@madelinejacobs6187 loved this movie, was terrified of the monsters vs aliens Halloween special with the living carrots. Literally gave me nightmares.
Fun fact about Bobinsky, the medal he wears was specifically given to people who helped clean up Chernobyl, hence why he’s blue, and his obsession with beets is because they help people recover from radiation
I like that unlike most reactors I've seen, you were able to correctly identify that Coraline's parents are just stressed and overworked at the moment.
I think that is the biggest minus of the movie for the most part. The novel makes it explicitly clear that this is a special situation for them all and that the parents a in 100% crunch mode to get the finances afloat again and are normally very lovingly parents to her. (Which you also can see in the movie then after they got freed out of the globe)
@TheTenguwarrior I say the movie does a good job saying it subtley. As someone who is an adult, you recognize it and sympathize with the parents, but the movie captures it from coraline's perspective where it feels like it it will never end and it's unfair.
so? if she fell in the well and died due to there negligence would you still make this excuse? she was in a new place with 0 support network she needed her parents children are not asked to be born, it disturbs me how people act like abuse is okay just cause its not constant but what about the next time they are "stressed"? they wouldn't even take the time to make her proper meals if your that busy just dont have kids
@@Alphasnowbordergirl nope im a adult and still think they are scumbags, theres no excuse for neglecting your child even with work if your job is so demanding you cant properly look after your one child then dont have kids its parents like these were the kid wondered off and dies or gets kidnapped then its all "oooh how could this of happened? we were such good parents!" i live in a very ruff area so im not sheltered to reality
Fun fact: He had his daughter read over the script cause he wanted to see if it was too scary for kids- said "nope" after it was produced she admitted she was terrified she was just super curious to know what happened next
@@MySerpentine Yeah, afaik it was the daughter of someone who worked at the publisher's. Because they didn't want to publish the book because it was too scary at first.
@@MySerpentineI'm pretty sure it was the editor who told him it was too scary, so Niel asked them to read it to their kid, the kid lied because they were really invested amd wanted to know what happened.
i think she was smart to lie! because thats what horror should be- terrifying but intruiging enough you wanna hear more. if she wasnt scared at all it wouldnt have been good at all ahahah
Fun fact: Wybie and his grandmother aren't part of the novel. Coraline relies on her own wits, and the help of the cat and the ghost children. I love the movie, but I love the novel even more. Also, I love that Neil Gaiman confirmed that Ms Spink and Forcible are lovers!
Neil Gaiman is so pleasantly open about adaptations of his work being their own thing and having strengths that he appreciates. Coraline and Stardust are two that he's specifically identified as being tighter and more streamlined stories that his mildly rambling fairytale style. I love Gaiman's style personally, but i especially love that the spiritual core of his work lends itself so well to "covers". He's like the Beatles.
I like that the movie doesn’t make the parents bad, just that they’re exhausted from moving and unpacking what they need and have a huge deadline for their work coming up. Also the mom is wearing a neck brace not a turtle neck, so for that week they just did not have time to entertain Coraline. Also the Other Fathers song was a warning comparing Coraline to food, how as long as she’s around it’ll never be boring, button in the eyes, and how their eyes will be on Coraline.
Every single film from Laika Studios is a passion project, but this one in particular feels like it had the most passion. There's so much attention to detail in this movie, a large amount of theories have spawned because of it, and they get really interesting. And even the medal that Mr. Bobinsky is wearing is a subtle hint to why his skin is blue.
Laika (the studio who made this) does stop motion, they also did ParaNorman, Kubo and the Two Strings, Boxtrolls. ParaNorman is very much worth the watch. it's SO good.
i live in Oregon and got to see Laika studios on a field trip, they showed all the little characters and sets they made for box trolls, Coraline and ParaNorman. I got a little book that showed all the concept art plus a guide on how to create your own character. it was really cool.
Coraline? Pah, we watched Watership Down as kids. In school. Multiple times. I mean, it’s a film with lots of cute fluffy bunny rabbits, of course it’s a kids film. Right? Right? Anyone who went through that the support group meets at 7 on Wednesday night, we have t-shirts and hot chocolate.
I don't know why there is this common idea that animation is for kids and live action is for adults. It's not. That's like saying films are for kids and books for adults. They're separate mediums that can be used to tell any kind of story aimed at any kind of audience. I just don't get that way of thinking.
Coralines parents arenr neglectful or abusive. Theyre busy and having a rough time. They recently moved, they had a recent accident (as mentioned by the parents and seen by the mothers neck brace), and theyre close to releasing a garden catalog. Those are all huge, stressful events.
I always liked how the animators have Mr. Bobinsky wearing a service medal for the Chernobyl disaster and never feel the need to explain it. It's just a small little detail that shows without telling.
I always just assumed that the Pink Palace apartment was the only affordable place they could find after dealing with debt from the accident etc, so they just said they didn’t have a kid just to get it 🤷🏼♀️
The second you said "I want them to play with this child, but also, look at this poor man, and think about her mom workin away so they can afford this place" was the second you got a like because so many other people call them bad parents because they won't play with her! They're not! They're trying so hard! They just can't give her their attention for a few days and they need her to entertain herself!
While it’s easy to criticise Coraline’s parents I think it’s important to keep in mind that we’re only seeing like, three days of their entire lives and in that time they have to finish a mountain of work before a deadline, move into a new home and have just been in a car accident. They’re not exactly their best selves in the movie for very relatable reasons and it’s obvious that they’re usually a lot more attentive or else Coraline wouldn’t expect as much from them and they wouldn’t be as happy at the end.
See as a kid, I was desensitized to the horrors of this movie (minus the open-mounted ghost girl, still terrifying too) but it got so much worse when I rewatched it as an adult. I think as kids the reality of the situation just doesn’t sink in the same as it does when we’re adults.
