Coraline (film)

Just as Gaiman was finishing his novella in 2002, he met Selick and invited him to make a film adaptation, as Gaiman was a fan of Selick's other stop-motion projects, The Nightmare Before Christmas (1993) and James and the Giant Peach (1996). When Selick thought that a direct adaptation would lead to "maybe a 47-minute movie", the screenplay was expanded. Looking for a design different from that of most animation, Selick discovered the work of Japanese illustrator Tadahiro Uesugi and invited him to become the concept artist. His biggest influences were on the color palette, which was muted in the real world and more colorful in the Other World, as in The Wizard of Oz. To capture stereoscopy for the 3D release, the animators shot each frame from two slightly apart camera positions. Production of the stop-motion animation feature took place at a warehouse in Hillsboro, Oregon.


The film was theatrically released in the United States on February 6, 2009, by Focus Features after a world premiere at the Portland International Film Festival on February 5,^[7] and received critical acclaim. It grossed $16.85 million during its opening weekend, ranking third at the box office,^[8] and by the end of its run had grossed over $124 million worldwide, making it the third-highest-grossing stop-motion film of all time after Chicken Run and Wallace & Gromit: The Curse of the Were-Rabbit. The film won Annie Awards for Best Music in an Animated Feature Production, Best Character Design in an Animated Feature Production and Best Production Design in an Animated Feature Production, and was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Animated Feature and a Golden Globe Award for Best Animated Feature Film. It has developed a cult following in the years since its release, and is considered one of the greatest animated films of all time. With Coraline, Laika became the first company to make a feature-length film using replacement faces made by a 3D printer.^[9]

Plot[edit]

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


Upon waking, Coraline finds she has returned to the real world. She meets the other residents of the house: the "Amazing" Mr. Bobinsky, an eccentric Russian liquidator-turned-gymnast who owns a mouse circus; and retired burlesque performers April Spink and Miriam Forcible. Bobinsky and Ms. Spink warn her about the Other World, and Wybie tells Coraline how his grandmother's sister disappeared one day.


Coraline goes back nonetheless. The Other Wybie, who is mute, accompanies her to watch the Other Bobinsky's dancing circus mice. When Coraline returns to the Other World yet again, this time during the day, the cat arrives and tells her he can traverse the two worlds and warns her about the Other World. She watches the Other Ms. Spink and Ms. Forcible perform. Afterwards, the Other Mother offers to let her stay permanently, on condition that she have buttons sewn over her eyes, which horrifies Coraline. She desperately tries to fall asleep, but even after waking remains in the Other World. When she tries to escape through the door, the Other Mother half-transforms into an arachnid-like form and imprisons her by throwing her through a mirror into a dark room.


There, three ghost children tell Coraline how the "Beldam" (Other Mother) used ragdolls to spy on them and use what she learned to lure them into the Other World; they accepted her invitation to stay and had buttons sewn over their eyes. Coraline can free them by retrieving their "eyes". After she promises to help them, the Other Wybie helps her return home.


Coraline cannot find her parents, forcing her to return to the Other World, taking along a Ouija planchette-like stone from Ms. Spink that is "good for lost things". The cat suggests Coraline propose a game: if she can find her parents and the three "eyes", the Beldam will let them all go free; if not, Coraline will accept her offer. As Coraline finds each "eye", a part of the Other World turns lifeless as the entire dimension gradually disintegrates.


The Beldam assumes her final form, a broken-doll faced arachnid. The ghost of Wybie's great-aunt warns Coraline that the Beldam will not honor her bargain. Coraline tricks her into opening the door to the real world by claiming that her parents are behind it. Coraline throws the cat at her and takes the snow globe with her imprisoned parents, and the cat claws out the Beldam's eyes. The Beldam creates a giant spider's web in the floor. Coraline narrowly escapes through the door, severing the Beldam's hand, which slips through to the real world unnoticed.


The snow globe back home is broken, and Coraline's parents are freed. They have no recollection of the ordeal, but having finished their work, they spend more time with Coraline. That night, the freed ghosts warn Coraline that the Beldam is trying to get the key to the small door. When Coraline goes to the well to dispose of it, the Beldam's severed hand attacks her, trying to drag her back to the Other World. Wybie smashes it with a large rock. They throw the fragments and the key into the well. The next day, all the Pink Palace residents come to a party. Wybie brings his grandmother, so that Coraline can reveal her missing sister's fate.