In this adaptation of Neil Gaiman’s book Coraline, Henry Selick’s film takes all of the darkness in Gaiman’s book and transfers it beautifully to image. In the film, Coraline and her inattentive parents have just moved into a new apartment. As Coraline explores her new home, she finds a secret door which leads to an apartment that looks just like hers; except better. Here, Coraline discovers her Other Mother and Other Father, who are attentive and perfect; she learns, however, that this perfection comes at a price: to stay, Coraline must agree to let her Other Mother sew buttons in place of Coraline’s eyes. As Coraline tries to escape back to her real world, she closes the door on her Other Mother’s hand and severs it. The severed hand tries to bring Coraline back to the other world, so Coraline throws it down a well. The moral ambiguity in Gaiman’s story comes not from a choice that Coraline must make, but more from the lack of good vs. evil dichotomy between the two worlds. Though Coraline ends the story happy, both worlds are not ideal; one has inattentive parents, and the other has a button-eyed mother.



     This adaptation of Gaiman’s story presents Coraline’s world and all of its moral ambiguity through beautiful stop motion images. Gaiman’s story tackles this grey area thoughtfully, showing readers/viewers that the world cannot always be divided into good or bad, and Selick heightens this sense of greyness in his strange, dark, and beautifully creepy movie.



Jennings, C. (Producer) & Selick, H. (Director). (February 5, 2009). Coraline [Motion

     picture]. United States America: Universal Studios.



​Reviews

​For The New York Times review of the movie, click here. And check out Total Film's review of the movie here.



Extras

Also, check out below to see Selick's beautiful stop animation in the Coraline trailer, and see Gaiman's thoughts on the film.



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