Coraline

Coraline (2009) is a stop-motion animated dark fantasy horror film directed by Henry Selick and produced by Laika Studios in its feature debut. Based on the 2002 novella by Neil Gaiman, the film follows Coraline Jones, an adventurous and lonely girl who moves with her neglectful parents to a gloomy, creaky old house. One day, she discovers a hidden door that leads to an alternate world—a seemingly perfect mirror of her own, but where everything is better, brighter… and creepily wrong. Her “Other Mother,” a sinister doppelgänger with button eyes, soon reveals a horrifying intent: to trap Coraline in the fantasy world forever. Visually, Coraline is a groundbreaking work in stop-motion animation. It was the first stop-motion feature to be shot entirely in 3D, using custom-built puppets and hand-crafted sets that gave the film a rich, tactile atmosphere. The animation is both whimsical and unsettling—its world-building filled with eerie details and visual metaphors that mirror Coraline’s emotional state. Selick’s direction maintains a perfect balance of wonder and dread, pushing the boundaries of what children’s animation can emotionally and thematically explore. At the box office, Coraline was a solid success. Made on a budget of $60 million, it grossed $124.6 million worldwide, including $75 million in the U.S. Its critical and commercial performance helped establish Laika as a major force in animation, setting the stage for later works like ParaNorman, Kubo and the Two Strings, and Missing Link. Critically, the film was widely acclaimed. It holds a 90% rating on Rotten Tomatoes and a Metacritic score of 80, with praise for its originality, visual inventiveness, and its ability to be genuinely scary without resorting to gore or jump scares. Coraline was celebrated for appealing to both children and adults, with its exploration of themes like neglect, autonomy, and the deceptive allure of escapism. Coraline was nominated for Best Animated Feature at the 82nd Academy Awards, though it lost to Pixar’s Up. It also received nominations at the Golden Globes, BAFTA Awards, and won several Annie Awards, including for Best Production Design. Over time, it has achieved cult status, especially among fans of dark fairy tales and gothic animation. The film’s legacy is immense. Coraline is now seen as a genre-defining work in stop-motion and one of the most influential animated films of the 21st century. Its success proved that animated films could be eerie, complex, and deeply emotional without sacrificing mainstream appeal. It remains Laika’s most commercially successful and most beloved film, often compared to The Nightmare Before Christmas for its dark charm and artistic daring.