Review of Coraline (2009) by Mckenzies2021 — 13 Feb 2017

I would describe Coraline as a “kid-friendly horror movie”. A movie for only the children with brave souls that can handle jump scares, characters that not only look a little scary, but possess voices that are anything but soothing. Produced by Laika Entertainment, Coraline creates a very twisted plot which presents the theme of “be careful what you wish for”, but does this movie depict the theme in a way which children will learn from it? I believe it does, if the child isn’t covering their eyes and ears throughout the climax of the movie.

The introduction of this movie, will have the audience disturbed right off the bat. Hands, with long fingers of steel, intricately ripping into the seams of a stuffed doll and recreating its fabrics to make it look exactly like the main character, Coraline. Coraline is a spunky child who had just recently moved into ‘The Pink Palace’, a three story townhome located in the middle of the woods. Coraline goes outside one day, to be disturbed by a stray cat, and her new annoying friend Wybie. We don’t know where Wybie lives, but we do know that he is forbidden from going into the Pink Palace by his strict grandmother. Wybie states that his grandmother doesn’t allow him in the Pink Palace because his grandma’s sister was ‘stolen’ while exploring the Pink Palace and never returned. Coraline, being the sassy thing that she is, rolls her eyes at the thought of her home being dangerous and ignores Wybie. She then comes home, and experiences her parents ignoring her, because they are too busy hunched over their computers to play with her and is disappointed because her parents treat her like she doesn’t exist. The next day, Wybie introduces Coraline to Mr. B, an insane acrobat who is disgustingly flexible. Soon after, Wybie gives Coraline a doll that looks almost exactly like her. Coraline takes the doll and sets it near her bed in a position as if it is watching her. I believe she does this to make it feel like someone does care about her parents, because her parents don’t show they care about her at all whatsoever.

Later, while Coraline’s parents are minding their own business, Coraline finds a small door inside of a wall. She nags her mom for the key to this door, and she does, in exchange for Coraline to leave her alone. Coraline finds that nothing is there but a brick wall, a big disappointment for Coraline. That night she finds jumping mice, that lead her to the small door. When it is opened, she has access to a colorful tunnel, that leads to an entire new world! This new world greets her with an abundant feast and new parents. These parents call themselves the ‘other mother’, and the ‘other father’, and they fill this other world with wonders and superficial love and care for ‘their child’. Coraline soon discovers that this world isn’t what it claims to be, only to learn to “be careful what you wish for”.

Coraline, is a movie that in our opinion, has many positives and negatives. For example, we really enjoyed the stop motion animation that most somewhat recent movies don’t have. We also enjoyed the parts of the movie that were more uplifting, such as when the other mother and other father fed her, showed her the garden that looked like an exact replica of Coraline’s face, the circus shown by Mr. B and the circus mice, and the dog theatre, where an exotic play was presented by Ms. Forcible. However, this movie did have multiple negatives. The dark storyline will definitely either scare a young audience away, or bore them to sleep. Overall we would give this movie a 3 star rating, because we all thought the movie was weird and disturbing but at some parts we liked how it all connected throughout the movie. The type of people to watch the movie depends how brave they are. Children ten and older could watch it, but little kids can watch it if they are brave enough. I would recommend this movie to people who like a little jump-scary action with a gloomy atmosphere. Coraline’s MPAA rating is PG. The movie has its good parts and its bad places, but we thought it was okay.