Coraline

    

     

     As I set forth to write my fantasy film review, I was confronted with my first obstacle: which movie to choose. While looking for a film to view I realized that many of the ones that I was interested in watching qualified for Scifi not fantasy and even more looked like less than quality movies. However, after much deliberation and just a pinch of mental anguish I finally found a movie that seemed to be of quality and have multiple points that I could discuss in the context of our class. I had decided on the movie Coraline based on the novel by Neil Gaiman. Coraline is an intriguing stop motion 3D film about an eleven year old girl, Coraline Jones, who discovers a world that is strikingly similar to her own only better. However, Coraline quickly discovers that the secondary world is not quite what it seems, but I’m getting a head of myself.

            The movie opens with the making of a doll that is identical to our main character. From there the scene changes to one of a family moving into a decrepit mansion turned apartment building named the Pink Palace. As the family begins to move in it quickly becomes clear that Coraline feels ignored by her parents and isolated from old her friends. Later, after an encounter with her neighbor named Wybie, who finds and gives the previously mentioned doll to her, she discovers a strange door that appears to be bricked up. That night Coraline follows a mysterious jumping mouse that disappears behind the door. 

 

     To her astonishment, the door opens into a colorful tunnel that leads to a brighter, and over all better world than she is living in now. Everything, down to the paintings on the walls and her parents, is a happier and more pleasing to Coraline. The only odd thing is all the humans in this "other world" have buttons for eyes.Throughout the course of the movie Coraline moves between the secondary world and the primary world freely. With each new trip she discovers more and more delightful amusements that parallel her world. Eventually, however, Coraline discovers that the world is actually a trap set by her “other mother” in order to coax her into sewing buttons on her eyes so she will stay with her “other mother” forever. Coraline, of course, refuses and attempts to escape back into the primary world. Unfortunately, she discovers that that the “other mother” now a witch has kidnapped her real parents. With the aid of a seeing stone she acquired from just one of her odd neighbors and a black cat that can talk and seems to know quite a lot about the other world, Coraline decides to return to the secondary world to rescue her parents (along with three ghosts of past children the witch had previously captured). 

 

     

    On her way back to the other world the black cat advises to challenge the “other mother” to a game. Coraline accepts his advice and the witch agrees that if she can locate the three ghost children’s eyes and find her parents before a certain time she will allow her to leave peaceably. Coraline manages to find the children’s eyes in time and proceeds to trick the “other mother” turned witch into letting her leave with her parents.The movie ends happily ever after with Coraline realizing that her parents truly loved her after all and that although her life may not be perfect or even all she wants it to be it is better than a fake world of dangers and false love.

     I feel that Coraline is a perfect example of a fantasy movie. The main character passes into a secondary world, encounters the fantastic, is transformed, and then returns to the primary world. However, I feel that Coraline’s transformation deserves some special attention. Throughout the movie the visual representation of the fairyland and the primary world is fascinating. Within the first few shots of the movie it is established that the primary world is colorless and dull including the people, at least to Coraline, and the fairy world is full of vibrant colors and interesting creatures. However, as Coraline begins to realize that the fairy world is not what it seems, the people in the secondary world begin to dull and lose their soft edges as the witch’s world unravels. (This is especially notable while Coraline is searching for the ghost children’s eyes.) At the same time the people in the primary world start to gain color and begin to interest Coraline and by the end of the movie the primary world is full of color and Coraline realizes that life is what you make of it.