Coraline is a 2009 American stop-motion animated gothic dark fantasy horror film written for the screen and directed by Henry Selick, based on the 2002 novella of the same name by Neil Gaiman.
The film tells the story of its eponymous character discovering an idealized alternate universe behind a secret door in her new home, unaware that it contains something dark and sinister.
Looking for a design different from that of most animation, Selick discovered the work of Japanese illustrator Tadahiro Uesugi and invited him to become the concept artist.
The film was met with widespread acclaim from critics and grossed $125.5 million; several theatrical re-releases over the years raised its box office total to $185.9 million worldwide, making it the third-highest-grossing stop-motion film of all time, following Chicken Run (2000) and Wallace & Gromit: The Curse of the Were-Rabbit (2005).
[citation needed] Eleven-year-old Coraline Jones and her parents, Charlie and Mel, move from Pontiac, Michigan, into the Pink Palace Apartments, an old Victorian house in Ashland, Oregon.
Since her parents are busy with work, Coraline entertains herself by exploring the house, discovering a small door with a brick wall behind it in the living room.
That night, she finds that the brick wall has been replaced by a tunnel, which leads her to an "Other World", where her parents' button-eyed doppelgängers lavish her with delicious food and their attention.
She meets her other neighbors: Mr. Bobinsky, an eccentric Russian liquidator-turned-gymnast who owns a mouse circus, and retired burlesque performers April Spink and Miriam Forcible.
When Coraline tries to escape through the door, the Other Mother transforms into a taller, skeletal form and imprisons her in a dark room through a mirror.
There, three ghost children, one of whom Coraline recognizes as the landlady's missing sister, tell Coraline that the Other Mother is an evil entity called the "Beldam", who used rag dolls to spy on their unhappy lives and lure them into the Other World with treats and games; they allowed her to sew buttons over their eyes, and she subsequently locked their souls inside the mirror.
Coraline borrows an adder stone from Spink and Forcible, and after the cat informs her that the Beldam has kidnapped her parents, the two set out to rescue them.
As Coraline heads toward the backyard well to dispose of it, the Beldam's severed hand sneaks into the real world and attempts to drag her back in.
As Selick thought a direct adaptation would lead to "maybe a 47-minute movie", his screenplay had some expansions, such as the creation of Wybie, who is only mentioned in the novel as the boy who lived in the house before Coraline.
When looking for a design different from that of most animation, Selick discovered the work of Japanese illustrator Tadahiro Uesugi and invited him to become the concept artist.
The band was hired to write an entire soundtrack for the film, but according to John Flansburgh, the production team "wanted the music to be more creepy", and only one song was ultimately used.
[18] Coulais's score was performed by the Budapest Symphony Orchestra and features choral pieces sung by the Children's Choir of Nice in a nonsense language.
[19] The main soloist, a young girl heard singing in several parts of the film, is coincidentally named Coraline.
The website's critics consensus reads, "With its vivid stop-motion animation combined with Neil Gaiman's imaginative story, Coraline is a film that's both visually stunning and wondrously entertaining.
"[30] A. O. Scott of The New York Times called the film "exquisitely realized", with a "slower pace and a more contemplative tone than the novel.
It is certainly exciting, but rather than race through ever noisier set pieces toward a hectic climax in the manner of so much animation aimed at kids, Coraline lingers in an atmosphere that is creepy, wonderfully strange, and full of feeling.
"[31] The film was released on DVD and Blu-ray in the United States on July 21, 2009, by Universal Studios Home Entertainment.