17 Years of Henry Selick’s Coraline
Article★ Kenzie Gay ★ @kenzwrites ★ 11 Minutes
17 years ago, I went to my very first movie at the theater. It was the Winter of 2009, I was 4 going on 5, and even then, myself and the rest of the world seemed to understand that I was a weird kid. Like…really weird. That first experience at the movie theater would forever go down in history as a canon event to me and my weirdness. Not because of the theater experience or anything like that but because of the movie itself: Coraline, every weird gen z girl’s first favorite movie.
Many may not know but Coraline actually wasn’t a movie first - it was a novel. I’ll be brief since the original author is beyond controversial and heinous in my professionally unprofessional opinion but it was initially written by Neil Gaiman and published in 2002, marketed as a sinister novella in great contrast to the movie’s targeted audience of children and young girls. Like any book-to-film adaptation, there’s plenty of things that don’t perfectly line up when comparing the two; however it is one of the better adaptations I’ve seen in my time. The original is more vividly scary and violent at times, not to mention that it’s inherently British, but Henry Selick (director) did an all around standup job at keeping the creepiness balanced with whimsy just like in the original text.
If you are interested in reading the original, I recommend used book sites/stores - don’t support abusers!
Let’s get into the actual meat of the movie, now, shall we?
THE PLOT: AN ANALYSIS/SYNOPSIS
Coraline opens up with a long, detailed intro credit scene of a doll being sewn together by a pair of nimble hands in a dark, almost otherworldly room. This doll ends up being an integral symbol within the plot and the epicenter for layers upon layers of uninterrupted mystery.
The actual story begins shortly after, introducing watchers to the Jones family. Composed of 11 year old Coraline and her parents Charlie and Mel, The Jones family is highlighted moving into The Pink Palace Apartments located in Ashland, Oregon after a long drive from their previous home in Pontiac, Michigan (Michigan mentioned!). Not much is mentioned regarding the parents although it is an apparent element from the first scene that they are very busy with their gardening business/blog and rather standoffish when it comes to interacting with and showing affection towards Coraline because it’s being told through her eyes: through a bored, only child’s lens.
In these beginning scenes, Coraline is depicted as a curious and quirky little girl who loves to use her imagination - even if it gets her in trouble from time to time. Whilst exploring the grounds of her new home, she comes across a seemingly stray black cat and Wyborn “Wybie” Lovat, her neighbor’s grandson. Off the rip, Coraline and Wybie butt heads due to his somewhat creepy mannerisms and the fact that he gives her a rag doll, the doll from the opening scene, which looks just like her. This kickstarts the central conflict of the film, which is revealed later on when Coraline discovers a tiny door that only a child could fit through in the den of her family’s new apartment. Though the door opens up to nothing but bricks during the day, that’s a different story after dark when Coraline comes back downstairs. This time around, she opens the door and a mystical tunnel is revealed. Like any other child overflowing with inquisitive wonder, she goes through it.
On the other side, she finds herself in an alternate dimension. It’s very similar to her own, eerily similar in fact, but there’s an added element of fun and much needed attention that pulls her in. She meets her ther mother and father: doppelgangers of her own parents. The only difference is that instead of eyes, they have buttons. In this world, she is overcome with joy due to the other parents’ haul of gifts, treats, and what seems to be love that they load onto her.
This opinion is only deepened the following night when she returns to the other world despite subtle warnings from her oddball neighbors Ms. Spink, Ms. Forcible, and Mr. Bobinsky and the newfound knowledge that Wybie’s great aunt went missing from the apartment complex when she was younger. Upon returning, she is met with more overbearing affection from the other parents. With the other Wybie, who cannot speak, Coraline ventures out to see a circus show at the other Mr. Bobinsky’s and a burlesque performance at the other Ms. Spink and Forcible’s theater. Even after a warning from the cat, who can speak in the other world, Coraline’s hopes and spirits are at an all time high. Caught in the heat of the moment, she expresses her happiness and is then met with a chilling proposition from the Other Mother: in order to stay there forever, she must sew buttons into her eyes to look like the others.
