Coraline: A Halloween Classic
By Carmen Jansons
Coraline is a stop-motion animated film that debuted in 2009. It’s a fantasy horror movie based on Neil Gaiman's book, which he wrote originally for his 5-year-old daughter. The movie adaptation was directed by Henry Selick, who is known for other stop-motion classics, such as James and the Giant Peach, The Nightmare Before Christmas, and many more.
The movie was directed at an audience of young children, but young adults were the ones who truly were attracted to it. Coraline was a box office success and grossed $185.7 million worldwide, costing 60 million dollars to make, and a profit margin of 125.7 million dollars.
For a children's movie, Coraline has a complex storyline. In the opening scene, we see a woman with a metal body sewing a children's doll, which we later come to find that looks exactly like the main character Coraline.
Coraline Jones just moved to Oregon leaving all of her friends behind to Michigan where she now lives in a vintage house called the Pink Palace. It’s a 3 story building that is home to her peculiar neighbors. On the bottom floor lives Miss. Spink and Miss. Forcible, the retired dancing duo who now live with their 10 dogs. Upstairs lives Mr. Bobinksy who owns a jumping mouse circus. On the ground floor lives Coraline and her parents, who are both writers for a gardening magazine, and they have almost no patience for Coraline’s antics. She decides to leave her house and explore her new town, where she meets Wybie. She later comes to find out that his grandmother owns the Pink Palace, and she has never rented the house to anyone with children except for Coraline’s family. Wybie finds in his grandmother's house a doll that looks exactly like Coraline and gifts it to her. One day while exploring her new house she loses her doll, then finds it next to the outline of a hidden door in the wall. She pleads with her mother to open this door, and she discovers that it’s a portal to a world just like hers it has the same exact timeline as her normal world. Expect, there is her other mother and father. Which look exactly like her parents but have buttons in their eyes. Throughout the rest of the movie, we learn more about Coraline and her other family.
(Coraline’s house shows off impressive claymation design.)
I have watched Coraline countless times and with each watch, I learn more about the lore of the movie. Unlike most people, the first time I ever watched it was when I was 4 years old. I have never been scared of the plotline and I have always been more intrigued by the aesthetics of the stop-motion animation. Gaiman plays with different tones when switching between reality and the other mother’s world. When looking at her normal life Gaiman uses grays and blues to show the sadness and dullness Coraline feels in her normal world. In comparison with the other mother's world, it’s brighter and more exciting. It’s more intriguing and fascinating to Coraline because in her eyes everything is more colorful. The comparison of the vastly different tones helps explore the theme of taking things for granted.
To me, it’s a Halloween classic that’s scary but easy to watch. When you first look at the movie cover you may think this is a children’s movie because it’s animated but it is much more than that. It’s scary and the plot line has twists and turns the viewers may not expect. If you haven’t watched Coraline yet you can watch the movie this October for a limited amount of time. For two days it’s being shown in theaters, October 30-31, with added scenes. I hope that you watch the movie and can experience the mystery too.