Coraline (2009) is truly a masterpiece of modern animation. The film was directed by Henry Selick – a man who decided to do a colossal job in the hope of success. In general, Coraline was created by Neil Gaimann. For the first time, this heroine and the whole universe appeared in the author’s children’s story with the same name back in 2002. And Selik was always interested in scary tales.
This can be seen from his first work, The Nightmare Before Christmas. The film is a puppet, so it took a lot of effort to realize it. There were also restrictions on the budget – only $ 60 million, which is an insignificant amount for a picture of this magnitude. But, oddly enough, the film was a huge success with the audience, fully paid off the budget and made a good profit. It also became the third highest-grossing puppet cartoon in history and the first to be made in 3D. He was deservedly chosen as the cartoon of the year in 2009 and nominated for an Oscar. So what is it about this movie?
The meaning of the film
The film begins with a small handmade doll appearing on a table. Large hooked knitting hands remake it – make a new color of eyes, hair, change clothes. Now a girl with blue hair and a yellow raincoat appears before us. In fact, we capture the connection between the doll and the Queen, but it is not yet clear who made this “bait” and why.
A family of three moves to another city. The father of the family was offered a higher paid position and he gladly accepted. Imagine the emotions of a child whose parents are completely absorbed in home improvement, completion of work projects. Little Queen (yes, yes, exactly Coraline) has a hard time in a new place without friends and support from her parents. She decides to wander around the neighborhood and meets a strange black cat and an equally strange boy named Zakelbury. He says that he lives here with his grandmother. They stand by the well and the boy tells a strange story about being magical. The boy runs away, but later we learn that he threw the doll from the beginning of the film to the Queen, referring to the fact that he found it with his grandmother and thought that he and the girl were very similar.
After that, our heroine meets her new neighbors – strange old ladies Mrs. Spink and Mrs. Forcible. Now, while exploring her new home, Coraline finds a strange little door that leads nowhere, but at night the girl opens it again and now a tunnel appears there. He leads her to another similar house. There her parents meet her, but some others. For example, instead of eyes they have buttons, and by nature they are too kind. In fact, the girl gets everything that she lacks in reality – warmth, love and affection.
The girl leaves this place, returning there every night. In the real world, they inadvertently want to save Coraline from this small door several times: first, Bobinsky hears and conveys to Coraline what the mice told him about the dangers of another world, Miss Spink and Miss Forcible warn her with fortune-telling on coffee grounds, where danger is visible, Zaki talks about the fact that his grandmother forbids him to approach their house, since it is dangerous there and her sister disappeared there a long time ago, the real mother hides the key from the girl for her good. Because of him, Coraline’s relationship with her real mother is greatly deteriorating. She complains about this to another, otherworldly parent.
She, in turn, allows her to stay in their world, but in return, the girl must sew on buttons instead of eyes. The girl immediately demands to return her home. To which the other mother gets angry and turns into a scary monster. She locks the Queen in this world. And then the girl realizes that this is all a trap. Locked up, the girl meets other children who succumbed to the temptation. Now they are disembodied ghosts. Among them is Grandma Zaka’s little sister. In addition, the girl’s real parents are also in captivity. And now only she can save everyone.
The meaning of the ending Coraline
Now the Queen has to find not only her parents, but also the eyes of the spirits. The same cat from the beginning of the film helps her in this. The girl easily manages to do this, but the hand of another mother penetrates her into the real world. Together with Zaki, Coraline drops the key to the secret door into the well.
In the final scene, we see how the whole family and neighbors tend to the garden. The Queen finally got what she deserved – attention and love. And the girl herself ceased to be so capricious and rude. In general, the film is instructive for both children and adults. You can’t help but listen to your kids. And children should not communicate with strange people, no matter what they are. The film is very family, instructive, but at the same time a little creepy. His main moral is that you should never lose close relationships with your family, because anything can happen. As it happened with Grandma Zaka, who still blames herself for the loss of her beloved sister.
