. And every ‘other’ has buttons for their eyes. It is only when the Pink House’s mangy black Cat (Keith David) speaks, does Coraline realize she’s in big trouble. Cat tells her that this ‘other’ place is not a fantasy, but very real and very dangerous. It has stolen the souls of many children, and Coraline will be another casualty if she’s not careful.

I absolutely loved this film. We are constantly inundated with happy-go-lucky children’s stories in overblown CGI. Here is the anti-Disney film, a dark and prickly story that may just give the little ones a fright. Selick returns to form with his uncompromising artistic talent. The world of Coraline is masterfully envisioned to the smallest detail. These are puppets, painstakingly moved inch by inch on giant sets. Selick does incorporate more computer animation this time around by shooting Caroline with 3D, high definition, digital cameras. The result is an immersive 3D experience without the cartoonish CGI experience. It is a perfect marriage of old school animation techniques and modern cinema watching technology.

Coraline is the first must-see family film of 2009. It’s Brothers Grimm fairy tale with modern storytelling aspects. While big studio cartoons have no darkness whatsoever, Coraline has moments of dread that are scarily satisfying. It’s not overdone, so the target audience will get the right amount of chills and the grownups won’t be bored at all. Try not to miss it in 3D!

• Movie and TV Reviews
• Coraline (2009)

Common Sense Media

Movie & TV reviews for parents

• For Parents
• For Educators
• Our Work and Impact

Or browse by category:

• Movie Reviews
• Best Movie Lists
• Best Movies on Netflix, Disney+, and More

Common Sense Selections for Movies

50 Modern Movies All Kids Should Watch Before They're 12

• Best TV Lists
• Best TV Shows on Netflix, Disney+, and More
• Common Sense Selections for TV
• Video Reviews of TV Shows

Best Kids' Shows on Disney+

Best Kids' TV Shows on Netflix

• Book Reviews
• Best Book Lists
• Common Sense Selections for Books

8 Tips for Getting Kids Hooked on Books

50 Books All Kids Should Read Before They're 12

• Game Reviews
• Best Game Lists

Common Sense Selections for Games

• Video Reviews of Games

Nintendo Switch Games for Family Fun

• Podcast Reviews
• Best Podcast Lists

Common Sense Selections for Podcasts

Parents' Guide to Podcasts

• App Reviews
• Best App Lists

Social Networking for Teens

Gun-Free Action Game Apps

Reviews for AI Apps and Tools

• YouTube Channel Reviews
• YouTube Kids Channels by Topic

Parents' Ultimate Guide to YouTube Kids

YouTube Kids Channels for Gamers

• Preschoolers (2-4)
• Little Kids (5-7)
• Big Kids (8-9)
• Pre-Teens (10-12)
• Teens (13+)
• Screen Time
• Social Media
• Online Safety
• Identity and Community

How to Help Kids Build Character Strengths with Quality Media

• Family Tech Planners
• Digital Skills
• All Articles
• Latino Culture
• Black Voices
• Asian Stories
• Native Narratives
• LGBTQ+ Pride
• Best of Diverse Representation List

Multicultural Books

YouTube Channels with Diverse Representations

Podcasts with Diverse Characters and Stories

• Common Sense Says
• Parents Say 330 Reviews
• Kids Say 812 Reviews

Common Sense Media Review

Cool but creepy animated fantasy too scary for young kids.

Parents Need to Know

Parents need to know that Coraline is a stop-motion animated film based on a book by Neil Gaiman. The movie is quite dark, and the "other" world that Coraline (Dakota Fanning) discovers turns into a frightening, dangerous place where she could very well die (and other ghost children already have). Scary…

Why Age 9+?

The movie has a very dark, creepy tone overall, and the Other Mother sometimes t

Infrequent use of words like "crap" and "oh my God." Insults include "jerkwad,"

Coraline's mother thinks Mr. Bobinksy drinks too much.

Two characters with large breasts wear tiny costumes for a performance (one in a

Any Positive Content?

Lives aren't supposed to be perfect -- imperfection can be wonderful. It's impor

Coraline's parents show humility and learn important lessons from their daughter

The two main characters, Coraline and her mother, are complex women who are neit

Violence & Scariness

The movie has a very dark, creepy tone overall, and the Other Mother sometimes takes on a frightening appearance. It's implied that she has killed at least three children. Her minions try to catch Coraline and the Cat, but they don't succeed. Brief strangling. A character loses a hand, which then attacks Coraline.

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Violence & Scariness in your kid's entertainment guide.

Infrequent use of words like "crap" and "oh my God." Insults include "jerkwad," "idiot," "evil witch," and "stupid."

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Language in your kid's entertainment guide.

Drinking, Drugs & Smoking

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Drinking, Drugs & Smoking in your kid's entertainment guide.

Sex, Romance & Nudity

Two characters with large breasts wear tiny costumes for a performance (one in a reference to Botticelli's famous Birth of Venus painting).

