Coraline (animation)



"Evil witch! I'm not scared!"

The Film of the Book of Coraline, with Henry Selick of The Nightmare Before Christmas fame as director and writer. It was released on February 6, 2009 and it's the first Stop Motion movie filmed with a 3-D camera (however, the 3-D viewings were in limited locations for a few weeks).

Coraline Jones moves from Pontiac, Michigan with her mother and father to the Pink Palace Apartments in Ashland, Oregon: an old house subdivided into three residences. With her parents frantically working on a gardening catalog in order to make ends meet and paying little attention to her, Coraline begins to feel neglected. While exploring the house, she discovers a small door with a brick wall behind it. That night, she is awoken by a mouse in her room, which she chases to the small door. She opens it, but instead of a brick wall, she finds a long, glowing passage, leading to another world.

At the other end, Coraline finds herself in the "Other World", which is inhabited by her "Other Mother" and "Other Father", who are perfect, idealized doubles of her real parents, except with black buttons in place of their eyes, and they pay close attention to Coraline. After enjoying a home-cooked meal made by the Other Mother, she spends the night in the Other World and awakens back in her bed in the real world.

Coraline continues to go to the Other World at night and is entertained by the various delights present, including idealized versions of her neighbors, a garden built in her image, and delicious food. Coraline begins to prefer the Other World to her real one, finding that she is receiving the love and attention from her other parents she is lacking at home. Eventually, the Other Mother offers to let Coraline stay in their world forever, on one condition:

That she has buttons sewn into her eyes.

When she refuses, the film takes a dark turn as the Other Mother attempts to force Coraline to stay in her world, and Coraline must rely on her bravery and wits to get back home.

