by Rebecca Fisher

Introduction:

Some collaborations are a match made in heaven. That Neil Gaiman’s novella Coraline was adapted into a stop-motion film by Henry Selick (who also directed The Nightmare Before Christmas) is a dream come true, melding Gaiman’s creepy fairytale with the stunning visual brilliance of Selick’s imagination. The result is one of those rare movies that enhances and enriches the original source material, making the two versions of the same tale virtually inextricable when it comes to exploring the content and characters and themes. So for this particular review, I’ll be talking about Coraline the book just as much as Coraline the film…

Premise:

Coraline Jones is not happy about her current situation in life. She’s been forced to move with her parents to a sub-divided Victorian mansion (painted pink) where she’s separated from her friends, it constantly rains, and her parents remain far too busy with their own assorted deadlines to pay much attention to her.

But on one particularly dull day, Coraline discovers a small door that leads to another section of the house. Down a strange tunnel is a surreal parallel world where the food is delicious, the toys are delightful, and her parents focus all their attention solely on her. As part of the dream-like quality of the experience, Coraline bemusedly takes all this in her stride, noticing only one unsettling element of this strange new world: that her Other Mother and the rest of this place’s denizens all have shiny black buttons in the place of eyes.

Which Mother would you prefer?

But there’s too much excitement for Coraline to pay much attention to such an oddity – not when there are magic gardens and mice circuses and trapeze acts to enjoy. Best of all, her Other Mother is cheerily domestic and lovingly attentive, a far cry from the irritable woman of her ordinary life.

But when things seem too good to be true, it’s usually because they are. Soon enough the catch emerges, and Coraline is horrified when the Other Mother tells her that she’s welcome to stay in this world forever – provided that she allows her to sew buttons into her eyes. What started out as a game is now a fight for survival as Coraline pits her cunning and courage against the terrifying Other Mother in a bid to escape her domain.

Story:

Prior to re-watching the film I decided to read the book for the first time, and it was interesting to note the myriad of differences between the two versions of the story. Gaiman’s Coraline is more introverted and cautious, whilst Selick’s is belligerent and out-going. Because much of the book is conveyed through Coraline’s internal dialogue, a new character called Wybie is introduced so that the filmic version has someone to share exposition with. As the grandson of the owner of the Pink Palaces, Wybie also provides more backstory on the history of the house and inadvertently gives Coraline a creepy little doll that the Other Mother uses to spy on her intended victims.

Coraline with her loving Other Family…

In terms of structuring the story, it’s interesting to note that the film spends a lot more time on the Other Mother baiting the trap and Coraline exploring the parallel world, whilst the book has this part over-and-done with quickly so as to focus on Coraline’s attempt to find her missing parents and the eyes of the ghost children (which includes a terrifying confrontation with her Other Father in the basement).

Whereas the book is superior in demonstrating the very real love that Coraline’s parents have for her, the film does a better job at establishing Coraline’s boredom, making her ripe for the manipulations of the Other Mother. The little changes (the portal in the book is a normal-sized door, whilst in the film it’s so small that it has to be crawled through) and the big changes (the final confrontation with the Other Mother’s hand plays out completely differently) each provide fresh perspective on the key components of the story. No matter what order you read the book or watch the film, each storytelling medium has its own strengths in expanding the different aspects of the tale.

Characters:

As mentioned, Coraline is quite a different character in the book than the film, but either way she still makes for a great heroine. Like many twelve year olds forced to move away from familiar surroundings on the whim of their parents, she spends the first half of the movie complaining and grizzling, only to eventually assert herself and step up to the challenge of saving herself and parents from the Other Mother. The technical skill that goes into creating Coraline and the world she lives in is nothing short of incredible, with a level of complexity in movement and expression that (up until this point) had not yet been matched in stop-motion animation.

To back up the stunning visuals is a range of talented voice actors: Dakota Fanning as Coraline, Teri Hatcher and John Hodgman as both sets of her parents and Keith David as a mysterious black cat that can traverse both worlds.

Wybie: did he steal Coraline’s thunder?

Among fans of the book and film, Coraline’s friend Wybie has ended up a rather divisive figure: though some feel that he’s a necessary component in giving Coraline someone to talk to over the course of the film, others think that Coraline herself was robbed of her final victory over the Other Mother’s clawed hand by having Wybie rescue her at the last moment. Any book readers will attest that Coraline carefully plans out the trap she sets out for the Other Mother’s hand (a nice reflection of the Mother’s own entrapment of Coraline) and achieves victory all by herself – a sequence that is entirely missing from the filmic version. What are your thoughts?

Conclusion:

The strength of the story (book and film) lies in the way it draws upon countless fairytales in order to shape its course. Changeling parents, imprisoned souls, a mirror-world, a talking cat, a series of riddles – we’ve all known thousands of stories that contain these elements, but none of it ever feels stale or overworked. Much like the witch of the Gingerbread House, the Other Mother uses sweets and delights to lure her victims in; and just like the heroes of old, Coraline must undergo a threefold trial and rely on her cunning and bravery to free herself from the villain’s clutches.

Coraline makes the journey into the Other House

And the film adds its own little touches. The Other Mother noticeably never eats any of the food that she lays before Coraline. The first plants that Coraline notices in the garden are pitcher plants, which lure insects with their sweet-smelling nectar before trapping and devouring them. The Other Father’s playful song that he performs for Coraline is laden with a hidden warning: “we will never take our eyes off Coraline!”

You could watch this movie a dozen times and find some new detail every time. Like most stories that are based on the oldest and darkest of fairytales, Coraline simultaneously feels new and yet deeply familiar at the same time – as all the very best stories do.

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Next time:

Norman Babcock has the same problem as that kid from The Sixth Sense: he sees dead people. But unlike Cole Sear, he gets along rather well with the deceased, and prefers their company to the living. But when a friendly ghost brings him warning of a terrible zombie invasion, it’s up to Norman to rescue the town from the undead destruction that’s scheduled for Halloween.

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About The Reviewer:

Rebecca Fisher is a graduate of the University of Canterbury with a Masters degree in English Literature, mainly, she claims, because she was able to get away with writing her thesis on C.S. Lewis and Philip Pullman. She is a reviewer for FantasyLiterature.com, a large website that specializes in fantasy and science-fiction novels, as well as posting reviews to Amazon.com and her own LiveJournal blog.

To read Rebecca’s detailed introduction of both herself and the series, as well as preceding Big Worlds On Small Screens reviews, click on:

Big Worlds On Small Screens