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Sex, Romance & Nudity in your kid's entertainment guide.

Positive Messages

Lives aren't supposed to be perfect -- imperfection can be wonderful. It's important to spend quality time with loved ones. Themes include self-control, gratitude, and compassion.

Positive Role Models

Coraline's parents show humility and learn important lessons from their daughter. Coraline herself is brave and resourceful, despite being impatient at times. The Other Mother wants Coraline to behave a certain way and pursues her goals at any cost. Intergenerational friendships are formed.

Diverse Representations

The two main characters, Coraline and her mother, are complex women who are neither completely good nor bad. The animated characters are mostly White, as are the characters' voice actors including Dakota Fanning (Coraline), Teri Hatcher (Mother/Other Mother), and Ian McShane (Bobinsky). Keith David, who's Black, voices the Cat. Coraline's neighbors include two aging actresses who are told they're past their prime but refuse to stop believing in their talent.

Did we miss something on diversity? Suggest an update.

Parents need to know that Coraline is a stop-motion animated film based on a book by Neil Gaiman . The movie is quite dark, and the "other" world that Coraline ( Dakota Fanning ) discovers turns into a frightening, dangerous place where she could very well die (and other ghost children already have). Scary situations include extremely creepy characters and acts that seem very violent but don't have graphic consequences, like when Coraline throws a cat at someone. Language is mostly insults (like "jerkwad" and "idiot"), and sexuality is limited to two scantily dressed actresses in one scene. It's suggested that one of the characters drinks too much, but nothing is shown. Characters demonstrate self-control, compassion, and gratitude. The movie deals with mature themes -- being careful what you wish for, thinking the grass is always greener, seeking a perfect life, and being disappointed in your parents -- that are best suited for tweens and up. The cast lacks racial diversity, with animated characters and voice actors mostly White, but main characters Coraline and her mother ( Teri Hatcher ) are complex women who are neither completely good nor bad. To stay in the loop on more movies like this, you can sign up for weekly Family Movie Night emails .

Where to Watch

Videos and photos.

Parent and Kid Reviews

• Parents say (330)
• Kids say (812)

Based on 330 parent reviews

Consider your kid's personality

Weird world, what's the story.

CORALINE Jones (voiced by Dakota Fanning ) is an only child who's unhappy about moving to a new house with her seemingly self-absorbed parents ( Teri Hatcher and John Hodgman ), who are too busy working to spend any time with her. The other inhabitants of their building are an eccentric crew: Russian mouse-circus ringmaster Mr. Bobinksy ( Ian McShane ) and bickering actresses Miss Spink and Miss Forcible ( Jennifer Saunders and Dawn French ). When Coraline opens a small hidden door in her apartment, she discovers a secret passageway to a parallel other world where everything -- her parents, her house, her neighbors, her magical garden -- seems much better ... or is it?

Is It Any Good?

Director Henry Selick, a stop-motion master best known for The Nightmare Before Christmas , creates a magical, colorful nether-world that's also dark and disturbing. At first, in addition to offering Coraline attentive "Other" parents, the alternate universe boasts a dazzling garden and a fantastic circus and theater acts, courtesy of the Other neighbors. Coraline, along with the audience, gets swept into the magic -- but there's an unnerving edge to all of the perfection. Everyone has buttons for eyes, except for Coraline and a mysterious talking cat ( Keith David ) that warns Coraline that her Other Mother isn't as warm and loving as she seems.

The 3-D effects ( Coraline is Hollywood's first 3-D stop-motion film) are cool without being overwhelming, and the story is a two-pronged cautionary tale -- for parents and kids not to take each other for granted, and for people not to dwell on whether the grass is greener, because it could all be a huge, horrifying charade. Coraline ultimately learns that sometimes imperfect, messy lives aren't always as bad as they seem. Considering how formulaic so many family movies are, Coraline is a refreshing and inventive film. While too intense for some kids, it's a memorable treat for families with thrill-seeking tweens and up.

Talk to Your Kids About ...

Families can talk about Coraline 's theme of wishing for a different, "perfect" life. Do you ever feel like Coraline? What about her parents made her initially prefer the Other Mother and Father?

How do Coraline and her parents change over the course of the movie?

Do you think this movie is meant for little kids, or is it too scary ?

How do the characters in Coraline demonstrate self-control , gratitude , and compassion ? Why are these important character strengths ?

Movie Details

• In theaters : February 6, 2009
• On DVD or streaming : July 21, 2009
• Cast : Dakota Fanning , John Hodgman , Teri Hatcher
• Director : Henry Selick
• Inclusion Information : Female actors
• Studio : Focus Features
• Genre : Fantasy
• Topics : Magic and Fantasy , Book Characters , Great Girl Role Models
• Character Strengths : Compassion , Gratitude , Self-control
• Run time : 100 minutes
• MPAA rating : PG
• MPAA explanation : thematic elements, scary images, some language and suggestive humor
• Last updated : August 12, 2024

Did we miss something on diversity?