YES TRAUMATIZING BUT A MASTERPIECE I saw this for my 11th birthday, and it TERRIFIED me. And that was when I still had lots of stuffed animals like always lined up on my bed. It scarred me so much that for the next few months I had to turn and face all of them to my wall because of their eyes lol
The struggle of being a Coraline fan is knowing all the details and theories surrounding this movie and not going insane trying to get everyone who watches it to take a peek down the rabbit hole. Why yes, that was indeed a fairy circle at the beginning. I too once failed to notice a couple of interesting and creepy details at the end. *gleefully taps fingertips together
I feel like, to be fair, the mother just went through a car accident, it's probably in a lot of pain since she carries a neck thing the entire time, has the stress of having to make a whole new book with her husband, has just moved out AND has a energetic daughter like Coraline... like come on, I would be cranky too if all of that happened all at once.
Had a been a kid when this came out (I was late 20s when it did) it probably would have spooked me but back in the day kids watching straight up horror was common and even the not horror stuff had their scary stuff that could stick with you. I still remember watching Night of the Living Dead when I was 6. That did a number on me. But yeah beautifully animated movie. Can't help but appreciate the outright craftmanship that went into it.
In defense of the parents the mom was injured recently, they were moving and had a book deadline. If they've in the US that could REALLY be a big bill. I don't think they were neglectful parents, they were just super stressed and this was one of the bad times in life. Which makes sense, if you think the Beldam targeted Coraline during a more vulnerable time.
I remember watching this movie in theaters,in 3D….i still wonder to this day why little me didn’t cry while watching it,I always assumed maybe the magic and beauty of the stop motion fascinated me
The circus mice terrified me as a kid, even before they were revealed to be rats There was something so unsettleling about their little circus number to me and thats where I knew as an 11yo that something sinister was going on (random place to find out but it be like that :v)
Something interesting about this movie was that when I watched it as a kid, I was enchanted. I was terrified of everything, had nightmares every night and night terrors sometimes too. But watching this movie, even though it was legit scary, made me less afraid of the dark. I saw a lot of myself in Coraline and so when I was overcome with fear at night, I would think about what Coraline would do. How even when she was terrified, she was brave and could face it. I think it's an important message for kids, that we can be brave and strong, even when we are afraid.
I just have to say…I watched this when I was 4 or 5 for the first time, became obsessed, stopped caring for about 3 years, and now whenever I watch it it’s literally the creepiest thing ever lol. Still love the movie, but seriously
I think this film was the first visualisation of realistic parental abuse in its various forms I ever saw as a child. I had parents that were both distant and determined to get my love by beating or scaring it out of me, or taking away what little I had until I was willing to trade love to get it back. When I first watched this film, I had no external expectations of my parents except to act like Coraline's real mum and dad, and so as a child I had no empathy for Coraline and thought she was just being awkward rather than leaving her parents be. Despite not getting the true nature of the dynamic of the real parents, I felt vindicated when I heard the other mother utter the words "you will not come out until you have learned to be a loving daughter" in that moment I felt like this deep suspicion within me had been proven correct, and that depiction of a mother twisted into a horrific form of vitriol trying to sow fear into her child to later harvest it as love, felt not like a horror creature (as I could tell it should have felt, even at the time) but instead felt like home. I don't hate my parents, if they truly regret how they treated me and wish to change, they'll either change in life or God will sanctify them when they die and I'll meet them in as better parents in heaven then they were on earth, and if they don't truly regret how they treated me but just regret 'getting caught', they will reject God's love with the knowledge they are unworthy of it and dive headlong into hell just to escape the guilt. Either way, things work out. Whatever the outcome, this film was pivotal in helping me understand that my environment felt wrong because it was, and not to foster the same environment for my kids, and now that I'm out of the childhood portion of my life and my parents no longer have the stress of daily life as an excuse or the blindness of a child as perfect cover, they have undoubtedly improved as people at least in part, and at least to my face express guilt. TL;DR gud moovy
Yeah I could never just kill a bunch of bugs with my hands like Coraline did at the beginning. Guess that’s how we know she’s the main character. That and her anime-protagonist-esque hair
I saw an advertisement on TV as a kid once, I don't know if that was when it came out, because I was only five then, but THE thing that made me not want to watch this was the bug swatting scene in the shower of all scenes. Everytime in the shower for the next week or two I was expecting a Ton of bugs on the shower wall. So I always faced the wall. That of all things is the one that scarred me 😂😅
Two details I love about this movie are: the hand at 7:46 later appears a bolt of lightning in the other world, as a bolt of lightning, which also resembles a spider, both shapes foreshadow how the other mother has control over the other world. The cake in the other world has a double loop on a lowercase o, which means the person who wrote it is lying. As it's on the o in 'home' and not the o in 'welcome', it means that while she is welcomed by the other parents, she isn't home.
If you want some more Coraline stuff, ABitFrank has made a ton of excellent videos discussing the lore, secrets and origins of the film, including a new two hour video she just posted last weekend.
And the Theorizer has a 2+ hours video compilation of all of the theories of the movie, it’s a REALLY good video of theories that will DEFINITELY make you question EVERYTHING in the movie 😅🩷
Fun facts: 1) A bit part of this films release was that it was a 3D experience (which I did get to see in theaters). When it was released on DVD, it came with both a regular version and a 3D version of the film complete with 4 sets of 3D galsses. 2) Believe it or not, Wyborn was never in the original book. He was made for the film so that Coraline had someone to talk to while in the real world. The book's author, Neil Gaiman, was also completely on board with this change/addition.
I can confirm that as a kid I loved this movie, and also found it terrifying, specifically the part where Coraline locks the door but the other mother still knocks closer and closer.
