Coraline
Encyclopedia
Coraline (ˈkɒrəlaɪn) is a horror
/fantasy novella
by British
author Neil Gaiman
, published in 2002 by Bloomsbury and Harper Collins. It was awarded the 2003 Hugo Award for Best Novella
, the 2003 Nebula Award for Best Novella
, and the 2002 Bram Stoker Award for Best Work for Young Readers
. It has been compared to Lewis Carroll
's Alice's Adventures in Wonderland
and has been adapted into a 2009 stop-motion film
directed by Henry Selick
.
house that has been subdivided into four flats. The other tenants include Miss Spink and Miss Forcible, two elderly women retired from the stage, and Mr. Bobo, who is training a mouse circus. The flat beside Coraline's remains empty.
During a rainy day she discovers a locked door in the drawing room, which has been bricked up. As she goes to visit her neighbors, Mr. Bobo relates to her a message from the mice: do not go through little door. At tea with Miss Spink and Miss Forcible, Miss Spink spies danger in Coraline’s future after reading her tea leaves, and gives her a seeing stone for protection.
Despite these warnings, Coraline decides to unlock the door when she is home by herself and finds the brick wall behind the door gone.In its place is a long passageway, which leads to a flat identical to her own, inhabited by her Other Mother and Other Father; replicas of her real parents with button eyes and exaggerated features. In this “Other World”, Coraline finds everything to be better than her reality: her Other Parents are attentive, her toy box is filled with animate toys that can move and fly, the Other Miss Spink and Miss Forcible forever perform a cabaret show in their flat. She even finds the feral Black Cat that wandered around the house in the real world can talk, however she learns he is not of the Other World and has come to warn Coraline of the imminent danger, but Coraline pays it no heed.
The Other Mother offers Coraline a chance to stay in the Other World forever, if Coraline will allow buttons to be sewn into her eyes. Coraline is horrified and escapes back through the door to go home, much to the disappointment of the Other Mother. Upon her return to her apartment, Coraline finds that her real parents are missing. They do not return the next day, and the black cat wakes her and takes her to a mirror in her hallway, through which she can see her trapped parents. They signal to her by writing "Help Us" on the glass, from which Coraline deduces that the Other Mother has kidnapped them. Though frightened of returning, Coraline goes back to the Other World to confront the Other Mother and rescue her parents. As she is going into the door to the other world, Coraline is prompted by the Cat to challenge the Other Mother, as “her kind of thing loves games and challenges”. The Other Mother tries to convince Coraline to stay, but Coraline refuses, and is locked behind a mirror as punishment.
In the darkness, she meets three ghost children, each from a different era, who had let the Beldam
(the Other Mother) sew buttons in their eyes. They tell her how she eventually grew bored of them, ate their bodies, and cast their spirits aside. The ghost children implore Coraline to avoid their fate, and to help find their souls so that they can leave the Other World and pass on.
After the Other Mother releases Coraline from the mirror, Coraline proposes a game in which she must find the ghost children’s souls and her parents, which lay hidden throughout the Other World. If Coraline wins, she, her parents, and the ghost children may go free. If not, Coraline will let the Other Mother sew the buttons into her eyes.
Coraline goes through the Other World, and overcomes all the Other Mother’s obstacles, using her wits and Miss Spink’s seeing stone to locate the ghost children’s souls. At the close of the game, the ghost children warn her that even if Coraline wins, the Other Mother will not let them go. Having deduced that her parents are imprisoned in the snow globe
on the mantle, Coraline tricks the Other Mother by saying that her parents are behind the door in the drawing room. As the Other Mother opens the door, Coraline grabs the snow globe, throws the cat at the Other Mother, and escapes to the real world with the key. In doing so, she forces the door shut on the other mother's hand, severing it. Back in her home, Coraline finds her parents safe and with no memory of the events.
That night, Coraline has a dream in which she meets the three children before they move on to the afterlife. They warn her that her task is still not done: the other mother's severed hand is in Coraline's world, attempting to steal the key that opens the door that connects the two worlds. Coraline goes to an old well in the woods by her house, luring the Other Mother’s hand there with the key, and casts both down the bottomless well. Coraline returns home, victorious, and prepares to go about the ordinary life she has come to accept and love.
