Coraline Jones has moved with her parents to the Pink Palace Apartments in Oregon. The parents write gardening catalogues and have no time. The neighbours are two retired actresses with a wall of stuffed dogs and a Russian acrobat training mice. Behind the wallpaper in the living room is a small door, bricked up, until one night it is not. Coraline was the first feature from Laika and the first stop-motion film shot in 3D, and it is darker than anything Disney would have let through.
What Is Through The Door
The Other Mother cooks, the Other Father plays piano and the garden is shaped like Coraline’s face. Everyone has black buttons sewn where their eyes should be. On the third visit the Other Mother offers to let Coraline stay, if she lets her sew the buttons on. Coraline refuses, and the Other World stops being nice. The ghost children behind the mirror, the game to find their eyes, and the Other Mother’s true shape, all needle and bone, are the last act. The cat talks there.
Why It Still Unsettles Adults
Henry Selick, who made The Nightmare Before Christmas, adapted Neil Gaiman’s novel and made it stranger. The puppets’ faces were 3D printed with over 200,000 expressions. Keith David voices the cat. Dawn French and Jennifer Saunders are the actresses. It made 124 million dollars and was re-released in 2024 to another 50 million.
Watch Coraline On GoMovies
100 minutes in HD above. Free, no account.
