Coraline

Young Coraline Jones moves to Ashland, Oregon. Coraline moves into a place called The Pink Palace Apartments with her loving, but distracted, parents. During the first week she lives there Coraline meets a young boy names Wybie Lovat whose mother used to live, and now owns, The Pink Palace. Wybie gives Coraline a doll that looks exactly like Coraline that he found in his grandmother’s basement. Coraline also encounters a black cat that is a familiar stray to the neighborhood.

After being rejected by both her parents Coraline goes on to explore the house. She finds a door that is covered by wallpaper. Coraline convinces her mom to open the door for her but discovers it is bricked up. Later that night Coraline follows a mouse to the door. When she opens the door, it is no longer bricked up and leads to a world much similar to her own. Coraline encounters her ‘other parents’. Her other parents are much more loving and pay a lot more attention to Coraline than her real parents do. Her ‘other parents’ much resemble her real parents only they have black buttons for eyes. She discovers that everyone in this world has black buttons for eyes. The black-buttoned eyed people on this world prove to be much more interesting than those of her own world.

In the other world Coraline encounters the same cat only now, the cat can speak. The black cat warns Coraline not to be tricked by the other mother. Every night that she goes to sleep Coraline awakens in her world. Coraline’s parents don’t believe her about the other world. Coraline soon learns that Wybie’s grandmother doesn’t allow him into The Pink Palace due to his grandmother’s sister being ‘stolen’ when they were younger.

Every night Coraline follows a mouse and enters the other world and spends time with the people that inhabit the world. Her other neighbors put on a series of shows that impress Coraline a lot. After an argument with her real mother Coraline decides she wants to stay in the other world forever. Coraline tells her other parents this and they say she can stay… On one condition. Coraline must sow buttons on her eyes. Coraline refuses and goes to her room for a night’s sleep. Expecting to wake up in her old room, Coraline wakes up excited only to find she is still trapped in the other world.

Coraline decides that she’d rather be with her real parents and this angers her other mother. Her other mother reveals herself to be an evil witch and the other mother traps Coraline in a mirror where she comes in contact with three ghost children who lost their souls to the other mother. One of them proves to be Wybie’s grandmother’s missing sister. The ghost children explain to Coraline that the doll she was given was a spy for the other mother to see what was making Coraline unhappy. Coraline escapes the other world with the help of the other Wybie, who can no longer talk due to the other mother making him silent. When she comes home she realizes her parents have gone missing and are trapped in the other world by her other mother.

Wybie comes to Coraline saying his grandmother wants the doll back. Coraline explains everything to Wybie about the other world. She goes to find the doll only to find it missing. After she can’t find the doll and Wybie runs off she decides to return to the other world and save her parents as well as the three ghost children. Coraline challenges the other mother to a game. If Coraline can find the three ghost children’s souls and her parents scattered throughout the world then they will all be set free. If she cannot, she will stay with the other mother forever.

With the help of the black cat and a stone provided by her real neighbors Coraline finds the three souls destroying the other people, who have been twisted by the other mother. Coraline locates her parents and knows that if the other mother lost, she’d go back on her word. Coraline tricks the other mother into open the passage between the two worlds by saying her parents are behind the door. Coraline throws the cat at the other mother and the cat claws her eyes out. Coraline grabs the key, the snow globe that traps her parents and the cat before escaping. As the other mother tried to grab her Coraline closes the door in time. Back in her own world Coraline finds her parents safe and with no memory of what has happened.

That same night, when Coraline thinks it’s over, she has a dream with the three ghost children telling her the other mother will come back to get the key and retrieve Coraline. Coraline takes the key to an old well on the house grounds and as she is about to drop it, she is attacked by the other mother’s severed hand. After a brief struggle, Wybie comes to the rescue. He crushes the hand with a rock. Coraline wraps up the rock and hand before tying it with the key. Together, Wybie and Coraline drop the items into the deep well sealing the key forever.

This movie was very good. I enjoyed it a lot when I saw it. Coraline was worth the money to see. It’ll be an amazing movie. I give it 10 out of 10.