"Coraline: Wybie's got a cat like you at home. Not the quiet Wybie, the one that talks too much. You must be the other cat. The cat: I'm not the other anything. I'm me. Coraline: Um, I can see you don't have button eyes, but if you're the same cat, how can you talk? The cat: I just can. Coraline: Cats don't talk at home. The cat: No? You're CLEARLY the expert on these things."
 * 3D Movie
 * Abandoned Warehouse: Where the movie was made.
 * Acrofatic: Bobinsky.
 * Adaptation Expansion: The new character of Wybie, the Coraline doll, and the extended trips into the other world.
 * More backstory is given to Coraline and her parents, explaining why they ignore her so much and why she would be willing to abandon them for a dream world so casually.
 * Apparently Gaiman himself requested this trope. He saw that the original script was almost exactly like the book and told them to make some changes. After all, if someone wanted something exactly like the book, they had the book.
 * Also, since exposition doesn't work quite the same way in movies as in books, the addition of Wybie was sort of necessary, as Gaiman himself has said.
 * Adorkable: Wybie.
 * Adult Fear: The chilling, very real fear of many working parents is that harm could come to their child because they're too busy to pay attention to them. Coraline's parents aren't purposefully neglecting her, but it is their lack of attentiveness that leads to their daughter getting into some serious trouble...
 * Adults Are Useless: Partly averted. Bobinsky, Spink and Forcible, and later, Coraline's mother, each give Coraline warnings against danger (it's only because she ignores them that the warnings amount to nothing), and
 * Amazing Technicolor Population: Mr. Bobinsky. It is implied via the medal he wears that his blue skin (and possibly eccentric disposition) is due to being one of the Liquidators who cleaned up Chernobyl.
 * Ambiguously Brown: Wybie is a very pale African-American with brown curly hair. It's possible he's actually mixed-race; his grandmother is more obviously black.
 * Apologetic Attacker:
 * Arachnid Appearance and Attire: The Other Mother near the end, even with a web themed room with bug furniture.
 * Big Damn Heroes: Subverted. Wybie comes in at the last minute to save Coraline from the Other Mother's hand but crashes his bike.
 * Big Eater: With the exception of her father's cooking, Coraline eats quite a bit throughout the film.
 * Bigger on the Inside: The Other Spink and Forcible's theater is absolutely massive compared to the exterior size of the house.
 * This also applies to the Other Mr Bobinsky's circus tent.
 * Bitch in Sheep's Clothing:
 * Black and Nerdy: Wybie.
 * Blonde, Brunette, Redhead: Ms. Forcible, Coraline and Ms. Spink when seen together.
 * Brick Joke: The bowl of candy.
 * Canon Foreigner: Wybie.
 * Casting Gag: Misses Spink and Forcible are voiced by Jennifer Saunders and Dawn French respectively.
 * Cats Are Magic: The black cat, who can talk in the Other Mother's universe and acts as a sort of Mentor towards Coraline.
 * Cats Are Snarkers: Again, the black cat.
 * Cats Are Superior: Bingo, black cat. Snarky, deadpan, aloof, insulting, arrogant - but willing to help in Coraline's time of need and vital to her confrontation with the Other Mother.
 * Cerebus Callback: Mr Bobinski's circus is one of the things that wows Coraline on her second visit and is the sight of some amusing moments. . And the cute jumping mice
 * Character Exaggeration: In the book, Mr. Bobo simply happens to be Slavic (Russia isn't even mentioned, actually); it's not even implied that he has an accent until Misses Spink and Forcible happen to talk about him near the end of the book. However, the movie makes Bobinsky extremely weird and extremely Russian.
 * Even though the flag outside his door is from Montenegro.
 * Chekhov's Gun:
 * and arguably
 * If there's a such thing as Chekhov's Word, then the mentioning of the game hide-and-seek definitely fits.
 * The opening sequence
 * The green stone near the end.
 * The Other Mother's chicken oven mitt, which was re-purposed by
 * "Rat crap."
 * Chekhov's Gunman: The cat.
 * Chess with Death:
 * Cloudcuckoolander: Wybie and Bobinsky.
 * Cordon Bleugh Chef: Coraline's father's cooking is awful.
 * Costume Porn: With miniatures, no less.
 * Crazy Cat Lady: Spink's a dog lady.
 * Crazy Enough to Work: No one would be crazy enough to work with an unheard-of small studio to make a stop-motion adaptation of a moderately popular children's book and releasing it at the time of the year where most people are anticipating lots of big-budget blockbusters backed by big-name studios and directors, right?
 * The animation counts as well.
 * Creepy Child:
 * Depending on your point of view, the Other Wybie could qualify in the beginning. There's just something creepy about his constant smile.
 * Creepy Doll: creepy doll Creepy Doll CREEPY DOLL!!
 * Cute Mute: The Other Wybie.
 * Dark Is/Is Not Evil: Both tropes come into play here: One the one hand, the Other World is in a constant state of nightfall, which makes things look pretty threatening later on, and the buildings are more dimly-lit in the climax than they were earlier. On the other hand, it is a black cat who helps Coraline the most while she's in the Other World.
 * Deadpan Snarker: Coraline and the cat, but especially the cat.
 * Depending on your point of view, the Other Wybie could qualify in the beginning. There's just something creepy about his constant smile.
 * Creepy Doll: creepy doll Creepy Doll CREEPY DOLL!!
 * Cute Mute: The Other Wybie.
 * Dark Is/Is Not Evil: Both tropes come into play here: One the one hand, the Other World is in a constant state of nightfall, which makes things look pretty threatening later on, and the buildings are more dimly-lit in the climax than they were earlier. On the other hand, it is a black cat who helps Coraline the most while she's in the Other World.
 * Deadpan Snarker: Coraline and the cat, but especially the cat.