Research shows a connection between kids' healthy self-esteem and positive portrayals in media. That's why we've added a new "Diverse Representations" section to our reviews that will be rolling out on an ongoing basis. You can help us help kids by suggesting a diversity update.

Suggest an Update

What to watch next.

The Nightmare Before Christmas

Tim Burton's Corpse Bride

Beetlejuice

Scary movies for kids, scary (but not too scary) halloween movies, related topics.

• Self-control
• Magic and Fantasy
• Book Characters
• Great Girl Role Models

Want suggestions based on your streaming services? Get personalized recommendations

Common Sense Media's unbiased ratings are created by expert reviewers and aren't influenced by the product's creators or by any of our funders, affiliates, or partners.

• Editorial Boards
• Guest Editors
• Schools & Mentors
• Privacy Policy
• Style Guide & Forms
• Back Issues
• Masoud Yazdani Award
• John Pruitt Archive
• Criterion^3
• Cucalorus x Film Matters

Uncanny Details: Coraline ’s Gothic Horror and Its Visual Narration. By Costanza Chirdo

Figure 1: Coraline’s “welcome home” cake, Henry Selick (dir.), Coraline , 2009. USA © Focus Features.

When the eleven-year-old Coraline Jones discovers a small door in her new house to be a portal to an “Other World,” she is welcomed by two exact copies of her parents into an exact replica of her house. Throughout her visit, she is seduced by a warm, colorful environment and a delicious dinner, where at the end her “Other Mother” serves her a “welcome home” cake (Figure 1). With a closer look, the letter “o” in the word “home!” on the cake is double-looped. According to graphology, the analysis of handwriting, the letter “o” is said to be the most indicative of lying. In particular, the double-looped “o” has been noticed in almost every pathological liar’s handwriting (Dolen). Thus, one small graphic detail may hold enormous meaning: it seems to suggest that Coraline is “welcome,” but she is not at “home.” The choice to include this subtle detail is indicative of how director Henry Selick worked to create one of the uncanniest horror animation films in cinema history. Coraline (2009) is based on a novel by British author Neil Gaiman, published in 2002. Though the book is intended for children, the story is incredibly dark, and, especially after the animated adaptation, it often led adults to question whether it is appropriate for such a young audience. Coraline (voiced by Dakota Fanning) has just moved to a new place with her family, the Pink Palace Apartments in Ashland, Oregon – or what looks like an isolated mansion in the middle of nowhere. Because both of her parents (voiced by Teri Hatcher and John Hodgman) are too busy with their jobs to pay attention to her, Coraline spends most of her time alone, wandering in and out of the house. The place’s aura is gloomy and mysterious from the beginning, especially as strange things start to manifest. Among these, her neighbor Wyborne (voiced by Robert Bailey Jr) gives her a button-eyed ragdoll he has found, because it looks exactly like her. In fact, it is the doll that leads Coraline to discover the portal to the Other World, which seems to offer everything that her real world is lacking – including attentive parents. However, even in the Other World something seems to be off from the beginning. Beyond the fact that, like the doll, Coraline’s other parents have black buttons instead of eyes – an incredibly unsettling detail that makes them distorted copies of her real parents – the Other World is permeated by an eerie atmosphere. Like the presence of doppelgängers, the story features typical traits of gothic horror: isolated and decadent locations, gloomy weather, mystery, an evil creature, and ghosts. All these elements contribute to evoking unnerving feelings, in both Coraline and the audience. Gaiman’s novel incorporates this aesthetics to further embody trauma, feelings of uncertainty, and loneliness in a neglected child and plunges them into a fantasy world that, despite seeming to comfort Coraline’s internal conflicts, appears to function in the exact opposite direction. In this regard, the attention given to small details in the film serves as a crucial factor in perpetuating the sense of uncanny, as everything in Coraline generates fear through subtlety. Among the many cinematic tools that would need to be analyzed in this frame, in this article I focus on the elaborate use of colors, the employment of stop-motion animation, and the omnipresence of insects throughout the film, to show the importance of details in the creation of the anxiogenic climax that characterizes one of the most unsettling, yet elegant, animated films in cinema history.

The Interrelationship Between Color Palette, Space, and Character Subjectivity

The choice of colors in Coraline is not random. In the first part of the film, before Coraline enters the Other World, the color palette centers around three colors: gray, blue, and purple. In fact, apart from blue and purple, almost all colors in this part are faded and resemble shades of gray. The atmosphere the film sets from the beginning is gloomy, as the sky is cloudy, and the weather is rainy and misty. The house where Coraline’s family moves in is pink, a playful color that, according to the psychology of colors in Western culture, is usually associated with sweetness, innocence, femininity, or beauty (Risk). However, the Pink Palace in Selick’s world is faded and discolored, it looks old and decadent, as if suggesting that those values traditionally associated with pink were faded too. Coraline’s parents also wear faded or dark colors, as well as all her neighbors, who seem a little decadent themselves, and almost grotesque at times. In contrast, Coraline character’s color palette is bright – her hair and nails are electric blue, and she often wears a bright yellow raincoat. Besides being a cheerful color that refers to childish characteristics of naivety and spontaneity, it is interesting to note how yellow is also associated with insecurity and obsession (Risk). At the beginning of the film, Coraline is visibly lonely in a new house where she did not want to move in the first place.