--85.112.95.10 (talk) 21:40, 23 November 2011 (UTC)
released a stop motion
film adaptation in 2009, to generally positive reviews. At the 82nd Academy Awards
, the film was nominated for Best Animated Feature. In the film, Coraline is depicted as having short blue hair and freckles. Henry Selick added a new character, Wyborn "Wybie" Lovat, who is an annoyance at first to Coraline in the real world but she grows to like him. In the Other world he cannot speak, but is an ally to Coraline.
and lettered by Todd Klein
.
and book by David Greenspan
, premiered on May 6, 2009, produced by MCC Theater
and True Love Productions Off-Broadway
at The Lucille Lortel Theatre.
The production used non-traditional casting
; an adult, Jayne Houdyshell
, played the title role of nine-year-old Coraline.
, Nintendo DS
and Wii
platforms and contains features such as playing as Coraline, interacting with other characters, and playing minigames. The game received mostly negative reviews.
Horror fiction
Horror fiction also Horror fantasy is a philosophy of literature, which is intended to, or has the capacity to frighten its readers, inducing feelings of horror and terror. It creates an eerie atmosphere. Horror can be either supernatural or non-supernatural...
/fantasy novella
Novella
A novella is a written, fictional, prose narrative usually longer than a novelette but shorter than a novel. The Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America Nebula Awards for science fiction define the novella as having a word count between 17,500 and 40,000...
by British
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
author Neil Gaiman
Neil Gaiman
Neil Richard Gaiman born 10 November 1960)is an English author of short fiction, novels, comic books, graphic novels, audio theatre and films. His notable works include the comic book series The Sandman and novels Stardust, American Gods, Coraline, and The Graveyard Book...
, published in 2002 by Bloomsbury and Harper Collins. It was awarded the 2003 Hugo Award for Best Novella
Hugo Award for Best Novella
The Hugo Awards are given every year by the World Science Fiction Society for the best science fiction or fantasy works and achievements of the previous year. The award is named after Hugo Gernsback, the founder of the pioneering science fiction magazine Amazing Stories, and was once officially...
, the 2003 Nebula Award for Best Novella
Nebula Award for Best Novella
Winners of the Nebula Award for Best Novella. The stated year is that of publication; awards are given in the following year.-Winners and other nominees:-External links:**...
, and the 2002 Bram Stoker Award for Best Work for Young Readers
Bram Stoker Award for Best Work for Young Readers
The Bram Stoker Award for Best Work for Young Readers is a discontinued award presented by the Horror Writers Association for "superior achievement" in horror writing for young readers.-Winners and nominees:...
. It has been compared to Lewis Carroll
Lewis Carroll
Charles Lutwidge Dodgson , better known by the pseudonym Lewis Carroll , was an English author, mathematician, logician, Anglican deacon and photographer. His most famous writings are Alice's Adventures in Wonderland and its sequel Through the Looking-Glass, as well as the poems "The Hunting of the...
's Alice's Adventures in Wonderland
Alice's Adventures in Wonderland
Alice's Adventures in Wonderland is an 1865 novel written by English author Charles Lutwidge Dodgson under the pseudonym Lewis Carroll. It tells of a girl named Alice who falls down a rabbit hole into a fantasy world populated by peculiar, anthropomorphic creatures...
and has been adapted into a 2009 stop-motion film
Coraline (film)
Coraline is a 2009 stop-motion 3D fantasy/horror children's film based on Neil Gaiman's 2002 novel of the same name. It was produced by Laika and distributed by Focus Features. Written and directed by Henry Selick, it was released widely in US theaters on February 6, 2009, after a world premiere at...
directed by Henry Selick
Henry Selick
Henry Selick is an American stop motion director, producer and writer who is best known for directing The Nightmare Before Christmas, James and the Giant Peach and Coraline...
.
Plot Summary
This is about a very "different" girl named Coraline Jones. She and her parents move into an old Queen Anne styleQueen Anne Style architecture
The Queen Anne Style in Britain means either the English Baroque architectural style roughly of the reign of Queen Anne , or a revived form that was popular in the last quarter of the 19th century and the early decades of the 20th century...
house that has been subdivided into four flats. The other tenants include Miss Spink and Miss Forcible, two elderly women retired from the stage, and Mr. Bobo, who is training a mouse circus. The flat beside Coraline's remains empty.
During a rainy day she discovers a locked door in the drawing room, which has been bricked up. As she goes to visit her neighbors, Mr. Bobo relates to her a message from the mice: do not go through little door. At tea with Miss Spink and Miss Forcible, Miss Spink spies danger in Coraline’s future after reading her tea leaves, and gives her a seeing stone for protection.