This begins to deteriorate Coraline’s thoughts and feelings of the other world, particularly the Other Mother, and a freshened sense of danger begins to settle in. Hesitant, Coraline tells them that she wants to think about their offer for a little longer and she retreats to bed with hopes of waking up in the real world like she did the previous time. This doesn’t happen, though. She wakes up in the same place and attempts to sneak downstairs to go back through the door but she is stopped by the Other Mother, who slowly but surely begins to look bizarrely different from her real mother.
Accusing her of being an ungrateful brat, the Other Mother banishes Coraline to a dark room as punishment. The room is hidden in a mirror at the end of a hallway and in there, Coraline meets the trapped souls of three children who have long passed on but are somewhat stuck in the other world because they let the Other Mother, whom they refer to as the Beldam (which is more prominent in the novella), sew buttons in their eyes. One of the three children is highlighted as Wybie’s missing great aunt and they all take turns explaining the deceit of the Beldam to her. In order for their souls to be freed, their eyes must be found. Coraline vows to find their eyes and free them just before the other Wybie pulls her out of the mirror, helping her escape back into the real world.
From here, one would expect Coraline to lock the door and never think about what lies beyond it but there’s added conflicts now. For one, the promise she made to the ghost children sits heavily on her conscience but for another thing, Coraline quickly finds that her parents are missing. The car is still in the driveway but they’re nowhere to be found and it doesn’t take much thinking to know who took them. After Wybie comes over to ask for the doll back, which he apparently wasn't supposed to take, Coraline goes on an angry tangent and explains what she’s been through to him, making note of the fact that the doll is the Beldam’s spy.
Wybie, convinced that Coraline is crazy, flees but she has no time to convince him - there are other matters to be handled. Hopping into mission mode, she visits the real Ms. Forcible and Spink where they give her an adder stone that they say will be helpful in her adventure though they don’t explain further. With the cat at her side, Coraline returns to the other world and is met with the Beldam, who resembles a porcelain spider more than a woman, once again.
From here, the speed of things kicks up quite significantly. Coraline, knowing that the Beldam loves herself a good (mind) game, offers up a proposal that’s irrefusable. She volunteers the deal that if she finds all the ghost children’s eyes by the time the moon is full, the Beldam has to free them and her parents. If she doesn’t, she will stay and sew buttons into her eyes. The Beldam ultimately agrees and Coraline sets off to find the eyes, met with intentional obstacles throughout the night in attempts to stop her. The Beldam’s tricks are no match for Coraline, the cat, and the adder stone, though, and she finds the final eye just in time.
Things don’t stop there, however, because the Beldam provokes her further from inside. Snarkily, she challenges Coraline to “find” her parents in the house. Coraline almost instantly discovers that they’re trapped in one of the snow globes above the fireplace in the den but she keeps it to herself, knowing that there is no way the Beldam is going to play fair and simply let her be on her way. As a hail mary, Coraline swipes the snowglobe and chucks the cat at the Beldam. This works somewhat as the cat scratches The Beldam’s face, blinding her, and frees himself through the door but it isn’t an immediate success for Coraline. The other world diminishes itself down to an abyss of white and a sole, black spiderweb that she plummets to the bottom of. Now in her true, fully-arachnid form, the Beldam uses a form of echolocation to try and hunt Coraline from within the web but she’s outsmarted yet again. Coraline is able to narrowly flee through the door with the help of the now-freed children’s souls, amputating one of the Beldam’s wiry hands in the process.
When she arrives, it’s as if her parents never left. She finds them dripping with snow in the kitchen and she embraces them because it’s felt like a lifetime since she last saw them. Confused but happier this time around, Mel and Charlie hug her back. She soon realizes that they have no recollection of being kidnapped or imprisoned in a snowglobe, which confuses her but remains an afterthought because later on in bed, she is given a warning that she is still not safe from the Beldam. To be truly safe, she must get rid of the door’s key.
That same night, she crawls out of bed and goes to the well from the movie’s start to seal her fate. During this scene, she reunites with the cat and expects the ordeal to be simply quick although the Beldam’s hand goes after her, desperate to drag Coraline and the key back into the other world. Wybie, however, serves as the unlikely hero and witnesses this from atop the hill. He comes to her rescue and helps her crush the hand under a rock before they wrap it up with the key and drop it into the well for good. The movie formally closes with a scene depicting a garden party The Jones family throws for all of the Pink Palace Apartments. It concludes happily, ending with a frame of the cat vanishing behind a street sign.
