Coraline (film)  

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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 widely in theaters on February 6, 2009 after a world premiere at the Portland International Film Festival. It is rated PG by the Motion Picture Association of America for thematic elements, scary images, some language and suggestive humor.

Plot

Coraline Jones (Dakota Fanning) moves into the Pink Palace Apartments in Ashland, Oregon with her loving but distracted parents (Teri Hatcher and John Hodgman). On the first week of her moving in she meets a strange boy named Wybie (real name Wyborne) Lovat (Robert Bailey Jr.), whose grandmother used to live in the Pink Palace (and now owns it). He gives her a doll that resembles Coraline the next day. Coraline also encounters a stray black cat (Keith David) that is familiar to the neighborhood and is often tended by Wybie.

While exploring her new surroundings, Coraline finds and unlocks a small door covering a bricked-up section of wall. That night, Coraline follows a small mouse that goes through a dark corridor beyond the door, which leads her to a world parallel to the house grounds. There she encounters beings who claim to be her "Other" parents (Teri Hatcher and John Hodgman), who visually resemble her real parents with the exception of having 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. In the Other World she also encounters the black cat, which is able to speak here; it warns her not to be easily tricked by the Other Mother. When she goes to sleep at night in the other world, she awakens in her room in the real world. From Wybie, she learns that his grandmother refuses to let him enter the apartments due to the grandmother's twin sister having been "stolen" when they were young.

Every night, Coraline goes to visit her Other Parents after following the mouse through the small door. Her Other neighbors put on a series of entertaining shows to keep her interests piqued. The Other Mother tells her she can stay there forever if she is willing to sew buttons into her eyes. She refuses, and goes to her room for a night's sleep. The next morning, upon waking, Coraline is excited to be home, yet finds she is still stuck in the other world. Coraline decides she would much rather be with her real parents, angering the Other Mother, who reveals her true form as an evil witch and traps her in a small room. There Coraline encounters three ghost children who lost their souls to the Other Mother after allowing her to seduce them into staying on this side; one of them proves to be the lost twin sister of Wybie's grandmother. The ghost children explain that the doll of Coraline is actually a spy to the Other Mother, allowing the Other Mother to mimic her victims' worlds. Coraline manages to escape the Other World with the help of the Other Wybie and return home, though her real parents are nowhere to be found. She realizes that they have been kidnapped by the Other Mother, and the only way to save them is to return to the Other World and defeat her. Wybie visits her upon her return to the real world, explaining he needs to have the doll back, claiming it was her grandmother's twin sister's. Coraline repeats to Wybie how the Other Mother uses the doll to mimic her victims' worlds. She searches for the doll to find it has disappeared. After she can't find the doll, she decides to return to the other world. Coraline challenges the Other Mother to a game: if Coraline can find the children's souls and her parents scattered throughout the Other World, they will be set free; otherwise, she will stay in the Other World forever.

With the help of the mystical black cat and a magic seeing stone provided by her (real) neighbors, (Dawn French and Jennifer Saunders), Coraline retrieves all three souls and destroys the inhabitants of the Other World, grotesquely twisted and sent against her by the Other Mother. Locating her parents as well, and knowing the Other Mother would go back on her word if she lost, Coraline tricks her into unlocking the passage between the two worlds. Coraline throws the cat into the Other Mother's face; it claws her eyes out, allowing Coraline to steal the key and escape. As the Other Mother tries to grab her, Coraline manages to close the door on her hand, severing it. 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 reclaim her. Coraline takes the key to a deep well on the house grounds, but is attacked by the Other Mother's severed hand. After a brief struggle, Wybie arrives just in time and crushes the hand. He and Coraline throw it and the key into the well, ridding the world of the Other Mother's influence forever. The movie ends with all the apartment house residents in the garden planting fresh new flowers, while Coraline finally meets Wybie's grandmother and begins to tell her tale.




Unless indicated otherwise, the text in this article is either based on Wikipedia article "Coraline (film)" or another language Wikipedia page thereof used under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License; or on research by Jahsonic and friends. See Art and Popular Culture's copyright notice.

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