I saw somewhere that the reason this movie freaks out adults so much is that adults watch it from a “magic doesn’t exist” and a “must protect the child” mindset while children are more prone to approach the story as just another adventure story. A scary one, sure, but bits of it mirror things like Narnia from a not-a-grownup perspective. Also, and I don’t know where I saw this either, you can kind of see her real parents in a kinder light at the story goes on. Not perfect, but you see her parents caring for her as the other world gets deeper.
I'm a child of the '80s, so I'm much too old to have seen _Coraline_ as a kid; however, it fits right into the style and aesthetic of kids' movies from my childhood (cf. _Watership Down, Return to Oz, The Black Cauldron,_ &c.), so I feel right at home here.
The Slitheen joke absolutely sent me. Also honestly I first saw this movie at 14 years old and still ended up terrified of it for ages, despite adoring stop-motion. Now I love it so much 😂
Little Penny had already been introduced to horror the year previous with The Spiderwick Chronicles, so I wasn't really affected too much by this movie when it came out, especially because it was so obviously animated rather than the live action and photorealistic CGI of Spiderwick
Fun fact: (if no ones mentioned it) the song the other Father sings when Coraline first gets there it hints to the truth of the other world and how she's always being watched. Side fact another clue is in the "welcome home" cake. Because of the way the second 'O' in 'home' cursive is a knot which means Coraline was 'welcome' but she was anywhere but 'home'
Fun fact is that the book is actually a bit more brutal than the movie for example the hand is not metal at all lmao Coraline straight up severes the other mother's hand. Also I am glad you caught that her parents were only behaving that way temporarily a lot of reactors conclude them awful but they have just moved and needed a few days to finish their catalogue that's all. Also I think the scariest part of the book is actually the tunnel itself because it is apparently hiding something even more ancient and evil than the other mother and Coraline was terrified every time she had to cross it
That candy corn themed top is delightful! and the orange beret to top it off? 10/10 ❤ every time, Jess, the fit is on point! such a great movie! and the video is fun, too!
Ooh fingers crossed you trip and fall into the rabbit hole of more Neil Gaiman works [even if on your own personal time] like American Gods and The Sandman (which has a bonus episode with Michael Sheen and David Tennant voicing characters in it 👀)
One theory I’ve seen about why Wybies grandma rented the place to coralines parents even tho they have a kid is because Wybie was reaching the age that most of the kids were when they went missing, and wybies grandma was so scared that since wybie still lived near the pink palace that the beldam would still somehow lure him in so she let another kid move in so that the beldam would want her and not wybie😭 it’s a bit morbid but it would make sense
No, I heard that she was ill for a while and whoever was helping her with her business affairs just let the "no kids" thing slide. This "sacrifice another kid to save Wybie" theory must be someone's recent headcanon - I've never heard it before.
I'm one of those weirdos that finds Coraline to be one of her comfort films! haha! I can almost playback the entire thing, I just love this film so much 🤣🫶 stop motion has a special place in my heart, and this film is nothing short of a masterpiece. Can you believe it was released for 6+? All these poor kids that got traumatised in the theater 😭 haha
Pretty sure the movie mentions near the beginning that the reason Wybie's grandma rented to Coraline's parents despite never having allowed children is because of new discrimination laws.
I have seen a lot of people say that the grandma rented the house to a family with a kid on purpose, even though she usually doesn’t. That the grandma was worried about Wybie because he is around the same age as her sister was when she disappeared. So the theory was that she purposefully wanted a kid living in that house, so that they would be taken, instead of Wybie. Also there’s the theory that Coraline never really left ‘the other world,’ and that’s why her parents were suddenly super nice.
That's a terrible theory! I thought I heard somewhere that the grandma was ill for a while, and whoever was helping her with her business affairs didn't think the "no kids" thing was as non-negotiable as it was for her, so they let it slide.
This is one of my favorite all time movies!!!! I literally took a day off work to go see it remastered in theaters (given I’d never seen it in theaters) despite seeing it a million times and I’ve bought copies of the movie 3 times Once on dvd Once as a triple set of Coraline, ParaNorman and Box Trolls on blu ray And finally recently for the steel book 4K even though I don’t have a 4k tv or player lol
There's an exhibit here in Seattle at the Museum of Pop Culture of all the Laika movies. Shows off a ton of different props, sets, and character models. It's going to be here until the end of summer next year. Definitely come check it out before it leaves.
Yea the biggest thing to take from the parents is that they aren't bad parents. Rather just a lot happened all at once and sadly didn't have time to do stuff with Coraline. Literally they just moved to a new house, the mother had an accident and was in a neck brace, plus the deadline looming for work. For Coraline, this move took her away from her friends, being in a new place, and not having much to do. Trying to entertain herself, wanting her parents to do stuff, and they simply didn't have much time at the moment made her feel lonely. The Other Mother tried to take advantage of this, but deep down Coraline and her parents have a good relationship, plus being smart allowed her to realize something was off.
That opening... I live in Canada, it has yet to drop below 0 degrees even once this fall and the daily high has been over 10 degrees. It doesn't feel like fall at all and the weather might be this mild all the way to November.
Now that you've seen this masterpiece, there is another animated horror movie from Focus Features that was released in 2009 that just like Coraline seems like a children's movie when it's totally not. Also, Tim Burton was involved: *9*
@@mikegandalf - No, _9_ was not "a children's movie." It was rated PG-13 for a reason. I mean, all kids are different, and some 11 year olds might adore it, while some 13 year olds might find it too intense, but I'd definitely say that "preteen" is a good lower age limit - I don't think it's a good fit for most kids with single-digit ages.
@@mikegandalf Go be offended elsewhere. It absolutely was not a kids' film. It was PG 13 and had numerous, not even subtle, mature themes. It's an amazing film, but the target audience was not children.
@@ShinyAvalon Fun fact for its importance to me. My best friend and I first heard about 9 from it's trailer while we were watching THIS movie during its theater release. 9 came out the same year we turned 13, and because of its rating it ended up being the first film we ever saw in theaters without adult supervision.
