Wandering her rambling old house in her boring new town, a young girl discovers a hidden door to a strangely idealized version of her life that seems too good to be true.Wandering her rambling old house in her boring new town, a young girl discovers a hidden door to a strangely idealized version of her life that seems too good to be true.Wandering her rambling old house in her boring new town, a young girl discovers a hidden door to a strangely idealized version of her life that seems too good to be true.
- Nominated for 1 Oscar
- 8 wins & 46 nominations total
Dakota Fanning
- Coraline Jones
- (voice)
Teri Hatcher
- Mel Jones
- (voice)
- …
John Hodgman
- Charlie Jones
- (voice)
- …
Dawn French
- Miss Miriam Forcible
- (voice)
- …
Keith David
- The Cat
- (voice)
Aankha Neal
- Sweet Ghost Girl
- (voice)
George Selick
- Ghost Boy
- (voice)
Hannah Kaiser
- Tall Ghost Girl
- (voice)
Harry Selick
- Photo Friend
- (voice)
Marina Budovsky
- Photo Friend
- (voice)
Emerson Tenney
- Magic Dragonfly
- (voice)
- (as Emerson Hatcher)
Jerome Ranft
- Mover
- (voice)
Christopher Murrie-Green
- Toy
- (voice)
- (as Christopher Murrie)
Jeremy Ryder
- Toy
- (voice)
- Director
- Writers
- All cast & crew
- Production, box office & more at IMDbPro
Featured reviews
The Movie Coraline is an animated film well worth watching more than once. SPOILER ALERT The movie starts out introducing Coraline, voice actor Dakota Fanning, who is new to the Pink palace and is soon introduced to the black cat, voice actor Keith David, and Wybie Lovat, voice actor Robert Bailey Jr., who both are stalking Coraline. We then meet her mother Mel Jones, voice actor Teri Hatcher, and her father Charlie Jones, voice actor John Hodgman. Corallines' new life is shown to be less than wonderful as she meets her other tenants and is unable to realize her dream of gardening. Soon she discovers another world, which is much better in every way tailored specifically to Coraline based on information gathered by a spying Coraline doll carried by Coraline unknowingly. The other mother quickly turns villainess, as she is unable to get Coraline to do what she wants. With the help of the black cat, Coraline is able to escape the other mother and return home saving other children's souls who were less fortunate than she was. As well as her parents who were trapped to lure Coraline back to the other world.
The movie end with Coraline now happy with her real world and realizing she had everything she needed there all along. The theme of wanting more than what you already have and not seeing how good you have it is common among films today. However, the creative imagination of Coraline takes a spin and makes a very unbelievable situation seem plausible. The motif of the movie is seen often as the theme is drawing on what is real and what is too good to be true. When the sound and lighting are as controlled as in Coraline the Director can really impress upon the viewer a believable world that you can see yourself involved. The songs used make the world's first the regular world and then the other world seem like a place of dreary and boring plainness and then a world of pure imagination yet also terror. When the other world is dissolving the technique of fading the edges into white is pure genius.
The angle also helps you see through a subjective viewpoint in the majority of the scenes, even though it is not truly the camera angle but how the slides are drawn to show certain angles. The theme is so crucial in Coraline because few people would think the way Coraline is acting at the start of the movie might even be bad but as the movie progresses you see how she is flawed in her original outlook and judgments of her parents and new neighbors.
The movie end with Coraline now happy with her real world and realizing she had everything she needed there all along. The theme of wanting more than what you already have and not seeing how good you have it is common among films today. However, the creative imagination of Coraline takes a spin and makes a very unbelievable situation seem plausible. The motif of the movie is seen often as the theme is drawing on what is real and what is too good to be true. When the sound and lighting are as controlled as in Coraline the Director can really impress upon the viewer a believable world that you can see yourself involved. The songs used make the world's first the regular world and then the other world seem like a place of dreary and boring plainness and then a world of pure imagination yet also terror. When the other world is dissolving the technique of fading the edges into white is pure genius.
The angle also helps you see through a subjective viewpoint in the majority of the scenes, even though it is not truly the camera angle but how the slides are drawn to show certain angles. The theme is so crucial in Coraline because few people would think the way Coraline is acting at the start of the movie might even be bad but as the movie progresses you see how she is flawed in her original outlook and judgments of her parents and new neighbors.
I had no intention of seeing this, but my friend and I were bored on a Friday night and I had free tickets to a movie theater. The only movie playing at 9:30 at night was Coraline. I had heard of the book before, but I never read it so I didn't know what to expect.
The animation was amazing. Every character looked awesome and had so much detail to them. With the 3-D, nothing really popped out of you, but it just gave it an extra depth that made it more real. I think it was so cool.
The movie was really cute. If you haven't read the book, it'll keep you in suspense. I really enjoyed the movie and recommend you see it. :)
The animation was amazing. Every character looked awesome and had so much detail to them. With the 3-D, nothing really popped out of you, but it just gave it an extra depth that made it more real. I think it was so cool.
The movie was really cute. If you haven't read the book, it'll keep you in suspense. I really enjoyed the movie and recommend you see it. :)
Feisty eleven-year-old Coraline walks through a secret door and discovers a parallel reality. That reality is sort of similar to the life she already knows yet deeply unsettling in a number of ways. Coraline (voice of Dakota Fanning) begins a journey of adventure and self discovery when her parents (Teri Hatcher and John Hodgman) relocate the family to Oregon from Michigan. No one in this new space has time for her so she spends her time exploring her new neighborhood with an talkative local boy named Wybie Lovat (Robert Bailey Jr.). After discovering the odd neighbors all of whom are true characters, she is still bored somehow.