Figure 2: Coraline exploring outside the Pink Palace, Henry Selick (dir.), Coraline , 2009. USA © Focus Features.

Like writer Robin Moon, many have analyzed Coraline in the frame of child neglect, since her parents are unable to pay her attention. Although she acts as if she does not care, Coraline is constantly begging for attention, “tied to a dependence on her parents to provide something they aren’t available for” (Moon), in a way that not only shows great insecurity but also gets slightly obsessive at times. For instance, she persistently asks her parents to do some gardening together while they are working, even when the weather outside is terrible. Most of the time when she does it, she is wearing her yellow raincoat. Moreover, Moon talks about Coraline’s insecurities as a consequence of being misunderstood not only by her parents, but by all the other people living in the Pink Palace, who do not even get her name right and call her “Caroline” (Moon). Thus, the presence of yellow in the film is not related to happiness: instead, it is interesting to note how Coraline is quite unhappy and wears yellow as a consistent habit. Here, yellow is used to outline patterns of insecurity and obsession in a bored neglected child, who is constantly trying to get her parents’ attention, as most children would do. Moreover, Coraline is the only child living in the Pink Palace: this is visually emphasized by her bright color palette which creates contrast not only with the environment but also with the other characters. After gray, blue is the color whose presence holds the most symbolic importance in the first part of the film. The recurrence of blue, starting from Coraline’s hair and nails, refers to cold, melancholy, and isolation – quite descriptive states of the protagonist’s feelings. But according to the psychology of colors, blue is also associated with peace and tranquility, as it tends to elicit a calming effect on the viewer (Risk). In the case of an eleven-year-old child though, it is not hard to imagine how such moods could lead to boredom. This association between blue and boredom is shown quite clearly in the film through the “exploration” sequence (accompanied by Bruno Coulais’s beautiful theme “Exploration”). One afternoon, Coraline is pestering her dad to do something together, so he suggests she goes to explore the new house and lists all the windows and the blue things she finds. While he thinks it will keep her busy, the task turns out to be extremely boring to Coraline, as she points out several times. Ultimately, it is interesting to note the use of blue in slow-burn horror films. Because of its association with the night, signifier of uncertainty and danger in the horror genre, by transitive property, the use of blue can evoke anxiety and tension (Lewis). The whole first part of the film, up until when Coraline first enters the Other World, is permeated by a slight tension, a weird sense of anxiety in front of the strange, unexplainable events that are taking place already. In particular, the association of blue with the night as a symbol of the unknown gains more meaning when Coraline finally enters the Other World, at night-time. Following the little button-eyed mice, she opens the small door which unveils a blue and purple tunnel leading to the Other World. Not surprisingly, blue in horror is also linked to the supernatural, amping up the “unreality” of a scene (Lewis). Similarly, purple is associated with fantasy and mysticism, but also with illusion and threat (Risk). Often in films, purple is an ominous color, the sign that something bad is about to happen – hence its presence’s significance during Coraline’s transition to the Other World. Ultimately, in the frame of visual analysis, there is a stark contrast between the real world’s colors and the Other World’s: the house is bright pink; the rooms are colored; even the other parents’ clothes are bright. Everything looks more alive, a better copy of Coraline’s discolored reality. In fact, this visual choice is nothing but the reflection of the Other Mother’s attempt to trick Coraline into believing that this version of the world is brighter. The morning after, when Coraline wakes up in her real bed, she is disappointed. She rushes downstairs to check the little door, which she finds not to be a portal anymore, just a door giving on to a wall of bricks. The line between what is known and what is not gets so thin that Coraline is not even sure if the Other World has an independent existence, or if she only dreamed about it during the night. Hence the night – and its colors, blue and purple – acts as a frame for uncertainty, a time when anything could happen. Although more could be said about the use of colors over the course of the film, its analysis in the first part is already emblematic of its aim: not only colors are used to express the characters’ feelings, but they are also subtly employed to evoke specific emotions in the audience, thus contributing to creating the uncanny.

Figures 3 and 4: Coraline enters the Other World through the blue and purple tunnel; Coraline’s blue nail polish, Henry Selick (dir.), Coraline , 2009. USA © Focus Features.

