Based on the novella written by Neil Gaiman in 2002, the movie adaptation directed by Henry Selick of Coraline (2009) is based around an eleven year old girl named Coraline Jones. Her and her family moved from Michigan to Oregon, to live in the Pink Palace Apartments so her parents could write their gardening blog and focus more on their plants. After being neglected by her parents, as a distraction, she is told to explore the house and count all the windows and doors. While exploring, she finds a tiny door that is boarded up with brand new wallpaper. Curious Coraline asks her mother to help her open it up, and her mother agrees, only if Coraline will stop pestering her. Once she opens it, nothing is behind it.
Although, later that night, she is lured to the tiny door, and this time when she opens it she discovers a portal to a world that is strikingly similar to her own, though everything is less gloomy, and her parents notice her, and want to play games, and make her delicious food that doesn't taste like slop. Coraline soon learns that everything is not as it appears, and too much of a good thing always ends up with a not-so-good result.
The movie has a good pace to it, when compared to the last blog I did about Anastasia. Everything in the movie happens in a timely manner, and not just overnight. Every time Coraline goes through the tiny "portal" the time of day adjusts to the time of day it is in her "real world," which is something I think just adds to the creepy idea of it. The colors in the movie also add to this because its mainly dark and gloomy in the real world, while it is more colorful and bright (even at night) in the other world.
From the first time I watched this movie in theaters, I fell in love with the story-line, and even more so the animation. It's a perfectly creepy movie and easily one of my favorites, which is why I would label this film as Good-Good on the movie chart category. The animation itself is beautiful, and combined with the relatable story line and plot really makes a perfect movie for anyone.
If you have never seen this movie before, click the link below to watch the trailer. (The movie is on Netflix!)
Coraline Movie Trailer
Really great analysis of this film! I’m glad you enjoyed it-- the novella is also great (and a pretty quick read, all things considered). The analysis of pacing is really sharp, and I would have liked to see some more of that. Sharp choice to compare it to your last post, and I think that could have come into play a little more. It’s clear when you’re being objective and when you’re being subjective, but consider how words that give you more tonal flavor can be used in your summary paragraphs. In other words, your summary doesn’t have to be neutral. Even as an objective description of what happens in the film, you can say it in such a way that reveals your positivity for the film.
ReplyDeleteI totally agree with you that Coraline is an amazing movie. It pushes the boundaries of scary children’s content which also makes it more enjoyable for older audiences. You mentioned the animation a bit and while I do agree it is absolutely beautiful, 10 out of 10, 100% it has its moments. There was several errors in the movie (for example the other dad’s neck comes off his body for a few frames during his song,and the Coraline puppets face not being edited properly showing the viewer the separate pieces of her face when she yells at Wybie) that with a closer eye could have been fixed before its release. Comparing this film to Lakias more recent stop motions it holds up but the later ones are clearly better as you would expect them to be. Looking away from the technical stuff I pretty much agree with you on everything else an I would also give this film a good good rating
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