Coraline (film)

Coraline
Theatrical release poster
Directed by	Henry Selick
Written by	Neil Gaiman (novel) Henry Selick
Produced by	Claire Jennings Executive producer: Bill Mechanic Henry Selick Michael Zoumas Line producer: Harry Linden
Starring	Dakota Fanning Teri Hatcher Jennifer Saunders Dawn French Keith David John Hodgman Ian McShane
Cinematography	Pete Kozachik
Edited by	Christopher Murrie
Music by	Bruno Coulais They Might Be Giants
Distributed by	Focus Features Alliance Films
Release date	February 6, 2009
Running time	101 min.
Country	United States
Language	English
Budget	$75 to $100 million
Box office	$35.5 million (as of February 15, 2009)

Coraline is a 2009 animated stop-motion 3-D horror fantasy film based on Neil Gaiman's novella of the same name. It was produced by LAIKA and distributed by Focus Features. Directed by Henry Selick, it was released in theaters on February 6, 2009. It is rated PG by the Motion Picture Association of America for thematic elements, scary images, some language and suggestive humor.

Plot

Coraline Jones moves into a new apartment with her loving but distracted parents as soon as they arrive she looks for an old well on the property while being followed by a mysterious cat. She is then nearly runover by someone on a motor bike who just turns out to be a talkative local boy Wybie Lovat. While she explores the house, Coraline comes across a small door, though the entrance beyond it is bricked up. That night, Coraline discovers a dark corridor beyond the door, which leads her to a world parallel to the apartment grounds. There she encounters beings who claim to be her "Other" parents, who resemble her real parents with the exception of black buttons for eyes. The black-button-eyed inhabitants of this fantastical Other World prove to be much more interesting and attentive than those from her own world, particularly her Other Mother, who does everything she can to keep Coraline happy.

Coraline begins visiting the Other World frequently to escape the doldrums of her life. The Other Mother offers to let Coraline stay in the Other World forever if she is willing to sew buttons over her eyes. Coraline decides she would rather return to her own world and be with her real parents, angering the Other Mother, who traps Coraline in a small room. There Coraline encounters the souls of three other children who the Other Mother had seduced and long forgotten. Escaping the Other Mother's captivity, Coraline returns to her own world, only to find that her real parents had been kidnapped by the Other Mother. Coraline resolves to return to the Other World to free them and the souls of the lost children.

Armed with her wits and an Eye Stone provided by her neighbors, Coraline challenges the Other Mother to a game: if Coraline can find the children's souls and her parents scattered throughout the Other World within a preset time limit, they will be set free; if she fails, she will stay in the Other World forever. One by one, Coraline outwits and destroys the inhabitants of the Other World, grotesquely twisted and sent against her by the Other Mother, and retrieves the children's souls, as well as her parents. Knowing the Other Mother would go back on her promise, Coraline tricks her into opening the door to her own world and makes her escape, closing the door on the Other Mother and severing her hand. Back in her own world, Coraline finds her parents safe and sound without any memory of the incident.

That night, the freed souls of the children explain to Coraline that the Other Mother will try to make her way into her world and find the key to the door to reclaim her. Coraline takes the key to a deep well on the premises, but is attacked by the Other Mother's severed hand. After a brief struggle, she is saved by Wybie Lovat, who smashes it with a rock. The hand is destroyed and dropped down the well with the key, ridding the world of the Other Mother's influence forever.

Cast

File:Coraline preview shot.PNG

Coraline Jones, as she appears in the film.

• Dakota Fanning as Coraline Jones, a young, clever, curious, and a self proclaimed 11-year old explorer. Neil Gailman said she "is full of "vim" and 'spunk' and all those wonderful old-fashoned words". Coraline is often irritated by rain, crazy grownups (as they all seem to be), and not being taken seriously because of her young age and outgoing demeanor, though her biggest pet peeve is that everyone mistakes her name for "Caroline" (everyone in the real world at least, except the mice, her parents and, eventually, Wybie).

• Teri Hatcher as Coraline's Mother and The Other Mother. Coraline's mother, Mel Jones, is a talented writer who works on a gardening catalog at her house on the computer. She is very busy most of the time, but she loves and cares about Coraline. She wears a neckbrace because of a car accident shortly before moving. The Other Mother is the creator of the Other World and its inhabitants, and attempts to keep Coraline. According to Teri Hatcher, "she's the perfect mom, because she's a perfect cook and has the perfect answer to every question, and later on she becomes quite monsterous". During the film her appearance changes from an abstractly peachy version of Coraline's real mother into a gangly, wretched, spider-like witch. The ghost children refer to her as "the Beldam".

• John Hodgman as Coraline's Father and The Other Father. Coraline's father, Charlie Jones, like her mom, works at his house on the computer which he spends most of his time on. John Hodgman described him as "the kind of guy who walks around a banana peel and falls into a manhole". Author Neil Gailman said he "does that thing that parents do when they embarrass their kids and somehow think they're being cool". He is a little warmer with Coraline as opposed to her mother. The Other Father is a singing man with a jazzy, slightly Bing Crosby-esqe voice (John Hodgman stated he has "a more swingin' kind of a Dean Martin style"), as well as a talented gardener. He has a piano with mechanical arms that control his movements, which uses him to play Coraline's Song. Later in the film, he transforms into a melancholy, lame pumpkin-like creature. He was created by the Other Mother, whom he fears greatly.