Stop-Motion Animation as Indicative of Uncanny Feelings

The peculiarities of stop-motion animation contribute to the creation and development of the uncanny in the characters’ facial expressions, especially for Coraline and the Other Mother throughout the film. Because of the time-consuming process required by stop-motion animation, Coraline took four years in the making. Completing the film involved more than 500 people: principal photography alone took 18 months, and a total of 35 different animators had to work on the film, completing from 2.22 to 6.52 seconds of footage per week on average (LAIKA Studios). No doubt, the result is astonishing, but why undertake the hard path of stop-motion in a world where CGI already existed? Just like the use of colors, this choice has aesthetic reasons. Henry Selick, in his own words, had to “fight” for the movie to be made using stop-motion animation: “Coraline may be a fairy tale, but it is set in our times, modern times, and stop-motion animation brings a charm, a warmth. It takes a little bit of an edge off the darkest, most troubling parts of the story, I think, and adds a little creepiness to parts that might be too sweet” he declared in an interview for Focus Features. He believed the story’s soul was made for stop-motion. In the late 2000s there was a lot of research about the science of facial communication in film, and Coraline’s character has got an “incredible array of expressions” (“Henry Selick”). In fact, in the film, there are several moments in which her expression or gestures say more about how she is feeling than any spoken word could do. This is something that could not be achieved by CGI as the very nature of stop-motion technique is based on series of separated photographs that are later rendered in twenty-four frames per second. In other words, the technique elicits the impression of reality, thus adding to its overall uncanny aura. This is particularly evident during her first visit to the Other World. When she first meets the Other Mother (also voiced by Teri Hatcher), Coraline is suspicious. Undoubtedly, she looks better, happier, and friendlier than her real mother and yes, physically, she looks the same. Even the Other Father (also voiced by John Hodgman) is better dressed, plays the piano, and looks more alive than Coraline’s real father. Yet when he plays for her, he gives her a funny performance to which Coraline reacts as Figures 5 and 6 show: everything is amusing, but something does not feel right. The Other World is a better, yet distorted copy of a familiar scenario – so again, it is the distortion of the familiar that makes it so uncanny. By Freudian definition, the uncanny is “the unheimlich” (the un-homely), a home that is not quite a home (Moon), like the cake’s double-looped “o” suggests. It thus provokes feelings of uncertainty, confusion, and unsettlement.

Figures 5 and 6: Coraline’s first and second reaction to Other Dad’s performance, Henry Selick (dir.), Coraline , 2009. USA © Focus Features.

The first time Coraline visits the Other World her facial expressions embody these feelings, alternating between astonishment and skepticism, enthusiasm and preoccupation (Figures 5 and 6). The way she is feeling is never verbally explicit though – it is only communicated through her face. This contributes to creating an atmosphere of unsettlement and uncertainty, an increasing sense of tension that the audience experiences too. As Selick explains, “There are six or seven main expressions, but in Coraline we wanted to add a layer of subtlety to those” (“Henry Selick”), which was not possible to construct with the hyperreal tenacities of CGI technique.

Character Physicality and Subtle Progression of Uncanniness

In fact, subtlety is a keyword when analyzing Coraline . In the Other World, there is one evident, uncanny detail to differentiate the doppelgängers from the “real”: their button eyes. Besides, they look quite “normal.” However, they all undertake some sort of physical transformation every new visit Coraline pays to the Other World, a process that the eye perceives but does not grasp unless it pays close attention, because again: it is in the details. In particular, the Other Mother’s character and costume design evolves and changes gradually, as she is slowly turning into her real insectoid form.

Figures 7 and 8: Coraline’s real mother and Coraline’s Other Mother, Henry Selick (dir.), Coraline , 2009. USA © Focus Features.

In a Laika Studios archives video, costume designer Deb Cook goes through the changes taking place in the Other Mother’s costume, beginning from the differences between her and Mel Jones (Coraline’s real mother). As she explains, “the subtle differences here are in the materials and treatment of the costume” (LAIKA Studios). Mother’s sweater is “slumpy,” her jeans are “loose,” her red sneakers are “pretty worn in,” and “faded,” as is “her whole pallor.” Alternatively, the fabric of Other Mother’s pants is shiny, and “there is some subtlety in the pattern cutting where the pants kick out a little at the bottom,” her shoes are a brighter color, and the sweater is “slicker” and “tailored.” Regular mom is wearing a neck brace which in Other Mother is turned into a high-neck sweater, which is more “sophisticated.” Moreover, the Other Mother is wearing bright red lipstick and nail polish, a color associated with love and passion, but also with danger, violence, and power (Risk). Cook explains how her character’s evolution takes place in four stages. Stage two sees the Other Mother still very much human, though her dress has changed and presents “three armatured shapes” on the back, so that it “moves and looks like an insect tail, but it began life as a peplum on her dress.” In stage three, the Other Mother is taller and skinnier, she is wearing a black dress made of a metallic mesh fabric that recalls the pattern of her previous dress, with a pointier and elongated peplum on the back. In her final stage, she has developed a carapace silhouette, her skin is white and cracked, she has four metallic legs and she has reached her “full insect form.” The peplum has further evolved, and the dress pattern is maintained – it is the attention paid to these details to create the scary effect throughout the whole transformation process. The audience perceives the Other Mother’s evolution but does not clearly notice it until the final stages.