Despite these warnings, Coraline decides to unlock the door when she is home by herself and finds the brick wall behind the door gone.In its place is a long passageway, which leads to a flat identical to her own, inhabited by her Other Mother and Other Father; replicas of her real parents with button eyes and exaggerated features. In this “Other World”, Coraline finds everything to be better than her reality: her Other Parents are attentive, her toy box is filled with animate toys that can move and fly, the Other Miss Spink and Miss Forcible forever perform a cabaret show in their flat. She even finds the feral Black Cat that wandered around the house in the real world can talk, however she learns he is not of the Other World and has come to warn Coraline of the imminent danger, but Coraline pays it no heed.
The Other Mother offers Coraline a chance to stay in the Other World forever, if Coraline will allow buttons to be sewn into her eyes. Coraline is horrified and escapes back through the door to go home, much to the disappointment of the Other Mother. Upon her return to her apartment, Coraline finds that her real parents are missing. They do not return the next day, and the black cat wakes her and takes her to a mirror in her hallway, through which she can see her trapped parents. They signal to her by writing "Help Us" on the glass, from which Coraline deduces that the Other Mother has kidnapped them. Though frightened of returning, Coraline goes back to the Other World to confront the Other Mother and rescue her parents. As she is going into the door to the other world, Coraline is prompted by the Cat to challenge the Other Mother, as “her kind of thing loves games and challenges”. The Other Mother tries to convince Coraline to stay, but Coraline refuses, and is locked behind a mirror as punishment.
In the darkness, she meets three ghost children, each from a different era, who had let the Beldam
Hag
A hag is a wizened old woman, or a kind of fairy or goddess having the appearance of such a woman, often found in folklore and children's tales such as Hansel and Gretel. Hags are often seen as malevolent, but may also be one of the chosen forms of shapeshifting deities, such as the Morrígan or...
(the Other Mother) sew buttons in their eyes. They tell her how she eventually grew bored of them, ate their bodies, and cast their spirits aside. The ghost children implore Coraline to avoid their fate, and to help find their souls so that they can leave the Other World and pass on.
After the Other Mother releases Coraline from the mirror, Coraline proposes a game in which she must find the ghost children’s souls and her parents, which lay hidden throughout the Other World. If Coraline wins, she, her parents, and the ghost children may go free. If not, Coraline will let the Other Mother sew the buttons into her eyes.
Coraline goes through the Other World, and overcomes all the Other Mother’s obstacles, using her wits and Miss Spink’s seeing stone to locate the ghost children’s souls. At the close of the game, the ghost children warn her that even if Coraline wins, the Other Mother will not let them go. Having deduced that her parents are imprisoned in the snow globe
Snow globe
A snow globe is a transparent sphere, usually made of glass, enclosing a miniaturized scene of some sort, often together with a model of a landscape. The sphere also encloses the water in the globe; the water serves as the medium through which the "snow" falls. To activate the snow, the globe is...
on the mantle, Coraline tricks the Other Mother by saying that her parents are behind the door in the drawing room. As the Other Mother opens the door, Coraline grabs the snow globe, throws the cat at the Other Mother, and escapes to the real world with the key. In doing so, she forces the door shut on the other mother's hand, severing it. Back in her home, Coraline finds her parents safe and with no memory of the events.
That night, Coraline has a dream in which she meets the three children before they move on to the afterlife. They warn her that her task is still not done: the other mother's severed hand is in Coraline's world, attempting to steal the key that opens the door that connects the two worlds. Coraline goes to an old well in the woods by her house, luring the Other Mother’s hand there with the key, and casts both down the bottomless well. Coraline returns home, victorious, and prepares to go about the ordinary life she has come to accept and love.
--85.112.95.10 (talk) 21:40, 23 November 2011 (UTC)
Characters
- Coraline Jones – The young and explorer. She is intelligent, curious, resourceful, and courageous. Coraline is often irritated by rain, crazy grown-ups (as they all seem to be), and not being taken seriously because of her young age and quiet demeanor, though perhaps her biggest annoyance is that everyone mistakes her name for Caroline (everyone in the real world at least, except the mice and her parents). She's short, skinny and has black hair.
