Coraline

2009 Fantasy

A young girl walks through a secret door and discovers a parallel reality that is eerily similar to the life she already knows, yet deeply unsettling in a number of ways, in director Henry Selick's animated adaptation of Neil Gaiman's international best-seller. Eleven-year-old Coraline Jones (voice of Dakota Fanning) is fearlessly courageous, and perhaps far too adventurous for her own good. Coraline and her parents (Teri Hatcher and John Hodgman) have recently relocated to Oregon from Michigan. Bored in her new home since her parents are distracted by work and she has yet to make any new friends, Coraline passes the time by exploring her new neighborhood with an annoying local boy named Wybie Lovat (Robert Bailey Jr.). But after paying a visit to her eccentric neighbors Miss Spink (Jennifer Saunders) and Miss Forcible (Dawn French), a pair of aging British actresses, and crossing paths with the outright weird Mr. Bobinsky (Ian McShane), the precocious young girl becomes convinced that her new surroundings are just as dull as she'd initially suspected. Shortly thereafter, Coraline discovers a hidden door in her new house, and decides to investigate. Venturing into the eerie passageway inside, Coraline emerges into an alternate version of her own reality. At first glance, this strange new world seems even better than the real thing; there her parents aren't distracted by work, and Coraline is always the center of attention. There's even a mysterious Cat (Keith David) that's fascinated by her every move. But when Coraline's button-eyed Other Mother (also Hatcher) attempts to make her stay permanent, the frightened young girl must summon her resourcefulness and bravery in order to find her way back home and save her real family. more..

Director: Henry Selick

Reviews

  • A remarkable feat of imagination, a magical tale with a genuinely sinister edge.

    Kenneth Turan - Los Angeles Times

    19 January 2013

  • This thrilling stop-motion animated adventure is a high point in Selick's career of creating handcrafted wonderlands of beauty blended with deep, disconcerting creepiness.

    Lisa Schwarzbaum - Entertainment Weekly

    19 January 2013

  • What a shrewd achievement for writer-director Henry Selick ("The Nightmare Before Christmas"), to have made a movie that everyone will acclaim as beautiful, when perhaps the most beautiful thing about it is the sheer ugliness of it all.

    Mick LaSalle - The San Francisco Chronicle

    19 January 2013

  • Coraline lingers in an atmosphere that is creepy, wonderfully strange and full of feeling.

    A.O. Scott - The New York Times

    19 January 2013

  • This is a gloomy film with weird characters doing nasty things. I've heard of eating chocolate-covered insects, but not when they're alive.

    Roger Ebert - The Chicago Sun-Times

    19 January 2013

Awards

  • AFI Movie of the Year

    AFI Awards (2009)

  • Best Animated Feature Film of the Year

    Academy Awards (2010)

     
  • Best Animated Film

    Academy of Science Fiction, Fantasy & Horror Films (2010)

     
  • Best Edited Animated Feature Film

    American Cinema Editors (2010)

     
  • Best Feature

    Annecy International Animated Film Festival (2009)