Coraline (2009)
Coraline is a 2009 animation movie directed by Henry Selick, with a running time of 1h 40m. It stars Dakota Fanning, Teri Hatcher and Jennifer Saunders.
Coraline Jones is bored, eleven, and freshly moved into a creaking old house where the adults have no time for her. Behind a small papered-over door she finds a passage to an Other world that mirrors her own, brighter and warmer, presided over by an Other Mother with buttons for eyes who wants Coraline to stay forever. Henry Selick renders it in painstaking stop-motion from Neil Gaiman's novella, all handmade textures and creeping unease. Laika's first feature is a genuine fairy tale in the old sense, enchanting on its surface and quietly frightening underneath, made for children brave enough to be scared.
Quick answers
What is Coraline about?
Coraline Jones is bored, eleven, and freshly moved into a creaking old house where the adults have no time for her. Behind a small papered-over door she finds a passage to an Other world that mirrors her own, brighter and warmer, presided over by an Other Mother with buttons for eyes who wants Coraline to stay forever. Henry Selick renders it in painstaking stop-motion from Neil Gaiman's novella, all handmade textures and creeping unease. Laika's first feature is a genuine fairy tale in the old sense, enchanting on its surface and quietly frightening underneath, made for children brave enough to be scared.
When was Coraline released?
Coraline was released on 5 February 2009.
How long is Coraline?
Coraline runs 1h 40m.
Who made Coraline?
Coraline was directed by Henry Selick.
Where can I watch Coraline?
Coraline is available on Amazon, AppleTV, Fandango at Home and Spectrum On Demand.
Where to watch Coraline
Rent: Amazon, AppleTV, Fandango at Home, Spectrum On Demand
Buy: Fandango at Home
Official site
Cast
- Dakota Fanning as Coraline Jones (voice)
- Teri Hatcher as Mel Jones / Other Mother (voice)
- Jennifer Saunders as Miss April Spink / Other Spink (voice)
- Dawn French as Miss Miriam Forcible / Other Forcible (voice)
- Keith David as The Cat (voice)
- John Hodgman as Charlie Jones / Other Father (voice)
- Robert Bailey Jr. as Wyborne 'Wybie' Lovat (voice)
- Ian McShane as Mr. Sergei Alexander Bobinsky / Other Bobinsky (voice)
- Aankha Neal as Sweet Ghost Girl (voice)
- George Selick as Ghost Boy (voice)
- Hannah Kaiser as Tall Ghost Girl (voice)
- Harry Selick as Photo Friend (voice)
Similar movies
Explore Coraline guides
Coraline in our writing
- Companion guide: Dreams & the Subconscious
- Companion guide: Fairy-Tale Retellings
- Companion guide: Portal Fantasy & Other Worlds
- Companion guide: Portal Fantasy Classics: Wardrobes, Owl Post and the Doors That Started It All
A few thoughts on Coraline
The video game Little Nightmares carries the same dollhouse dread, a small child creeping through an oversized, wrong world. On television, Over the Garden Wall matches its handcrafted, storybook eeriness and its sense that the whimsy could turn cruel at any moment. Both trust younger viewers with real unease.
Family animated movies that are actually kind of scary
Coraline lets real dread sit inside a story built for children, with a warm surface hiding something wrong underneath. These titles take the same risk instead of softening every corner: Over the Garden Wall's fog-choked woods, The Boxtrolls' grimy underworld, Orion and the Dark's confrontation with a real childhood fear, and Rise of the Guardians' genuine boogeyman all trust young viewers with unease.
Hidden worlds that open through a door in your own house
Coraline's Other world waits behind a small door nobody else notices, an ordinary hallway leading somewhere stranger. These films use the same trick: a bedroom closet in Monsters, Inc., a fold in space in A Wrinkle in Time, an imaginary friend materializing in IF, and a whole miniature kingdom hidden in a backyard in Epic, plus a fantastical desert encounter in The Little Prince.
Books that explain how animated films actually get made
Coraline took Laika's crew years of frame-by-frame puppet work, one of stop-motion's most patient recent showcases. For anyone who finished it wanting to know how animators pull that off, these lay out the actual craft: The Animator's Survival Kit and The Illusion of Life on movement and timing, The Animation Book on process, and The Pixar Touch on the industry that grew alongside it.