I watched this movie in theaters when I was twelve. I loved it. My nana did not. I think there’s a bit of a double meaning in Wyborn’s name. He wasn’t in the book, he was completely invented for the movie so Coraline would have someone to talk to. So I think his name is kind of pointing at that.
8:20 it actually took me 14 years of frequent rewatches to realize this, why are the mice warning Coraline about the door while simultaneously leading her toward the door? Ik there are rats disguised as mice working for the beldam but there are also mice with Bobinsky who call Coraline a hero at the end of the movie so whose side are these mice really on lol
Yes! I’m a bit of a weirdo but I LOVED the book when I read it in 4th grade and I was so excited to watch the movie for the first time when it came out a few years later 😂🥰🩷🎃👻💀
The Scene when Coraline was crawling through the door in the end and the other side was slamming closer and closer terrified me as a kid, literally nothing else scared me but that.
I'm kind of glad I never watched this as a kid' you know whats really scary and actually quite sad is that we dont realise that as kids we NEED this kind of horror. As Gaiman says in the source novel of this film ... "fairy tales are more than true: not because they tell us that dragons exist, but because they tell us that dragons can be beaten" All the classic fairy tales are horror for that very reason. They give us the skills...the armor to cope with our rl horrors.this is a perfect story for children to watch.
Definitely recommend some more laika movies, their stop motion is unbelievable. "Kubo and the Two Strings" is one of the most gorgeously animated films ever made imo, and Paranorman is the chill family friendly spooky Halloween movie you were hoping to get here
Love Laika studios. Used to live a couple miles from it, saw a lot of the characters and how it is done. The other Mother's sweater was hand knitted from thread!
Don't know why but for a while I couldn't find your videos, not even by actively writing your channel's name in the search bar, I was freaking out! Great to see you again!!
i watched this movie for the first time when i was 7 and while it definitely horrified me at first i wound up becoming obsessed with it and to this day i don't think i've watched a movie as many times as i've watched coraline. i drove every adult around me insane with it
I'm glad you noticed that the parents are clearly stressed out of their mind and how quickly they both soften as soon as that catalogue is through. Between the Mothers brace and the sudden move in the middle of a project, It seems clear that money is probably tight. You say this is prime real estate and yeah, it's big, but it is also out in the middle of nowhere and the house is very old. My guess is that it isn't actually that expensive _and_ that may be they even had move _because_ they could not afford whatever place they lived before anymore. With the American Healthcare System, the mothers Accident may have drained their finances, which also explains why the mother only buys the gloves after the Catalogue. She just could not afford to do so before.
Coraline freaked me out as a child. Also Jess, if you want a show with good horror vibes but also a genuinely campy fun time, the live-action One Piece on Netflix would be a great show for your channel! Also, Jeff Ward from Agents of Shield plays one of the villains in that show and does an *extremely* good job with it!
“I am ready for a friendly little fall kids movie!” Oh you sweet summer child.
I weirdly was not scared of this movie either which is wild because I was scared of plenty of other movies
@@thedingdongsunshinefutureSame it is both my favorite movie of all time and comfort movie. It always calms me down whenever I watch it.😅
@madelinejacobs6187 loved this movie, was terrified of the monsters vs aliens Halloween special with the living carrots. Literally gave me nightmares.
fun fact confirmed by neil gaiman himself: ms. spink & ms. forcible are NOT sisters, they’re lovers!
oh my god?! i love that 😭
Omg i never knew 😮 that's amazing
Why would anybody think they were sisters?
I knew it! They argue like a married couple 🥰
like all movies, this movie is made better with the knowledge that there's confirmed lesbian characters
As scary as Coraline actually is, it is indeed a stop-motion masterpiece
the talent is INCREDIBLE
@@fictionaldarling Absolutely agreed
@@fictionaldarling I don't know if you'll see this, but the movie creator has said the EVERY SCENE is intentional.
@@fictionaldarling Believe it or not, I read the book a few years before the movie was made and it is WAY creepier than the movie is…
I would die to work on something this fun and wonderful. Stop motion is my absolute favorite form of animation.
Fun fact about Bobinsky, the medal he wears was specifically given to people who helped clean up Chernobyl, hence why he’s blue, and his obsession with beets is because they help people recover from radiation
This is one of those classic "You know, for kids!" movies.
...and just like that, I gotta track down my copy of the Hudsucker Proxy.
I never get tired of this reference! Hudsucker Proxy is a classic and we quote it around our house all the time!
I like that unlike most reactors I've seen, you were able to correctly identify that Coraline's parents are just stressed and overworked at the moment.
I think that is the biggest minus of the movie for the most part. The novel makes it explicitly clear that this is a special situation for them all and that the parents a in 100% crunch mode to get the finances afloat again and are normally very lovingly parents to her. (Which you also can see in the movie then after they got freed out of the globe)
@TheTenguwarrior I say the movie does a good job saying it subtley. As someone who is an adult, you recognize it and sympathize with the parents, but the movie captures it from coraline's perspective where it feels like it it will never end and it's unfair.
so? if she fell in the well and died due to there negligence would you still make this excuse? she was in a new place with 0 support network she needed her parents children are not asked to be born, it disturbs me how people act like abuse is okay just cause its not constant but what about the next time they are "stressed"? they wouldn't even take the time to make her proper meals if your that busy just dont have kids
@@Alphasnowbordergirl nope im a adult and still think they are scumbags, theres no excuse for neglecting your child even with work if your job is so demanding you cant properly look after your one child then dont have kids its parents like these were the kid wondered off and dies or gets kidnapped then its all "oooh how could this of happened? we were such good parents!" i live in a very ruff area so im not sheltered to reality
@@imalittletoxicjustalittle ....how about having a child and a job yourself for starters?