All of this immense undertaking is courtesy writer and director Henry Selick, director of Nightmare Before Christmas, and the well crafted adaptation of Neil Gaiman's international best-selling children's novel. To Selick's credit this is the first 3D stop motion ever made; stereoscopic 3D. Selick himself worked on the film for three years. The style is stunning and the story is an unwavering fairy-tale nightmare that has some genuinely scary moments. is a masterful movie and an exciting tale of mystery and imagination.
In the rotting nooks and crannies of Coraline's new home the real story begins and where she discovers a hidden doorway behind the wallpaper. Inside is her alternate space where there are doubles of her distracted parents now lavish loving attention on Coraline, the oddball neighbors are friendlier, and her pesky friend long longer speaks. Only her parents' eyes now black buttons give a clue that something isn't quite right.
Selick has created a world as much for adults as children as there are references dotted throughout that the young won't understand. The imagery, however, is very child like. Both talents live side by side and bodes well for Selick's previous work in Nightmare before Christmas, James and the Giant Peach and even Monkeybone. His work has always been fascinating. Gaiman is to be credited with the story for sure, but this is Selick through and through. This film is sure to become an instant classic and as well executed as this movie is it should be.
All of this immense undertaking is courtesy writer and director Henry Selick, director of Nightmare Before Christmas, and the well crafted adaptation of Neil Gaiman's international best-selling children's novel. To Selick's credit this is the first 3D stop motion ever made; stereoscopic 3D. Selick himself worked on the film for three years. The style is stunning and the story is an unwavering fairy-tale nightmare that has some genuinely scary moments. is a masterful movie and an exciting tale of mystery and imagination.
In the rotting nooks and crannies of Coraline's new home the real story begins and where she discovers a hidden doorway behind the wallpaper. Inside is her alternate space where there are doubles of her distracted parents now lavish loving attention on Coraline, the oddball neighbors are friendlier, and her pesky friend long longer speaks. Only her parents' eyes now black buttons give a clue that something isn't quite right.
Selick has created a world as much for adults as children as there are references dotted throughout that the young won't understand. The imagery, however, is very child like. Both talents live side by side and bodes well for Selick's previous work in Nightmare before Christmas, James and the Giant Peach and even Monkeybone. His work has always been fascinating. Gaiman is to be credited with the story for sure, but this is Selick through and through. This film is sure to become an instant classic and as well executed as this movie is it should be.
When i saw a teaser of this film i didn't imagine it would be a fantasy/horror movie for kids. That's great because there aren't many, and it must be difficult to display a colorful world with the right amount of frightening elements not to leave a child having bad dreams up to adulthood.
Coraline is a girl who wishes she'd had more attention from her parents, a prettier place to live and better neighbors. After she discovers the entrance to an apparently enhanced version of her reality, she'll soon find out that too much perfection can't be real.
Good and imaginative story, delighting visuals, creepiness from the beginning and a couple scary scenes make this an enjoyable film.
Coraline is a girl who wishes she'd had more attention from her parents, a prettier place to live and better neighbors. After she discovers the entrance to an apparently enhanced version of her reality, she'll soon find out that too much perfection can't be real.
Good and imaginative story, delighting visuals, creepiness from the beginning and a couple scary scenes make this an enjoyable film.
"Coraline" is simply one of the best animated films ever made: The plots is brilliantly developed, the animation is detailed and beautiful to look at, the characters are fascinating and interesting, and the world created by Neil Gaiman and Henry Selick it's simply captivating, but mysterious and dangerous and well.
Clearly influenced by "Alice in Wonderland", "Coraline" is charming and macabre at the same time: At first "The Other World" seems like a dream come true, but there is also a constant sense of danger in the air.
Dakota Fanning makes a great work as the main character, and Teri Hatcher is flawless in her role of the Mother (And the Other Mother as well) of Coraline, not to mention the excellent performance of Keith David as the cat.
"Coraline" is one of the best movies of the recent years, and it is the best movie of Henry Selick as director since "The Nightmare before Christmas."
Clearly influenced by "Alice in Wonderland", "Coraline" is charming and macabre at the same time: At first "The Other World" seems like a dream come true, but there is also a constant sense of danger in the air.
Dakota Fanning makes a great work as the main character, and Teri Hatcher is flawless in her role of the Mother (And the Other Mother as well) of Coraline, not to mention the excellent performance of Keith David as the cat.
"Coraline" is one of the best movies of the recent years, and it is the best movie of Henry Selick as director since "The Nightmare before Christmas."
Did you know
- TriviaThe character Wybie Lovat is not in Neil Gaiman's novel. He exists so Coraline would not have to talk to herself and so she would have a friend her age.
- GoofsThe house's living room changes places several times throughout the film.
- Quotes
Coraline Jones: How can you walk away from something and- still come back to it?
Cat: Walk around the world.
Coraline Jones: Small world.
- Crazy creditsAt the very end of the credits, the words "For those in the know: jerk wad" appear on the screen. This is a clue that could be used on the Coraline website in order to get an entry in a contest that ran during the movie's US theatrical run.
- Alternate versionsThere are two versions available. Runtimes are: "1 hr 40 min (100 min), 1 hr 45 min (105 min) (extended cut) (USA)."
- ConnectionsFeatured in Hewy's Animated Movie Reviews: Coraline (2009)
Details
- Release date
- Country of origin
- Official sites
- Languages
- Also known as
- Coraline y la Puerta Secreta
- Filming locations
- Production companies
- See more company credits at IMDbPro
Box office
- Budget
- $60,000,000 (estimated)
- Gross US & Canada
- $116,896,576
- Opening weekend US & Canada
- $16,849,640
- Feb 8, 2009
- Gross worldwide
- $185,860,104
- Runtime
- 1h 40m(100 min)
- Color
- Sound mix
- Aspect ratio
- 1.85 : 1
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