Or does it?
THEORIES
Though intended to be a simple, cut and dry film adaptation, Coraline sparked much questioning and curiosity regarding the plot and what lies within its hidden parts. Online discourse regarding fan-developed theories spread like wildfire, exploring aspects of the movie with holes such as the Beldam’s origin, the cat’s ability to transcend worlds unlike any other character, Wybie’s grandmother and her intentions, and even the legitimacy of the ending.
Let’s start with the Beldam’s origin. In the book, her source of life and power is never quite clarified either. The cat suggests that she was born of evil, indicating that she is a demon, but he also acknowledges that at times it seems like she may be capable of love or compassion. Most terrifyingly, he also points out that there are much darker forces in the other world than her in the book. Her origins canonically remain unknown although many users on Reddit seem to agree that the Beldam is some sort of witch - fae hybrid due to her magic, her shapeshifting and world building abilities, and the fact that her prey of choice is children. In the book, Coraline does ask the Beldam about her own mother but the only response she gets is that the Beldam “shoved her in a grave”, implying that she killed her and that she may not be as mortal as we once thought.
As for the cat, there’s even more debate and questions. Throughout the movie and book, the cat is the only character aside from Coraline that there is only one of. There’s two mothers, two fathers, two Ms. Spinks, etc. but only one cat. He is somewhat knowledgeable about the Beldam’s true nature, too, as he hints at the fact that the other world was not created by her but rather it’s a place she can manipulate. He also suggests that there are other doors, other means to go in and out that only he is seemingly aware of. With these in mind, it nods at the fact that the cat is magic himself regardless of the Beldam but it opens up more realms of discussion pertaining to why he is part of both worlds, why he keeps returning to the Beldam, and about a million more. Some viewers have theorized that the cat provides balance to the evil of the other world while others have even outlined that the cat could be working with the Beldam to create a good cop bad cope style of manipulation. The majority seems to agree that the cat is a magical being and within this universe, all cats are.
Wybie’s grandmother, as we know, isn’t a very consistent figure. I mean, we don’t even see her face or witness her interact with anybody until the closing garden party scene. We do know she’s the owner of the Pink Palace Apartments, though, and we know her younger sister went missing at the hands of the Beldam when they were little girls. Many have speculated that she is the reason why Coraline fell into the mess with the other world at all, postulating that she struck a deal with the Beldam in order to protect her grandson given Wybie’s mention that she has never rented to a family with children before the Joneses’ arrival.
Finally, the legitimacy of the ending. Mainly using that final frame of the cat’s magic being present in the real world, fans everywhere have hypothesized that perhaps Coraline didn’t escape at all and what she’s seeing/living now is merely an illusion put on by the Beldam. Granted, there are missing parts to this theory such as the element of it being sunny at the end even though the other world was only ever dark and the clear destruction of the Beldam’s hand but it’s still a very important cog within the machine that is the Coraline fandom.
Other theories that I don’t have time to dive into but I’d like to mention are as follows:
The Beldam has mortals working for her in the real world. Evidence is depicted in the scene when she is out shopping with her real mother since the clothes she wants magically appear in the other world that same night.
None of it happened. It was all a magical fabrication and a way to cope with the true abuse Coraline was suffering at the hands of her parents.
She never left the other world after entering it the first time. Evidence is depicted in the way she magically returned home after a night’s sleep but never again/disparages in entering and exiting realms.
Coraline’s parents were okay with the Beldam kidnapping her, but they had a change of heart halfway through, which is why they were trapped in the snow globe.
The Beldam escaped into the real world and is now impersonating Coraline’s real mother. Evidence is depicted in the way Coraline’s mother’s nose shape changes throughout the movie.
The car accident vaguely mentioned at the movie’s start killed all of the Joneses’ and the entire plot depicts them stuck in purgatory.
From feline friends to murderous other mothers, Coraline has remained a staple in the film world for any kid who’s a little strange or drawn to things that fall on the macabre end of the spectrum. The movie turns 17 today (as of publishing), but it will forever be a timeless classic. Sincerely, a former and forever weird kid.