Fun fact: He had his daughter read over the script cause he wanted to see if it was too scary for kids- said "nope" after it was produced she admitted she was terrified she was just super curious to know what happened next
A friend's daughter, if I remember right. Or the publisher's? I don't *think* it was his.
@@MySerpentine Yeah, afaik it was the daughter of someone who worked at the publisher's. Because they didn't want to publish the book because it was too scary at first.
@@MySerpentineI'm pretty sure it was the editor who told him it was too scary, so Niel asked them to read it to their kid, the kid lied because they were really invested amd wanted to know what happened.
i think she was smart to lie! because thats what horror should be- terrifying but intruiging enough you wanna hear more. if she wasnt scared at all it wouldnt have been good at all ahahah
The book. Not the script.
Fun fact: Wybie and his grandmother aren't part of the novel. Coraline relies on her own wits, and the help of the cat and the ghost children. I love the movie, but I love the novel even more.
Also, I love that Neil Gaiman confirmed that Ms Spink and Forcible are lovers!
Neil Gaiman is so pleasantly open about adaptations of his work being their own thing and having strengths that he appreciates. Coraline and Stardust are two that he's specifically identified as being tighter and more streamlined stories that his mildly rambling fairytale style. I love Gaiman's style personally, but i especially love that the spiritual core of his work lends itself so well to "covers". He's like the Beatles.
I like that the movie doesn’t make the parents bad, just that they’re exhausted from moving and unpacking what they need and have a huge deadline for their work coming up. Also the mom is wearing a neck brace not a turtle neck, so for that week they just did not have time to entertain Coraline.
Also the Other Fathers song was a warning comparing Coraline to food, how as long as she’s around it’ll never be boring, button in the eyes, and how their eyes will be on Coraline.
Every single film from Laika Studios is a passion project, but this one in particular feels like it had the most passion. There's so much attention to detail in this movie, a large amount of theories have spawned because of it, and they get really interesting. And even the medal that Mr. Bobinsky is wearing is a subtle hint to why his skin is blue.
It is the Chernobyl Liquidator Medal, though I don't know if the radiation from that actually turns a person's skin blue 🤔
Coraline: "we just have one thing to do..."
"Guilt-trip the grandmother😌🤔" lmao
Laika (the studio who made this) does stop motion, they also did ParaNorman, Kubo and the Two Strings, Boxtrolls.
ParaNorman is very much worth the watch. it's SO good.
Also funded by Nike of all things fun fact.
i live in Oregon and got to see Laika studios on a field trip, they showed all the little characters and sets they made for box trolls, Coraline and ParaNorman. I got a little book that showed all the concept art plus a guide on how to create your own character. it was really cool.
Paranorman is really good, but my favorite Laika film is Kubo and the Two Strings.
@@michaelmcintyre3871 Kubo is pretty breathtaking. The artistry is incredible. I wish more people knew about it.
@michaelmcintyre3871 God, Kubo is so good.
Coraline? Pah, we watched Watership Down as kids. In school. Multiple times. I mean, it’s a film with lots of cute fluffy bunny rabbits, of course it’s a kids film. Right? Right? Anyone who went through that the support group meets at 7 on Wednesday night, we have t-shirts and hot chocolate.
I assume we also watch Dimensions 20’s dnd campaign Burrows End as it’s at the same time and based on Watership Down
* inspired by
Oh yeah, fucking Watership Down. And the fucking Plague Dogs.
I don't know why there is this common idea that animation is for kids and live action is for adults. It's not. That's like saying films are for kids and books for adults. They're separate mediums that can be used to tell any kind of story aimed at any kind of audience. I just don't get that way of thinking.
We watched both 😭
The fact that Coraline is so self assured also tells me that the parents cannot, overall, be *that* terrible.
Coralines parents arenr neglectful or abusive. Theyre busy and having a rough time. They recently moved, they had a recent accident (as mentioned by the parents and seen by the mothers neck brace), and theyre close to releasing a garden catalog. Those are all huge, stressful events.
I always liked how the animators have Mr. Bobinsky wearing a service medal for the Chernobyl disaster and never feel the need to explain it. It's just a small little detail that shows without telling.
Fun fact: the Shakespeare Festival is real and happens every year in Oregon, where the film also takes place and Laika Studios is located.
Your outfit is so cute! You look like a character in a Wes Anderson film. 🧡
ahhh thank you!! 🥺😭
My biggest flex was that I was the only kid in my class that wasn’t scared of this movie 🙃
I always just assumed that the Pink Palace apartment was the only affordable place they could find after dealing with debt from the accident etc, so they just said they didn’t have a kid just to get it 🤷🏼♀️
The second you said "I want them to play with this child, but also, look at this poor man, and think about her mom workin away so they can afford this place" was the second you got a like because so many other people call them bad parents because they won't play with her! They're not! They're trying so hard! They just can't give her their attention for a few days and they need her to entertain herself!
While it’s easy to criticise Coraline’s parents I think it’s important to keep in mind that we’re only seeing like, three days of their entire lives and in that time they have to finish a mountain of work before a deadline, move into a new home and have just been in a car accident.
They’re not exactly their best selves in the movie for very relatable reasons and it’s obvious that they’re usually a lot more attentive or else Coraline wouldn’t expect as much from them and they wouldn’t be as happy at the end.
some of the things you say are way too relatable. the bit about attaching to your english teacher hit way too hard
See as a kid, I was desensitized to the horrors of this movie (minus the open-mounted ghost girl, still terrifying too) but it got so much worse when I rewatched it as an adult. I think as kids the reality of the situation just doesn’t sink in the same as it does when we’re adults.
Like The Nightmare Before Christmas, Coraline is a stop-motion masterpiece.