""Taaaaaake iiiiit...""
 * Design Student's Orgasm: Especially in the scenes where
 * Eerie Pale-Skinned Brunette: Coraline's Other Mother.
 * Exact Words: Unlike the Other Mother, ((spoiler: The Other Father never lies to Coraline, but he does leave out certain details to help Coraline save herself from his "wife" without being turned into pumpkin pie.}}
 * Eyeless Face:
 * Eye Scream: "Black is traditional... But if you'd prefer pink... or vermilion... or chartreuse... Though you might make me jealous!" The fact that there's a needle next to the buttons makes it that much worse...
 * The Fair Folk: The Other Mother, just human enough to know she's a mystery.
 * Fan Disservice:
 * The beginning half of the other Spink and Forcible's stage play... ugh. Both of the old women are practically naked, with only their nipples and crotch covered up. No amount of Brain Bleach will ever clear that out of your mind.
 * The last part of their routine is pure Fan Service though.
 * Also, when the
 * Fire-Forged Friends:
 * Five-Bad Band:
 * The Big Bad and the Evil Genius - The Other Mother.
 * The Dragon - The Other Father.
 * The Brute - The Other Bobinsky.
 * The Dark Chick - The Other Ms. Spink and Ms. Forcible, and The Other Wybie.
 * Food Porn: The dinner/breakfast/food scenes in the other world, despite the fact that the foods are fake.
 * Foreign Sounding Gibberish: The general consensus as to exactly what they are saying in choral numbers like Exploration and Dreaming, and of course the end credits song.
 * Closed captions just call it "Child/Children singing nonsense words".
 * Foreshadowing:
 * The words in the Other Father's song become much more sinister and foreboding once you find out
 * And then it very vaguely regains its happiness
 * The Other Mother refers to her husband as "Pumpkin".
 * It's most likely that the Other Father was originally a pumpkin from the garden that gradually reverted back to its true form as the world started to unravel; most other creations of the Other Mother ended up being shown as being appropriated from various flotsam like the rats and bugs.
 * Following on that logic, the Other Wybie was
 * In the Other House, on the wall, there's three frames, each with the silhouette portrait of a child in them. Yeee...
 * Very subtle, but the Other Spink and Forcible's high-wire act is performed to the famous "Can-Can" song. For those in the know, that piece is from the operetta "Orpheus in the Underworld", based on a Greek myth about
 * One of the Ghost Children says, as Coraline is collecting their eyes, ""
 * And the most obvious one has to be in the tea leaves.
 * That's just Spink. Forcible sees
 * Seriously, the script is LITTERED with hidden messages and foreshadowing. "I hate rats at the best of times..."
 * "Couldn't bear to see them go, so we had them stuffed."
 * What about
 * Not to mention the veeery subtle split-second sign of the Other Father's stitches coming loose in the piano scene.
 * Also, the Other Mother's outfits begin to have a certain resemblance to a
 * Coraline's first visit to Other world, after she asks "What rain?" there's a lightning flash with the Other Mother's real hand on the end.
 * The other Spink and Forcible do the "What A Piece Of Work Is Man" monologue.
 * Even better,
 * A possible one, depending on how you take it, is the Other Mother telling Coraline on her first visit. Yeah,
 * The double looped O on Coraline's cake indicates that the writer is a liar.
 * Funny Foreigner: The rechristened-for-the-movie Mr. Bobinsky.
 * Gag Boobs: Ms. Forcible. Emphasis on "gag".
 * Game Face: The Other Mother.
 * Garden of Evil
 * Getting Crap Past the Radar:
 * Combined with the Fan Disservice and Gag Boobs above. Apparently, it's okay to show a naked old lady as long as there's paint to cover her up.
 * The ''tits vs. ass argument, in song, in a PG film.
 * "If you go swimmin' with bow-legged women...", "a big-bottomed sea witch...", "beware of old oysters too large in the chest..."
 * "our mother's golden... chicken breast!" or "I have a writer's rash, right on my... (mother clears throat to stop father from talking)" or the near-castration of Mr. Bobinsky, etc. etc. etc...
 * Apparently there was a lot of discussion about the famous naked Spink and Forcible scene, specifically exactly how much they could get away with. Selick said he convinced the company to let it slide because Forcible was not only covering her naughty bits, but was also spoofing a socially acceptable, famous painting.
 * The soundtrack for that bit is even better. For some reason, they left in Spink and Forcible's exclamations at the end of the first act, where the scenery collapses. Stripped of its context, they sound, er, like something else.
 * How about that fact that when we first met Spink and Forcible we find (by way of all of the posters) they are ex-burlesque dancers? Kids may not get it but the parents (or grandparents) must have been thinking "How did that get there?"
 * It's worse than that. As the posters are all references to Shakespeare, this is quite likely a reference to a strip club that got around a city's attempt to ban stripping by having the girls perform Shakespeare in the nude. So it's basically a reference to actual stripping instead of just dancing around in your undies.
 * To give it all perspective, the movie was rated PG in theaters, but is tagged with a TV-14 on U.S. television airings, although the heavy doses of Nightmare Fuel surely aided that decision.
 * Ghost Amnesia: The ghost children don't remember their names.
 * Giant Spider:
 * Glamour Failure: The black button eyes, of course, but as Coraline continues to get to know the Other world the harder it is for the Other Mother to hide its true nature.
 * Glasgow Smile: Played with. The Other Mother freezes Other Wybie's face into a perpetual smile when, and later sews it into an even more hideous smile.
 * Groin Attack: Narrowly averted when Mr. Bobinsky jumps off his deck and almost lands on Coraline, with his crotch coming within inches of the pair of garden trimmers she had in her hand.
 * Harmful to Minors: Averted. Coraline laughs at naked women, though not as much as real-life children would.
 * Hartman Hips: Coraline's mother, the Other Mother, and the Other Spink.
 * Hates Being Touched: The Other Mother won't keep her hands off her, and Coraline is evidently uncomfortable with it.
 * Heroic Sacrifice:
 * Hot Mom:
 * Coraline's mother.
 * The Other Mother as well
 * Hypocritical Humour: "I'm way too old for dolls". Cue her playing with the doll and naming it "Little Me".
 * I'm Dying, Please Take My MacGuffin:
 * Hypocritical Humour: "I'm way too old for dolls". Cue her playing with the doll and naming it "Little Me".
 * I'm Dying, Please Take My MacGuffin:

""Cripes almighty! How are my best trolls?!" (Upon seeing a moving picture of her friends) "Ugh! Poo-ee!" (Upon sniffing a repugnant smell)"
 * I Do Not Drink... Wine: The Other Mother is a fantastic chef, but while the Other Father and Coraline pile their plates with her food, we never see a speck on the Other Mother's plate. We find out her diet later...
 * Impossible Hourglass Figure: The Other Spink and Forcible.
 * Improvised Weapon: Our heroine . By throwing it as hard as she can. Yikes.
 * In Case You Forgot Who Wrote It: Inverted: it's been advertised as being "from Henry Selick, the director of The Nightmare Before Christmas", which most people associate with its producer, Tim Burton.
 * This was actually a later addition as early ads only billed it as "from the director of The Nightmare Before Christmas" most likely in the hopes that people who only know Nightmare as being a Tim Burton film would assume he directed it
 * Infant Immortality:
 * Thrown for a violent loop with the final fate of.
 * Implied aversion with the
 * Jump Scare: There are a few.
 * Coraline suddenly gets grabbed by the Other Spink and Forcible monster.
 * A more mild one when Coraline is approaching the real world Spink and Forcible's apartment and the dogs jump up suddenly, complete with their "infernal yapping".
 * Know Your Vines: The title character brushes some leaves off a stick and uses it as a water rod. She meets Wybie, and has a fairly long conversation with him, and at the end he throws in that the stick she's holding is poison oak.
 * Leitmotif:
 * Arguably "Dreaming" for the Other world in general. The Other Mother even hums it.
 * Coraline has one in the form of "Exploration".
 * Wybie has two.
 * Lighter and Softer: They actually toned down the creepiness from the book, believe it or not.
 * Little Miss Snarker: Coraline.
 * Match Cut: The shot of Coraline leaning back in her chair to her falling into bed.
 * Messy Hair: Wybie, complete with twigs and leaves.
 * Minion with an F In Evil: The Other Wybie and later on
 * Mood Whiplash: The film is famous for transitioning from fantasy to horror at the halfway point, when the true intentions of the Other Mother are revealed.
 * My Name Is Not Durwood: In the real world, all the neighbors call the titular girl "Caroline", which she hates. One of the more slight differences of the Other World is that everybody says her name correctly.
 * Mysterious Animal Senses: The Cat was able to talk to Other Wybie, even though he couldn't speak. He even told Coraline that cats have far superior senses than humans, at which the Genre Savvy Coraline immediately rolled her eyes. There's also his ability to get between worlds on his own, which is pretty impressive.
 * Mysterious Protector: The Cat followed and watched over Coraline for some time before making himself known to her.
 * Never Trust a Trailer: Many people thought that the movie looked too "cutesy", judging by the trailer. Oh, how wrong they were...
 * Nice Hat: Coraline's Japanese Academy Cap.
 * Non-Human Sidekick:
 * The Other Wybie, arguably.
 * The cat fills this role as well, especially after the Other Wybie
 * Noodle Incident: Coraline's mother mentions a car accident that caused the family to move. She's also wearing a neck brace throughout the film.
 * Noodle People:
 * Coraline is as thin as a rod, but many other characters, like her father and Ms. Spink, are short and squat.
 * Mr. Bobinsky is a borderline example - he's round and rotund, but with spidery legs.
 * The Other Mother starts out looking like Coraline's mother, along with her legs. Gradually, she morphs and transforms throughout the story into a wizened, vaguely human creature with four spidery legs and arms made out of sewing needles.
 * Notable Original Music
 * Object Ceiling Cling: The candy bowl at Ms. Spink and Ms. Forcible's apartment.
 * Oh Crap:
 * "Black is traditional."
 * When
 * One-Winged Angel:
 * Parallel Porn Titles: The posters for the burlesque versions of Shakespeare plays in the actresses' apartment: Julius Sees-Her , King LEER, etc.
 * Parental Obliviousness: Coraline's parents mean well, but they don't have time for her.
 * Perverse Puppet
 * Pop Star Composer: Almost. They Might Be Giants did write songs for the movie, but they ended up not fitting for the most part, and almost all got Cut Song.
 * Powered by a Forsaken Child: To sustain her life, the Beldam must
 * Power Trio: Coraline, Wybie and the Cat form one.
 * Punch Clock Villain:
 * Punctuated! For! Emphasis!: "You. Aren't. My. Mother."
 * Punny Name: Wybie's real name, "Wybourne", leads to Coraline occasionally calling him "Why-were-you-born?".
 * Rage Against the Reflection: Coraline breaks a mirror when she realizes that
 * Raven Hair, Ivory Skin: The Other Mother's original form.
 * Real Is Brown: The colors of the real world are incredibly dull and jaded, which is to contrast for the other world's vibrant and cheery colors.
 * Reality Is Unrealistic: Several people on IMDB complained about Coraline's Jerkass attitude. Ever seen an upset 12-year old? Ever seen a 12-year old who's gone through a long road trip to move into a house in the middle of nowhere, gets stuck with annoying neighbors and ignored by their parents? Yeah...
 * Red Oni, Blue Oni: Coraline is obviously associated with blue, while the Other Mother is detailed in red and black, much like Alice and the Red Queen.
 * Red Right Hand: But really, are you gonna look at someone's hands if their eyes are buttons?
 * Refuge in Audacity: The theater scene, the proof that Henry Selick knows children better than anyone else in Hollywood.
 * Rule of Three:
 * Coraline goes to the other world several times, and
 * She also has to collect and face three challenges to do so.
 * "One... two... THREEEEE!".
 * Spink and Forcible have three live dogs, and their stuffed dogs are in rows of three.
 * Scenery Gorn:
 * Scenery Porn: Like you wouldn't believe. The garden, the mouse circus, and the theater in the other world are breathtaking.
 * Seashell Bra: The Other Forcible wears one dressed as Venus.
 * Sewn On Grin: The Other Wybie. Literally.
 * Shout-Out:
 * To The Nightmare Before Christmas: The pumpkins in the other mother's garden look like the Mayor of Halloweentown, and the tallest of the three Ghost Children resembles Shock. Similarly, when Wybie has his facemask/helmet on, he bears a strong resemblance to Barrel. There also might be one to Pixar, as one of the Shakespeare players has a baby in a backpack that looks a lot like Jack-Jack.
 * The ball that the rats were playing with was the one from Luxo Jr.
 * The movers at the beginning were the "Ranft Bros", caricatured after Jerome Ranft and the late Joe Ranft, who worked on The Nightmare Before Christmas and several Pixar films.
 * Also, at one point the other mother cracks an egg yolk into a bowl that yields The Nightmare Before Christmas lead character Jack Skellington's image.
 * The other father's slippers look an awful lot like Monkeybone...
 * Not surprising. He has his own line of slippers as part of his cartoon show's marketing gimmick.
 * The piano in the other study has the gold word "Tadahiro" on it. Tadahiro Uesugi was a concept artist whom Henry Selick adored.
 * Probably unintentional, but two that sprung out in the movie were the father's name - Charlie Jones, aka "Chuck" Jones, and the "Tall, handsome beast" that Miss Forcible saw in Coraline's tea leaves could have referred to the cat - who's voiced by Keith David, who also provided the voice of Goliath. Then again, both may simply be an Epileptic Trees moment. On the other hand, Keith David himself is a tall, handsome beast.
 * Wybie shares the same last name of a runaway black child named Jessie Lovat in American Gods.
 * Shy Blue-Haired Girl: Averted. Coraline is not shy.
 * Sirens Are Mermaids: During The Other Spink and Forcible's song, The Other Spink describes herself as "The siren of all seven seas" while dressed as a mermaid.
 * Snark-to-Snark Combat: A trait of some conversations between Coraline and the cat.
 * The Speechless: The Other Wybie.
 * Spiritual Successor: To The Nightmare Before Christmas. As well as Henry Selick's previous James and the Giant Peach adaptation. And Mirror Mask.
 * Stepford Smiler: The Other Mother, and most of the denizens in her realm.
 * Stop Motion
 * Swallow the Key: Done by the Other Mother.
 * Small, Dark, and Snarky: The cat.
 * They Wasted a Perfectly Good Sandwich: Coraline never finishes a single meal throughout the entire movie. When the first meal gets replaced by cake, she doesn't eat that either. And she tosses away a bag of popcorn in the Other Mouse Circus.
 * Took a Level in Jerkass: Coraline, from book to movie, but she gets better.
 * Took a Level In Kindness: Movie!Coraline. Facing down an eye-mutilating witch tends to do that.
 * Totally Radical: Select pieces of Coraline's dialogue. It might come off as Narm to older viewers, since hardly any kid talks that way. The most Egregious examples:


 * Trailers Always Spoil:
 * One TV spot for the film shows the other mother giving Coraline . Another TV spot had . A third featured
 * Although spoilers were to be expected when the HBO Special on Coraline aired, some of them were a bit too big. Mainly the fact that . Granted, one of the five Behind the Scenes videos hinted at the possibility of this, but no one expected what actually occurred. It kinda reduced the shock value.
 * The other mother's second form is on the back of the DVD box. The spoiler status of this could be argued though, as that's how she's described in the book from the beginning, as opposed to starting out as identical to Coraline's real mother.
 * Transformation Trauma
 * Unfortunate Names: Wybie is short for Wyborne. Ouch.
 * His nickname "Wybie" is pronounced "why-be"... Poor kid.
 * Vapor Wear: April Spink, if you look closely enough.
 * Viewers Are Geniuses: It's highly doubtful many of the viewers knew . Thank god for John Keats and The Other Wiki... (which would make a really good band name...)
 * The Fairy Ring of mushrooms around the abandoned well is a huge Chekhov's Gun to anyone who knows the appropriate folklore; to everyone else its just added scenery.
 * The stone that Spink and Forcible give Coraline? It's an adder stone.
 * Also, how many viewers recognized the speech the other Spink and Forcible were reciting during their trapeze act? It's from Hamlet. And it has especially interesting plot-correlations when you recall that when he originally spoke it in the play, Hamlet was being sarcastic.
 * It's just a passing gag, but how many people are going to get "My kingdom for a horse!"
 * A phrase which can be interpreted as, "Everything I have for the one thing I don't"... just a passing gag, eh?
 * Voice of the Legion: The Other Bobinsky.
 * The Watson: The movie-original character Wybourne "Wybie" Lovat, who gives a reason for Coraline to give the exposition told in the book through narration.
 * Weird Moon: As time wears on through Coraline's hunting game against the Other Mother, the moon is steadily eclipsed, and the shadow has an inner circumferential line and four holes (i.e., the shadow of a button). Coraline seems to take it as a time limit; at one moment the shadow notably (and audibly at that) grinds to a halt when
 * Where the Hell Is Springfield?: Some people recognized the town that Coraline's family moved to as Ashland, Oregon. The banners for the Shakespeare festival can be seen in several scenes. The studio is based in Portland.
 * Coraline's friends in the picture on her nightstand, in the Other World, said "gone to Oregon" didn't they?
 * The Worm That Walks: The other Bobinsky near the end of the movie.
 * X Meets Y: The movie is like Beetlejuice meets Alice in Wonderland.
 * You Gotta Have Blue Hair: Coraline. An 11-year old brunette dyeing her hair blue.
 * You Have to Believe Me: Coraline should probably explain it to Wybie coherently; throwing shoes at him isn't going to make him believe you. In fairness to her, however, she just narrowly avoided having her eyes poked out by a demonic copy of her mother. Coherency is optional after that.