- Mrs. Mel Jones – Coraline's mother works at her house on the computer. She is very busy most of the time, and sometimes a little inattentive, but she loves and cares about Coraline. She is pretty, nice, and helpful, though Coraline considers her to be rather boring. Coraline also gets annoyed with her real mother because she doesn't seem to want to let Coraline "fit in".
- Mr. Charlie Jones– Coraline's father works at his house on the computer. He cares about Coraline very much and is kind, gentlemanly, brave, and helpful. But, like her mother, Coraline finds him rather boring. He also makes interesting food creations that Coraline strongly dislikes. This makes Coraline very upset, which is also why she likes the other world at first.
- The Cat – A black cat from Coraline's world. The cat acts as a mentor to Coraline and guides her through her journey. He claims to have no name, explaining that cats do not need names to tell each other apart. Unlike many of the characters in the novel, he does not have an "other world" counterpart, saying that unlike other creatures in the world, cats can "keep themselves together". He moves freely from one world to the next, although he can only talk in the other mother's world. He is very sarcastic, though helpful towards Coraline. He's defiant of the other mother, but seems to tremble at the thought of being stuck in the Other Mother's world. He befriends Coraline and helps her escape from the other mother.
- The Other Mother/The Beldam – The creature that created much of the Other World and the main villain of the novel. She looks similar to Coraline's real mother but taller and thinner, with long black hair that seems to move by itself, black button eyes, paper-white skin, and extremely long, twitchy fingers with long dark red nails, and teeth as sharp as knives. She cannot create, but only copy, twist and change things from the real world when constructing her version of it. She collects children, with whom she quickly becomes bored or frustrated, and imprisons them behind a magical mirror, slowly sucking the life from them. She is referred to several times as "the Beldam", a Middle EnglishMiddle EnglishMiddle English is the stage in the history of the English language during the High and Late Middle Ages, or roughly during the four centuries between the late 11th and the late 15th century....
word meaning "Grandmother," "Ugly Old Woman," or "Hag".
- The Other Father – A creation of the Other Mother, who was used to try to help trick Coraline into staying in the other mother's world. Like her real father, he has a study and sits there during the day and will not talk to Coraline for long. He does not work, however; he merely occupies the study as he is not permitted to talk to Coraline by himself. He is much more fun than Coraline's real father and always tries to be cheerful and fun in front of Coraline. In reality the Other Father is sad and nervous. The Other Mother ends up punishing him for revealing too much to Coraline by transforming him into a grub-like creature, and orders the Other Father to trap Coraline so she cannot win her challenge, but Coraline escapes.
- Miss April Spink and Miss Miriam Forcible – A pair of retired actresses, who live in the flat under Coraline's. They own many ageingAgeingAgeing or aging is the accumulation of changes in a person over time. Ageing in humans refers to a multidimensional process of physical, psychological, and social change. Some dimensions of ageing grow and expand over time, while others decline...
Scotties, such as Hamish, Angus and Jock, and talk in theater jargon, often referencing their time as actresses. They recognize the danger Coraline is in after reading her fortune through tea leaves and give her a stone with a hole in it to help protect her. In the other world they are young, pretty, and perform unendingly in front of many different dogs, who, in the Other World, behave like humans.
- Mr. Bobo – A retired circus performer living in the flat above Coraline's; he is commonly referred to as the Crazy Old Man Upstairs. Over the course of the book he claims to be training mice to perform in a mouse circus, and often brings Coraline messages from them, though at first Coraline doubts he even has mice to train, and doesn't listen to what he says to be messages from the mice. His counterpart in the Other World trains rats, and is in fact made of rats.
- The Three Ghost Children – A trio of children who were previously victims of the Other Mother, two girls and one boy. The boy is described as having a dirty face and red trousers. One of the girls has two butterfly wings, blond hair, and a silver circlet, the other has a brown bonnet and brown dress. They were trapped by the other mother at different times before Coraline, and reside in the dark space behind the mirror. After having their souls restored, they go to the afterlife, but not before meeting Coraline for a last time, in a dream where she picnics with them. Here, she sees their true appearances and they thank her for freeing them from the Other Mother. It is also shown that the winged girl eats flowers as food.