And both are Henry Selick directed masterpieces
Cause Henry Selick is insane at his art
YES TRAUMATIZING BUT A MASTERPIECE
I saw this for my 11th birthday, and it TERRIFIED me. And that was when I still had lots of stuffed animals like always lined up on my bed. It scarred me so much that for the next few months I had to turn and face all of them to my wall because of their eyes lol
The struggle of being a Coraline fan is knowing all the details and theories surrounding this movie and not going insane trying to get everyone who watches it to take a peek down the rabbit hole. Why yes, that was indeed a fairy circle at the beginning. I too once failed to notice a couple of interesting and creepy details at the end. *gleefully taps fingertips together
I feel like, to be fair, the mother just went through a car accident, it's probably in a lot of pain since she carries a neck thing the entire time, has the stress of having to make a whole new book with her husband, has just moved out AND has a energetic daughter like Coraline... like come on, I would be cranky too if all of that happened all at once.
Had a been a kid when this came out (I was late 20s when it did) it probably would have spooked me but back in the day kids watching straight up horror was common and even the not horror stuff had their scary stuff that could stick with you. I still remember watching Night of the Living Dead when I was 6. That did a number on me.
But yeah beautifully animated movie. Can't help but appreciate the outright craftmanship that went into it.
Fun fact, Spink and Forcible are lesbian icons 🥰
In defense of the parents the mom was injured recently, they were moving and had a book deadline. If they've in the US that could REALLY be a big bill. I don't think they were neglectful parents, they were just super stressed and this was one of the bad times in life. Which makes sense, if you think the Beldam targeted Coraline during a more vulnerable time.
I remember watching this movie in theaters,in 3D….i still wonder to this day why little me didn’t cry while watching it,I always assumed maybe the magic and beauty of the stop motion fascinated me
"She didn't think well would impress her? Clearly she didn't know her that *well* 😅" lmao
The circus mice terrified me as a kid, even before they were revealed to be rats
There was something so unsettleling about their little circus number to me and thats where I knew as an 11yo that something sinister was going on (random place to find out but it be like that :v)
Something interesting about this movie was that when I watched it as a kid, I was enchanted. I was terrified of everything, had nightmares every night and night terrors sometimes too. But watching this movie, even though it was legit scary, made me less afraid of the dark. I saw a lot of myself in Coraline and so when I was overcome with fear at night, I would think about what Coraline would do. How even when she was terrified, she was brave and could face it. I think it's an important message for kids, that we can be brave and strong, even when we are afraid.
Courage is not the absence of fear, it’s acting through that fear. ❤
I just have to say…I watched this when I was 4 or 5 for the first time, became obsessed, stopped caring for about 3 years, and now whenever I watch it it’s literally the creepiest thing ever lol. Still love the movie, but seriously
Ngl, that cat talking scared the hell out of me!
I think this film was the first visualisation of realistic parental abuse in its various forms I ever saw as a child.
I had parents that were both distant and determined to get my love by beating or scaring it out of me, or taking away what little I had until I was willing to trade love to get it back. When I first watched this film, I had no external expectations of my parents except to act like Coraline's real mum and dad, and so as a child I had no empathy for Coraline and thought she was just being awkward rather than leaving her parents be.
Despite not getting the true nature of the dynamic of the real parents, I felt vindicated when I heard the other mother utter the words "you will not come out until you have learned to be a loving daughter" in that moment I felt like this deep suspicion within me had been proven correct, and that depiction of a mother twisted into a horrific form of vitriol trying to sow fear into her child to later harvest it as love, felt not like a horror creature (as I could tell it should have felt, even at the time) but instead felt like home.
I don't hate my parents, if they truly regret how they treated me and wish to change, they'll either change in life or God will sanctify them when they die and I'll meet them in as better parents in heaven then they were on earth, and if they don't truly regret how they treated me but just regret 'getting caught', they will reject God's love with the knowledge they are unworthy of it and dive headlong into hell just to escape the guilt. Either way, things work out. Whatever the outcome, this film was pivotal in helping me understand that my environment felt wrong because it was, and not to foster the same environment for my kids, and now that I'm out of the childhood portion of my life and my parents no longer have the stress of daily life as an excuse or the blindness of a child as perfect cover, they have undoubtedly improved as people at least in part, and at least to my face express guilt.
TL;DR gud moovy
Yeah I could never just kill a bunch of bugs with my hands like Coraline did at the beginning. Guess that’s how we know she’s the main character. That and her anime-protagonist-esque hair
Every time you mention David Tennant I get excited because 60th is right around the corner and I cannot wait!
I saw an advertisement on TV as a kid once, I don't know if that was when it came out, because I was only five then, but THE thing that made me not want to watch this was the bug swatting scene in the shower of all scenes. Everytime in the shower for the next week or two I was expecting a Ton of bugs on the shower wall. So I always faced the wall. That of all things is the one that scarred me 😂😅
We took my daughter to this in theaters when she was a kid. She seemed to like it then but later as an adult she confessed it terrified her.
I was 20 when this movie came out, so, "childhood classic," makes me feel positively ancient.
Two details I love about this movie are: the hand at 7:46 later appears a bolt of lightning in the other world, as a bolt of lightning, which also resembles a spider, both shapes foreshadow how the other mother has control over the other world. The cake in the other world has a double loop on a lowercase o, which means the person who wrote it is lying. As it's on the o in 'home' and not the o in 'welcome', it means that while she is welcomed by the other parents, she isn't home.
If you want some more Coraline stuff, ABitFrank has made a ton of excellent videos discussing the lore, secrets and origins of the film, including a new two hour video she just posted last weekend.
And the Theorizer has a 2+ hours video compilation of all of the theories of the movie, it’s a REALLY good video of theories that will DEFINITELY make you question EVERYTHING in the movie 😅🩷
Fun facts:
1) A bit part of this films release was that it was a 3D experience (which I did get to see in theaters). When it was released on DVD, it came with both a regular version and a 3D version of the film complete with 4 sets of 3D galsses.