The importance of details in Coraline lies in the fact that they trigger certain sensations in the audience, but they do it subtly. They shape the film’s gothic horror atmosphere by creating uncanny scenarios, and by holding symbolic meanings. It is interesting to note that many of these details are not present, or explicit, in the original novel by Gaiman: the double-looped “o” on the cake, the recurrence of certain colors, or the evolution of Other Mother’s outfits. They were added in the film, together with one ultimate fascinating horror trope: the presence of insects: Coraline’s dragonfly hair clip, cockroaches in the bathtub (Figure 4), paper dragonflies hung to her bed, and the Other Father’s “gardening locust.” The Other Mother’s character itself evolves towards an increasing resemblance to a spider. From the beginning of the film, bugs are constantly present. More interestingly, their presence intensifies as the Other World vanishes, and consequently, Coraline’s situation becomes more precarious. In the last scene set in the Other World, the house’s living room is populated by insect-shaped furniture that has a life of its own; the climax of tension reaches its highest with the Other Mother morphing into her spider-like stage and transforming the room into a spiderweb. Insects and insect imagery in films usually signify death, decay, and wickedness. They are largely employed in horror films to create disgust, or to set a distressing atmosphere (Stewardson). Hence, the symbolic value of their presence in Coraline from the very beginning functions as an additive to the uncanny feelings that emerge and develop through the ingenious utilization of color palette, stop-motion, and costuming.

Billson, Anne. “Climate Science Teaches Us to Love Insects. Horror Films Tell Us to Hate Them. Who Will Win?” The Guardian, 3 Sept. 2021, https://www.theguardian.com/film/2021/sep/03/climate-science-teaches-us-to-love-insects-horror-films-tell-us-to-hate-them-who-will-win . Accessed 26 Sept. 2023.

“Coraline.” Laika , https://www.laika.com/our-films/coraline . Accessed 26 Sept. 2023.

Dolen, Deborah. Handwriting Analysis in Psychology: Basic Theory. Kindle Edition, 2006.

“Graphology.” Encyclopedia Britannica , 25 Apr. 2017, https://www.britannica.com/topic/graphology . Accessed 26 Sept. 2023.

“Henry Selick In Conversation.” Focus Features , 2 Sept. 2009, https://www.focusfeatures.com/article/henry_selick_in_conversation . Accessed 26 Sept. 2023.

LAIKA Studios. “LAIKA Archives: Deb Cook Revisits the Costumes of Coraline’s Other Mother.” YouTube , 13 Sept. 2022, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ACpsl-EAw5U&ab_channel=LAIKAStudios . Accessed 26 Sept. 2023.

Lewis, Shannon. “The Meaning of Blue in Horror.” Slow Burn Horror , 7 Jan. 2022, https://slowburnhorror.com/2022/01/07/the-meaning-of-blue-in-horror/ . Accessed 26 Sept. 2023.

Moon, Robin. “‘How Fragile That Can Be’: The Uncanny, Childhood Identity, and Toxic Parenthood in Coraline.” Horror Obsessive , 2021, https://horrorobsessive.com/2021/01/21/how-fragile-that-can-be-the-uncanny-childhood-identity-and-toxic-parenthood-in-coraline/ . Accessed 26 Sept. 2023.

Risk, Mary. “How to Use Color in Film: 50+ Examples of Movie Color Palettes.” Studiobinder , 27 Jul. 2020, https://www.studiobinder.com/blog/how-to-use-color-in-film-50-examples-of-movie-color-palettes/ . Accessed 26 Sept. 2023.

Stewardson, Christopher. “So Many Legs, So Much Meaning: An Introduction to Bugs in Horror Cinema.” Arrow Video , Sept. 2022, https://www.arrowfilms.com/blog/features/so-many-legs-so-much-meaning-an-introduction-to-bugs-in-horror-cinema/ . Accessed 26 Sept. 2023.

Author Biography

Costanza Chirdo  graduated in English and Media from Goldsmiths University of London in 2021. Throughout the course of the degree, she developed her passion for film by writing essays on cinema and literature and screenplays. She is now pursuing an MSc in Strategies of Political and Public Communication at the School of Political Science “Cesare Alfieri,” University of Florence.

