Coraline


You may know about the 3D remaster for this movie that just released in theaters this month (August 2024). I didn't bother watching that. I just watched the original, at home, for my own convenience.
 
This is one of those movies I never wanted to watch as a kid because I figured it'd scare me pretty badly, and yeah, I think that was a fine assessment on my part. While I doubt I'll be having any nightmares about it at my current age, I imagine just the opening credits alone would've stuck with me pretty badly if I watched it as a kid.
 

Now as an adult though I can actually appreciate the creepy moments like this. The more whimsical moments were still a delight as well. The movie's general atmosphere was very dreary with its cloudy January skies, but it was also somewhat cozy. This feels really obvious for me to say considering the popularity of this movie but, the stop motion animation was very nice. Everything has such distinct textures, I could imagine (or at least imagine to properly imagine) what a lot of things felt like.

The titular character, Coraline, felt both grounded, but not frustrating or annoying for a child character. The movie frames her life very well, to where I could really see why she gets so wrapped up in the trouble that she does. The movie does paint the Other Mother as obviously dangerous, but not painfully obvious I felt. Sure, Coraline does get ominous warnings about the Other World, but the danger doesn't explicitly arise until her 3rd time there.
 
The all the other characters were good as well. The film does a good job at ensuring that Coraline's parents aren't really hateable. While they are neglectful, they don't actively make things worse for Coraline. I was a little surprised that the unnamed cat of all things was actually one of the most helpful characters also.
 
Overall, I see why this is such a beloved movie. It knows just what moods it wants to put you in, and puts you in those moods very well. 👍

My most noteworthy problem with this movie was that I felt the 3rd act was unfocused.


🚩 Spoilers 🚩


Most of the movie is about how Coraline has to save herself and stay out of the other world, but then she meets some ghost children in need of saving which I felt was pretty unnecessary to the overall story, and then when she does escape its revealed that her parents are gone and now need to be saved due to no real fault of her own. And then after saving them, right before going to bed, she and Wyborn go on a quick (legit like 3 minutes of runtime) detour to throw the key to the portal door down a well, while battling the Other Mother's disembodied hand (which can somehow navigate outside and chase Coraline even though the Other Mother is established to need (button) eyes in order to see).

Also, this isn't that important but, what did this photo even prove to Wyborn? As far as I can tell, it just proves that his grandma did in fact have a sister, but I don't that really proves Coraline's (from his perspective) crazy claims.
 

I feel like the narrative would've wrapped up much more cleanly if the climax had just about Coraline trying to escape from the other world.


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