2) Believe it or not, Wyborn was never in the original book. He was made for the film so that Coraline had someone to talk to while in the real world. The book's author, Neil Gaiman, was also completely on board with this change/addition.
This is the kind of scary that works for kids that are about to hit puberty. Think Goosebumps and the early season of Stranger Things.
I can confirm that as a kid I loved this movie, and also found it terrifying, specifically the part where Coraline locks the door but the other mother still knocks closer and closer.
I saw somewhere that the reason this movie freaks out adults so much is that adults watch it from a “magic doesn’t exist” and a “must protect the child” mindset while children are more prone to approach the story as just another adventure story. A scary one, sure, but bits of it mirror things like Narnia from a not-a-grownup perspective.
Also, and I don’t know where I saw this either, you can kind of see her real parents in a kinder light at the story goes on. Not perfect, but you see her parents caring for her as the other world gets deeper.
I'm a child of the '80s, so I'm much too old to have seen _Coraline_ as a kid; however, it fits right into the style and aesthetic of kids' movies from my childhood (cf. _Watership Down, Return to Oz, The Black Cauldron,_ &c.), so I feel right at home here.
The Slitheen joke absolutely sent me.
Also honestly I first saw this movie at 14 years old and still ended up terrified of it for ages, despite adoring stop-motion. Now I love it so much 😂
Little Penny had already been introduced to horror the year previous with The Spiderwick Chronicles, so I wasn't really affected too much by this movie when it came out, especially because it was so obviously animated rather than the live action and photorealistic CGI of Spiderwick
Fun fact: (if no ones mentioned it) the song the other Father sings when Coraline first gets there it hints to the truth of the other world and how she's always being watched.
Side fact another clue is in the "welcome home" cake. Because of the way the second 'O' in 'home' cursive is a knot which means Coraline was 'welcome' but she was anywhere but 'home'
Fun fact is that the book is actually a bit more brutal than the movie for example the hand is not metal at all lmao Coraline straight up severes the other mother's hand. Also I am glad you caught that her parents were only behaving that way temporarily a lot of reactors conclude them awful but they have just moved and needed a few days to finish their catalogue that's all. Also I think the scariest part of the book is actually the tunnel itself because it is apparently hiding something even more ancient and evil than the other mother and Coraline was terrified every time she had to cross it
I was scared of everything as a kid, but for some reason, as terrifying as this movie is, I loved it! Watch it every year for spooky season!
I actually watched this when I was a kid and it left me traumatized for a very long time
i knew it was a classic when i first watched it when i was 8, but it was my 5yo cousin's fav at the time like she played that movie every week
Oh yeah, I remember sitting in the theater for the 3D release, was amazing in theaters
This is a classic movie for spooky season.
i think one of the biggest differences between neil gaimains book and this movie was the character of coraline. the book is such a good read!
That candy corn themed top is delightful! and the orange beret to top it off? 10/10 ❤ every time, Jess, the fit is on point!
such a great movie! and the video is fun, too!
I found out about this recently. The other father singing that song about Coraline was trying to warn her what the other mother was planning to do.
Ooh fingers crossed you trip and fall into the rabbit hole of more Neil Gaiman works [even if on your own personal time] like American Gods and The Sandman (which has a bonus episode with Michael Sheen and David Tennant voicing characters in it 👀)
One theory I’ve seen about why Wybies grandma rented the place to coralines parents even tho they have a kid is because Wybie was reaching the age that most of the kids were when they went missing, and wybies grandma was so scared that since wybie still lived near the pink palace that the beldam would still somehow lure him in so she let another kid move in so that the beldam would want her and not wybie😭 it’s a bit morbid but it would make sense
No, I heard that she was ill for a while and whoever was helping her with her business affairs just let the "no kids" thing slide. This "sacrifice another kid to save Wybie" theory must be someone's recent headcanon - I've never heard it before.
It was because of anti age discrimination laws, she legally couldn’t refuse to rent it to them.
*Laughs in old Millennial* I was 23 when this movie came out!....but yeah, it is creepy and gives a scary vibe. I do love the stop motion animation.
I'm one of those weirdos that finds Coraline to be one of her comfort films! haha! I can almost playback the entire thing, I just love this film so much 🤣🫶 stop motion has a special place in my heart, and this film is nothing short of a masterpiece. Can you believe it was released for 6+? All these poor kids that got traumatised in the theater 😭 haha
11:51 I was not expecting this Doctor Who refrence but it is great!
Pretty sure the movie mentions near the beginning that the reason Wybie's grandma rented to Coraline's parents despite never having allowed children is because of new discrimination laws.
I first saw it as an adult who already loved Neil Gaiman's work, but it still totally freaked me out.
I have seen a lot of people say that the grandma rented the house to a family with a kid on purpose, even though she usually doesn’t. That the grandma was worried about Wybie because he is around the same age as her sister was when she disappeared. So the theory was that she purposefully wanted a kid living in that house, so that they would be taken, instead of Wybie.
Also there’s the theory that Coraline never really left ‘the other world,’ and that’s why her parents were suddenly super nice.
That's a terrible theory! I thought I heard somewhere that the grandma was ill for a while, and whoever was helping her with her business affairs didn't think the "no kids" thing was as non-negotiable as it was for her, so they let it slide.
This is one of my favorite all time movies!!!!
I literally took a day off work to go see it remastered in theaters (given I’d never seen it in theaters) despite seeing it a million times and I’ve bought copies of the movie 3 times
Once on dvd
Once as a triple set of Coraline, ParaNorman and Box Trolls on blu ray
And finally recently for the steel book 4K even though I don’t have a 4k tv or player lol
There's an exhibit here in Seattle at the Museum of Pop Culture of all the Laika movies. Shows off a ton of different props, sets, and character models. It's going to be here until the end of summer next year. Definitely come check it out before it leaves.
the full audio book is on youtube and it's really good.