Film
With the help of the animation studio Laika, director Henry SelickHenry Selick
Henry Selick is an American stop motion director, producer and writer who is best known for directing The Nightmare Before Christmas, James and the Giant Peach and Coraline...
released a stop motion
Stop motion
Stop motion is an animation technique to make a physically manipulated object appear to move on its own. The object is moved in small increments between individually photographed frames, creating the illusion of movement when the series of frames is played as a continuous sequence...
film adaptation in 2009, to generally positive reviews. At the 82nd Academy Awards
82nd Academy Awards
The 82nd Academy Awards ceremony, presented by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences , honored the best films of 2009 and took place March 7, 2010, at the Kodak Theatre in Hollywood, Los Angeles beginning at 5:30 p.m. PST / 8:30 p.m. EST. The ceremony was scheduled well after...
, the film was nominated for Best Animated Feature. In the film, Coraline is depicted as having short blue hair and freckles. Henry Selick added a new character, Wyborn "Wybie" Lovat, who is an annoyance at first to Coraline in the real world but she grows to like him. In the Other world he cannot speak, but is an ally to Coraline.
Graphic novel
A graphic novel adaptation, published in 2008, was illustrated by P. Craig RussellP. Craig Russell
Philip Craig Russell , also known as P. Craig Russell, is an American comic book writer, artist, and illustrator. His work has won multiple Harvey and Eisner Awards...
and lettered by Todd Klein
Todd Klein
Todd Klein is an American comic book letterer, logo designer, and occasional writer, primarily for DC Comics.- Early career:Todd Klein broke into comics in the summer of 1977, hired by DC Comics as a staff production worker...
.
Musical
A theatrical adaptation, with music and lyrics by Stephin MerrittStephin Merritt
Stephin Merritt is an American singer-songwriter based in Los Angeles , best known as the principal singer and songwriter in the band The Magnetic Fields...
and book by David Greenspan
David Greenspan
David Greenspan is an award-winning American actor and playwright. In 1997 he received an Obie Award for his work in the off-broadway revival of Boys in the Band....
, premiered on May 6, 2009, produced by MCC Theater
MCC Theater
MCC Theater is an Off-Broadway theater company located in New York City, founded in 1986 by artistic directors Robert LuPone and Bernard Telsey along with six graduates of the New York University drama department, including Jana Herzen...
and True Love Productions Off-Broadway
Off-Broadway
Off-Broadway theater is a term for a professional venue in New York City with a seating capacity between 100 and 499, and for a specific production of a play, musical or revue that appears in such a venue, and which adheres to related trade union and other contracts...
at The Lucille Lortel Theatre.
The production used non-traditional casting
Colour-blind casting
Colour-blind casting, non-traditional casting or integrated casting is the practice of casting a role without considering the actor's ethnicity. It derives its name from the medical condition of colour blindness...
; an adult, Jayne Houdyshell
Jayne Houdyshell
Jayne Houdyshell is a Tony Award–nominated American theater actress.-Life and career:Raised in Topeka, Kansas, she is the youngest of four daughters born to Galen "Buzz" Houdyshell and Louella Taylor...
, played the title role of nine-year-old Coraline.
Video game
A video game adaptation, based on the film, was published and developed by D3 Publisher of America. The game was released on January 27, 2009 for the PlayStation 2PlayStation 2
The PlayStation 2 is a sixth-generation video game console manufactured by Sony as part of the PlayStation series. Its development was announced in March 1999 and it was first released on March 4, 2000, in Japan...
, Nintendo DS
Nintendo DS
The is a portable game console produced by Nintendo, first released on November 21, 2004. A distinctive feature of the system is the presence of two separate LCD screens, the lower of which is a touchscreen, encompassed within a clamshell design, similar to the Game Boy Advance SP...
and Wii
Wii
The Wii is a home video game console released by Nintendo on November 19, 2006. As a seventh-generation console, the Wii primarily competes with Microsoft's Xbox 360 and Sony's PlayStation 3. Nintendo states that its console targets a broader demographic than that of the two others...
platforms and contains features such as playing as Coraline, interacting with other characters, and playing minigames. The game received mostly negative reviews.
External links
- Chapter One
- Audiobook page from publisher, with audio excerpt
- Coraline video interview
- "The Other Mother" Guardian review by Philip Pullman
- Rudd, David "An Eye for an 'I': Neil Gaiman’s Coraline and the Question of Identity" Children’s Literature and Education 39(3), 2008, pp. 159–168
- The Lesson of Coraline - Business Week article about Polyjet Matrix in Coraline animation
- Coraline Blu-ray 2D & 3D disc review by Christian Hokenson