• Search for:

Film Matters Links

• Film Matters @ Intellect
• Film Matters @ Intellect Discover
• Film Matters on Facebook
• Film Matters on Vimeo
• Film Matters on YouTube
• Sample issue of Film Matters

Undergraduate Research Opportunities

• Council on Undergraduate Research
• SCMS Undergraduate Hub

Related Links

• Avant-Garde Film Index
• Caméra Stylo
• Cinemablography
• Diegesis: Film & Television Magazine
• Film Bureau
• Film International
• Global Cinemas Resource
• Mapping Contemporary Cinema

Recent Posts

• Interview with Filmmaker Kim Carr. By Kim Carr and Sophia Fuller
• A. G. Lawler, Author of FM 14.2 (2023) Article “‘Films for Humanity’: De-victimization of the Female in At Five in the Afternoon and The Milk of Sorrow”
• Johanna Carter, Author of FM 14.2 (2023) Article “Translating a Monster: Motherhood and Horror Criteria in Ringu and The Ring”
• Showcasing FM 14.2 (2023)
• Interview with Filmmaker M. W. Daniels. By Sophia Fuller
• Citation Ethics
• Mise-en-Scene
• My Film Festivals
• New York Film Festival
• Press Releases
• Telluride Horror Show
• The Film Essay
• Uncategorized
• Videographic
• Entries feed
• Comments feed
• WordPress.org

Is Coraline Movie Based on a True Story? Real-Life Influences Explained

After the film's rerelease in theaters, many fans have been left wondering if Coraline is based on a true story, or is at least influenced by true events.

First released in 2009, Coraline follows a young girl of the same name who discovers a secret passageway that essentially acts as a gateway to a different dimension where everyone has buttons instead of eyes.

In that new dimension, Coraline discovers that it seems to be everything she could ever want. However, in reality, she is faced with a monster who disguises itself as her mother and wants to steal her soul.

[ Coraline 2: Will It Ever Release? ]

Is Coraline Based on a True Story?

The animated movie Coraline is based on a 2002 children's novella written by Neil Gaiman, a horror and dark fantasy author who most notably created The Sandman comic series which was recently adapted into a Netflix series.

Gaiman's novella is also named Coraline , and it served as the full inspiration for the film, as the movie was a faithful adaptation.

The book was not directly based on a true story, but Gaiman has revealed in the past that he was influenced in many different ways when writing the story.

In a 2002 interview with the American Library Association's Booklist Magazine , Gaiman specifically credited an 1882 short story named The New Mother as one of his major influences for Coraline .

Written by Lucy Clifford, The New Mother is, according to Gaiman, "about these children who are evil." The children's mother threatens that if they misbehave, she will have to leave and will be replaced by a "new mother:"

"The most forgotten is a lady named Lucy Clifford. . . . One [of her stories], 'The New Mother,' [is] about these children who are evil. They behave badly because they want something another kid has, this pear drop. Their mother keeps saying, 'Please, please, please, don’t misbehave, or I’ll have to go away, and your new mother will have to come.'"

In the story, that is exactly what happens. The children "do misbehave," which causes them to find their mother gone, and instead find a new mother with glass eyes and a "wooden tail:"

" And they do misbehave, and when they go home, their mother’s not there. But they look down at the end of the road, in the dark, where they see coming toward them the flames of their new mother’s eyes and hear the swish, swish, swishing of her wooden tail."

Gaiman stated that that story "definitely stuck with [him]," particularly due to its "really disturbing and primal" nature:

"That definitely stuck with me. Here was somebody writing children’s fiction, at the same time 'Alice [in Wonderland]' was written, who was willing to go all the way, into something really disturbing and primal."

One of the major similarities between Coraline and The New Mother is the title of the latter. In Gaiman's book and in the film, Coraline's evil mother is referred to as "The Other Mother," which is clearly inspired by the title of Lucy Clifford's book.

The eyes of the other mother are also a big similarity between Coraline and The New Mother . In Coraline, the Other Mother has black buttons in place of her eyes, which is similar to the glass eyes that the Other Mother has in The New Mother .

In another interview with CBC , Gaiman also revealed that Coraline was largely influenced by stories that his daughter, Holly, told him when she was young.

Specifically, Gaiman stated that his daughter would come up with stories "about little girls being kidnapped by evil witches" who were most often "disguise themselves as her mother:"

"She would make me write down her stories, which were always about little girls being kidnapped by evil women, witches normally, who would disguise themselves as her mother. They were the kind of stories that would have given Edward Gorey nightmares."

Seeing how much his daughter was interested in those types of stories, Gaiman thought that he should find tales and read them to Holly, but there was one major problem. According to Gaiman, "there wasn't anything like that on the shelves." So, instead of just giving up, "[he] started to write one," which was Coraline :

"They were wonderful. I initially thought I should go and find some of these things and read them to her because she'd like it. Then I realized there wasn't anything like that on the shelves. So I started to write one."

So, although Coraline isn't directly based on a true story, the original version of it was influenced by previous stories as well as the ideas of his own daughter.

Coraline is currently available to watch in select theaters and is streaming on the Roku channel.

LATEST NEWS

by Neil Gaiman

• Coraline Summary

Coraline is a young girl who has just moved into a new apartment with her parents. As Coraline acclimates to her surroundings before the school year begins, she acquaints herself with her eccentric new neighbors. In the flat below Coraline’s apartment, two older women named Miss Spink and Miss Forcible live with their dogs. In the apartment above Coraline’s lives a “crazy old man” who claims to be training a mouse circus. Although Coraline’s parents work from home, the protagonist often feels lonely and isolated. As a result, Coraline must find ways to entertain herself and make fun out of mundanity.