Yea the biggest thing to take from the parents is that they aren't bad parents. Rather just a lot happened all at once and sadly didn't have time to do stuff with Coraline. Literally they just moved to a new house, the mother had an accident and was in a neck brace, plus the deadline looming for work. For Coraline, this move took her away from her friends, being in a new place, and not having much to do. Trying to entertain herself, wanting her parents to do stuff, and they simply didn't have much time at the moment made her feel lonely. The Other Mother tried to take advantage of this, but deep down Coraline and her parents have a good relationship, plus being smart allowed her to realize something was off.
That opening... I live in Canada, it has yet to drop below 0 degrees even once this fall and the daily high has been over 10 degrees. It doesn't feel like fall at all and the weather might be this mild all the way to November.
My mom never allowed us to watch Coraline or Monster House, and I'm grateful for that. They're too scary for children.
Now that you've seen this masterpiece, there is another animated horror movie from Focus Features that was released in 2009 that just like Coraline seems like a children's movie when it's totally not. Also, Tim Burton was involved:
*9*
I second _9_ as an awesome movie.
Except it totally is
I find attitudes like this so condescending
@@mikegandalf - No, _9_ was not "a children's movie." It was rated PG-13 for a reason. I mean, all kids are different, and some 11 year olds might adore it, while some 13 year olds might find it too intense, but I'd definitely say that "preteen" is a good lower age limit - I don't think it's a good fit for most kids with single-digit ages.
@@mikegandalf Go be offended elsewhere. It absolutely was not a kids' film. It was PG 13 and had numerous, not even subtle, mature themes. It's an amazing film, but the target audience was not children.
@@ShinyAvalon Fun fact for its importance to me. My best friend and I first heard about 9 from it's trailer while we were watching THIS movie during its theater release. 9 came out the same year we turned 13, and because of its rating it ended up being the first film we ever saw in theaters without adult supervision.
I watched this movie in theaters when I was twelve. I loved it. My nana did not.
I think there’s a bit of a double meaning in Wyborn’s name. He wasn’t in the book, he was completely invented for the movie so Coraline would have someone to talk to. So I think his name is kind of pointing at that.
8:20 it actually took me 14 years of frequent rewatches to realize this, why are the mice warning Coraline about the door while simultaneously leading her toward the door? Ik there are rats disguised as mice working for the beldam but there are also mice with Bobinsky who call Coraline a hero at the end of the movie so whose side are these mice really on lol
And yet as creepy as the movie is, the book is much creepier. And a nice short read if you feel so inclined.
Yes! I’m a bit of a weirdo but I LOVED the book when I read it in 4th grade and I was so excited to watch the movie for the first time when it came out a few years later 😂🥰🩷🎃👻💀
You are one of the few reactors that was intuitive enough to pick up on the parents' dire financial situation.
i love this channel so much
it’s like our own little cozy corner of youtube
The Scene when Coraline was crawling through the door in the end and the other side was slamming closer and closer terrified me as a kid, literally nothing else scared me but that.
I'm kind of glad I never watched this as a kid' you know whats really scary and actually quite sad is that we dont realise that as kids we NEED this kind of horror. As Gaiman says in the source novel of this film ... "fairy tales are more than true: not because they tell us that dragons exist, but because they tell us that dragons can be beaten"
All the classic fairy tales are horror for that very reason. They give us the skills...the armor to cope with our rl horrors.this is a perfect story for children to watch.
This movie was absolutely amazing in 3D on the big screen.
Definitely recommend some more laika movies, their stop motion is unbelievable. "Kubo and the Two Strings" is one of the most gorgeously animated films ever made imo, and Paranorman is the chill family friendly spooky Halloween movie you were hoping to get here
Love Laika studios. Used to live a couple miles from it, saw a lot of the characters and how it is done. The other Mother's sweater was hand knitted from thread!
Don't know why but for a while I couldn't find your videos, not even by actively writing your channel's name in the search bar, I was freaking out! Great to see you again!!
"The Sliveen are here." I laughed way too hard at that. --And yes, very intense movie.
YES. This is just what I needed in my day. I love this movie despite the fact that it traumatised my younger self
The Halloween outfit is ecstatically awesome & beautiful.
Adorable hat!!
A fun fact that i learned at the exhibit is there are enough photos taken during the making of this movie to make 24 hours of footage
i watched this movie for the first time when i was 7 and while it definitely horrified me at first i wound up becoming obsessed with it and to this day i don't think i've watched a movie as many times as i've watched coraline. i drove every adult around me insane with it
I'm glad you noticed that the parents are clearly stressed out of their mind and how quickly they both soften as soon as that catalogue is through.
Between the Mothers brace and the sudden move in the middle of a project, It seems clear that money is probably tight. You say this is prime real estate and yeah, it's big, but it is also out in the middle of nowhere and the house is very old. My guess is that it isn't actually that expensive _and_ that may be they even had move _because_ they could not afford whatever place they lived before anymore.
With the American Healthcare System, the mothers Accident may have drained their finances, which also explains why the mother only buys the gloves after the Catalogue. She just could not afford to do so before.
This movie is like 73% why our current generation is the way it is, we wear it proudly
okay but like you look so damn good with a beret
I did watch this movie as a child, my dad said it was marketed as a kids movie. I got Arachnophobia from this movie.
Coraline freaked me out as a child. Also Jess, if you want a show with good horror vibes but also a genuinely campy fun time, the live-action One Piece on Netflix would be a great show for your channel! Also, Jeff Ward from Agents of Shield plays one of the villains in that show and does an *extremely* good job with it!
Fun fact:The song The Other Father sings, that’s a They Might Be Giants song. I have nothing to say, that’s just awesome