• Keith David as The Cat, a black cat from Coraline's world, who has the ability to speak in the Other World. He can also appear and disappear at will (much like the Cheshire Cat), saying that he can "come and go as he pleases". Although feral, he is the unofficial pet of Coraline's neighbor, Wybie Lovat. The cat acts as a mentor to Coraline and guides her through her journey. For reasons yet to be fully explained, the Other Mother hates cats.

• Dawn French and Jennifer Saunders as Miss Forcible and Miss Spink respectively. A pair of retired actresses, they own several Scottie dogs (including the stuffed remains of their dead ones) and talk in theater jargon, often referencing their time as actresses. They recognize the danger that Coraline is in when they read her fortune through tea leaves, and later provide her with the Eye Stone to help her in her journey. In the Other World, they appear much younger and slimmer and are active acrobats, though they initially wear very revealing fatsuits resembling their older selves. Their stuffed Scottie dogs are also alive and behave like humans in the Other World. They later turn into rabid monsters made of stale taffy, and their Scottie dogs into bats.

• Ian McShane as Mr. Bobinsky, known as Mr. Bobo in the book. He is one of Coraline's neighbors, a blue-skinned Russian giant who once trained as a gymnast and lives on a steady diet of beets. He is apparently training mice for a circus, and has the uncanny ability to understand what they are saying. His Other World counterpart is the ringmaster of a circus of rats disguised as jumping mice. He is one of the Other Mother's craftier creations, sending his rats to spy on Coraline. He is later transformed into a cluster of rats.

• Robert Bailey, Jr. as Wyborn Lovat, an original character created for the film (so that you "wouldn't have a girl walking around, occasionally talking to herself"). He prefers to be called "Wybie". He is described as an annoying neighbor kid. He possesses a skeleton mask with a three piece turret lens that he wears when outside and a handmade motorized bike which he uses to patrol the woods. His grandmother is the owner of Coraline's home, not letting Wybie inside because her sister was one of the Other Mother's victims, becoming one of the three ghost children. As a result, Wybie's grandmother also doesn't normally rent the house to families who have children. His Other World counterpart is very sweet and can't talk, and accompanies Coraline while her neighbors entertain her. He is forced by the Other Mother to keep smiling, even to the extent that his face is pinned to make him do so. He helps Coraline escape the Other Mother's confinement, and is presumably destroyed for his disobedience.

Production

The film involved the efforts of thirty animators (many of whom moved to Laika's Portland headquarters to do the work) and more than 250 technicians and designers. Fifty sets were constructed in a Hillsboro, Oregon warehouse that is longer than a city block; among the sets were three Victorian mansions, a 42-foot apple orchard, and a model of Ashland, Oregon (complete with tiny Oregon Shakespeare Festival banners).

Release

Focus Features distributed the film. Coraline appeared at Comic-Con 2007. A trailer was shown with the films Beowulf, U2 3D, Twilight, The Nightmare Before Christmas, Inkheart, Madagascar: Escape 2 Africa, Hotel For Dogs, Bedtime Stories, My Bloody Valentine 3D, Bolt, and The Tale of Despereaux.

Reception

Coraline was lauded by critics. Carrie Rickey of the Philadelphia Inquirer asked "Is it premature to assign it classic status?" Film critic Leonard Maltin of Entertainment Tonight called the film "The best 3-D movie I've ever seen," and "a beautiful piece of work on every level". Pete Hammond of Hollywood.com called it "A visual stunner that takes animated films to new heights". Tom Maurstad of the Dallas Morning News wrote that "sweet and creepy blend beautifully", and added that Coraline "is the best kind of children's entertainment -- smartly told and deeply felt." Michael Phillips of the Chicago Tribune called the film "an adventurous movie with brains, personality, a look and a knack for inducing shivers." Peter Howell of the Toronto Star said that it "leaps off the screen, whether you see it in 3-D or not." Jennie Punter wrote in the Globe and Mail that Coraline is "quite possibly the best 3-D movie ever made." The film currently has an 88% "Certified Fresh" rating at Rotten Tomatoes. The film also holds an 79 out of 100 at Metacritic, indicating "generally favorable reviews".

Box office performance

According to Paul Dergarabedian a movie business analyst with Media by Numbers, for the film to succeed it needed a box office comparable to Wallace and Gromit: The Curse of the Were-Rabbit, which grossed $16 million its opening weekend and ended up making more than $192 million worldwide; prior to the film's release, Dergarabedian though Laika "should be really pleased" if it made close to $10 million on its opening weekend.

In its opening weekend, the movie made $16.85 million, ranking third-place at the box office. It made $15 million on its second weekend, bringing its total up to $35.5 million.

Soundtrack

The soundtrack for Coraline, on E1 Music (formerly Koch Records) was released digitally February 3, 2009 and in stores February 24, 2009. It featured songs performed by French composer Bruno Coulais with one song, "Other Father Song", by They Might Be Giants.

Video game

Main article: Coraline (video game)

On June 16, 2008, D3Publisher of America announced the release a video game based on the film. The Coraline game is developed by Papaya Studio for the Wii and Playstation 2, and by Art Co. for Nintendo DS. It was released on January 27, 2009, close to the film's theatrical release.

See also

• List of stop-motion films
• List of animated feature-length films
• Real D Cinema

External links

• Official website
• Coraline at IMDb
• Coraline at AllMovie
• Coraline at Metacritic
• Coraline at Rotten Tomatoes