Coraline was made in 2009, it is a claymation and honestly in my opinion is one of the best movies made. This is also biased because I love all of Henry Selick’s work. This movie had many twists and turns put into it. Many great actors also voiced the characters. Personally, my favorite thing about the movie is the meaningful detail of everything.
Everything in the movie is purposely made that way, one example is the living room wallpaper in the movie. Coraline is counting the windows and she starts to clean up the snow globes by putting them on the ledge over the fireplace. The wallpaper in the real world has a detail of beetles scattered all over them while in the other world, the Beldams room, the living room is decorated with beetles. This connection is hidden and very impressive. There are more small details that are on purpose that no one really pays attention to due to the atmosphere in the movie that draws you into the characters more than to the background.
The real dad and the other father have two different sets of glasses, this reason is one purpose as well. Because the other father and the real father are voiced by two different people to represent the two voice actors Henry Selick thought to make their glasses different to represent who voiced them. Another detail about the Other Father is in the first part of when she meets him, the song he sings to her has a secret message for her. Warning her about the Other Mother. “ She’s a peach, she’s a doll, she’s a pal of mine” She is a doll. This refers to the doll that Wybie gave her after he met her for the first time. Another part of the song says, “Our eyes will be on Coraline ” This means that the Other Mother is watching Coraline, either by the doll’s eyes or by another way. Speaking of the doll, if you pay close attention to it, you’ll notice that it moves around on its own. Within the first few minutes of her having it when she was exploring, Coraline places the doll on the table, and then the next scene it’s behind a box in front of the door where the two worlds connect.
There are more things in the movie that are on purpose, including the cake she receives on her first night in the other world. The ‘O’ in home has two swirls while the one in welcome only has one. This means she is welcome but she is not home, the Other Mother is lying, this is proven by graphology, “According to Graphology, a double loop on a lowercase O means that the person who wrote it is lying. There is only one double loop, meaning she is welcome but she is not home” This is one small detail not everyone notices, the next in the same scene is the lightning through the window. Which is the mother’s hand, it’s small and only for a second, but the lightning is in the shape of her hand when she is not transformed to hide her real identity.
Also, at the beginning of the movie, the room where the other mother is making the Coraline doll. The room is in the shed which is seen in the background behind the fallen tree in the other world and the real world. The details in that opening scene as well are very specific, on the machine she uses, the imprint on it shows beetles. Just like the living room, in the corner of the room, there are three little needle things, two of them look like the older ladies who live in the basement, Mrs. Spink and Mrs. Forcible. Random fact about those two old ladies, they are actually girlfriends. Henry approved the theory a while ago and this became real. If anyone watched the movie, you kinda already had the hint before he announced it.
Mr B is also an interesting character, his skin is light blue and he seems to have a few loose screws in his head. This is because if you pay close attention to the time frame and his accent. If you have closed captions on, at the beginning of the movie when he is on the roof, it says he is counting in Russian. His blue skin is because of exposure to nuclear gasses, Mr. B has a medal on his chest, this medal was given to the people who worked at the Chornobyl disaster. So, his whole persona, his looks, and why he acts the way he does is explained by the overexposure of intense nuclear gas.
Every character, every room and every small detail that you would think holds no importance has a meaning. The creators of the movie even announced that everything in the movie is on purpose, every small detail, every tiny thing that the human eye normally cannot catch onto is on purpose. This is what makes the movie even better than others because the deep detail and meaning of everything is exquisite and unique. This movie really sucks you into it and leaves you wanting to watch it once more.