One day, Coraline decides to explore her own apartment. She is especially intrigued by the door in the corner of the drawing-room, which only opens onto a brick wall. One night while she is lying awake in her bed, Coraline hears a mysterious sound coming from down the hall. She investigates and realizes that the old door to the drawing-room is slightly ajar. After her exploration, she experiences weird dreams. The next day, she experiences a series of strange events. Coraline runs into the man that lives above her apartment, and he tells her that the mice have advised Coraline not to go through the door. Then, Coraline heads to Miss Forcible and Miss Spink's apartment, where the women warn her that she is in grave danger. Coraline is pleased by her neighbor's prophecy, as she is looking for excitement in her boring life.

The following day, Coraline is left alone in the house while her mother is grocery shopping. Bored and lonely, Coraline decides to take the set of keys and head into the empty drawing room. She unlocks the blocked door, only to find that the bricks have disappeared. Coraline walks through the door and heads down the dark hallway. Upon entering the hallway, Coraline is struck by how closely the empty flat resembles her own. The wallpaper, carpet, and pictures all appear identical to the items in her apartment. Coraline hears a voice that sounds as if it belongs to her mother. She follows the voice and heads down the corridor.

Coraline discovers a woman in the kitchen that looks like her mother—with a few differences. The woman is taller, thinner, pale, and has black buttons in the place of her eyes. It appears that Coraline has encountered a world that is an alternate version of her reality, complete with an "other mother" and "other father." While exploring the outside of her house in the other world, Coraline encounters a black cat. Coraline begins conversing with the cat, but she finds the creature to be rude and cold. She then enters Miss Spink and Miss Forcible's apartment in the other world.

Coraline finds that their apartment has been transformed into a theater, and one of the neighbor’s black Scottie dogs asks Coraline for a “ticket” to the show. Miss Spink and Miss Forcible then shed their “recognizable skin” and emerge as thin, pale women with black button eyes. The performance is strange, and Coraline is scared by the characters in the alternate world. Her other mother and other father tell Coraline that she can stay in this world forever if she replaces her eyes with black buttons. Terrified, Coraline returns back to the real world, but she finds that her parents have gone missing. After Coraline receives a message that her real parents are endangered, she is forced to rescue them from the other world.

After further investigation, Coraline realizes that her other mother is the creator of the other world and has trapped various children inside of it over the years. In order to free all of the captured souls that are stuck in the other world, Coraline negotiates with her other mother. They decide that if Coraline successfully locates the three souls and her parents within the other world, everyone can be set free. Coraline sets out to locate each of the three missing souls. She is met with challenges along the way, but she successfully overcomes all of her fears and finds the missing souls. In addition, Coraline finds that her parents are trapped within a small snow globe that rests on the mantelpiece in the other world.

Although the other mother had previously agreed to let Coraline go if she successfully completed her challenges, the other mother does not hold up her end of the deal. Instead, Coraline is forced to narrowly escape from the other world. Safe and sound in the real world, Coraline realizes that her parents never noticed that she had gone missing. At night, she dreams that her victory against the other mother is not yet complete, as the other mother's hand has escaped into the real world. Coraline successfully traps her other mother's hand, and it falls into a well. The other mother has officially been defeated. In the last scene of the novel, Coraline visits her neighbors, who acknowledge that balance has finally been restored in their lives due to the villain’s demise. Coraline falls asleep in her bed before beginning her first day of the new school year.

Coraline Questions and Answers

The Question and Answer section for Coraline is a great resource to ask questions, find answers, and discuss the novel.

Main characters

Check this out:

https://www.gradesaver.com/coraline/study-guide/character-list

What is Coraline's biggest fear?

At the beginning of the story, Coraline feels secure in her comfortable existence. However, she is bored by her life and is constantly seeking stimulation or encouragement from either her environment or her loved ones. Once Coraline is put in an...

Describe two secondary characters of the story with at least six adjectives.

Coraline's Father: neglectful, self-absorbed, impatient

The Other Mister Bobo: persuasive, manipulative, frustrating

Study Guide for Coraline

Coraline study guide contains a biography of Neil Gaiman, literature essays, quiz questions, major themes, characters, and a full summary and analysis.

• About Coraline
• Character List

Essays for Coraline

Coraline essays are academic essays for citation. These papers were written primarily by students and provide critical analysis of Coraline by Neil Gaiman.

• Manipulation and Appreciation in Coraline
• Blake and Gaiman on Women’s Desires: A Dissection of Mrs. Armitage on Wheels and Coraline
• Fantasy as a Form of Empowerment in 'Coraline' and 'Harry Potter'

Lesson Plan for Coraline

• About the Author
• Study Objectives
• Common Core Standards
• Introduction to Coraline
• Relationship to Other Books
• Bringing in Technology
• Notes to the Teacher
• Related Links
• Coraline Bibliography

Wikipedia Entries for Coraline

• Introduction