Lisa from Boondock Ramblings and I are back to watching and sharing about comfy cozy (and as we move closer to Halloween, spookier) movies for the fall season. Feel free to join in with us!!

This week’s movie was Coraline!

I always make Lisa watch an animated movie. I don’t know why. I even know which one I am picking next year, already. Lol. This year, I decided on Coraline, one of my favorites. I once dressed as Coraline for Halloween, and this year, my niece is dressing as Coraline, because she now loves the movie too. She even sort of looks like Coraline, but with curly hair.

IMDB summarizes this movie as: “Wandering her rambling old house in her boring new town, a young girl discovers a hidden door to a strangely idealized version of her life that seems too good to be true.”

Coraline is a curious and feisty girl, a bit snarky, and 100% with the attitude of basically all 10/11 year olds. Her family moves from Pontiac, MI to the Pink Palace Apartments in Oregon, and she is booooored. She meets Wyborn “Wybie” a neighbor, who gives her a doll that looks very very similar to Coraline, which is ..creepy. She also meets the lanky black cat who has a pretty important role in the story. She is not impressed immediately with Wybie, probably because she is a kid who just moved across the country and left her home and friends and school behind to a very sad looking apartment with parents who work all day. And it is evident as well, that the family is struggling. The apartment is fairly bare, dull, blah, even Coraline’s bedroom, and their meals lackluster. Coraline is pretty much stuck there, hanging around the apartments while her parents work from home on a gardening catalog, and one day, she discovers a small door in the wall. After convincing her mom to open it, it reveals nothing but a brick wall.

Later that night however, Coraline finds herself going through that door which now has a tunnel instead of a brick wall, and encounters her Other Mother and Other Father, who are cheery, welcoming, and seem to just want to make her happy. It is colorful, and is everything Coraline could want – even if the Other Mother and Other Father have buttons for eyes. The Other Father even plays a song, just for her, about her, which was performed by They Might Giants.

Coraline wakes up the next morning at home, in her real home, and tells her mom all about her adventures. She spends the day visiting her other neighbors, who are very eccentric – Spink and Forcible, two former burlesque performers with a love of schnauzers, and Mr. Bobinsky, who used to be a gymnast, and a liquidator, (and is voiced by Ian McShane). He is also blue, and has a mouse circus.

Coraline again visits the Other Mother and Other Father, and this is when things take a turn. This story moves fast! I loved the pacing in this movie, it just kept everything moving along. The Other Mother and Other Father present Coraline with an option – she can choose to stay with them, if only she lets them replace her eyes with buttons. And from here, if you want to know what happens, you will have to watch! Let’s just say, there are ghosts, black cats who can straddle both worlds, plants that are sentient, and for Coraline, a very high stakes game.

I love this movie because Coraline is a smart, resourceful, clever girl. She doesn’t give up or quit, is determined, and knows what she wants. She also has a great sense of style – I used to have a version of the hat she wears and I miss it. Her mother has enrolled her in a school where she has to wear a boring gray uniform, and Coraline is bummed. How can she stand out? Where is the color? The opportunity to show her uniqueness and originality? She does find a pair of gloves that would add some flair to her uniform, but at $24.99 a pair, her mom says no.

This movie is stop-action animation, and took 500 people to make. LAIKA Studios has a few videos on YouTube if you interested in some behind the scenes looks at how everything was achieved. And it was a work of art, truly.

There are also little hidden Easter Eggs within the movie, which you can read about here. However, my favorite little detail is about Mr. Bobinsky, the eccentric blue neighbor, and former liquidator and gymnast. If you look closely, he is wearing a medal in every scene, and upon closer inspection, it is a medal that was awarded to the emergency workers who cleaned up after the Chernobyl disaster. Just a little reason he might be blue. These workers were given the title “liquidator” by the Soviet Union, hence why he is a retired liquidator. A little story within a story!

Overall, I love this movie, and I love Coraline, although the author of this story is no longer one I choose to support much anymore. I love Coraline’s independence and spunk and spark and curiosity.

And not to spoil anything, but in the end, Coraline does get her gloves.

Next week we are going all out, in our way, with The Mummy, starring Brendan Fraser and Rachel Weisz. I love the character Evie. I am excited although it has been a while since I have seen it!

Be sure to check out Lisa’s post as well!

I hope that you are all enjoying the season, wherever you are on the spooky spectrum!