Books at the Box Office: Coraline

I believe Coraline, the movie, was my first real introduction to Neil Gaiman. I read the book later, and the graphic novel–super weird. And then I read The Graveyard Book THREE Times (one for school, one for me, one for work) and of course

I read American Gods (also for school, though..) and so I feel comfortable saying that Coraline is super weird,but kind of a fascinating movie/book.

First the book, but I also recommend the graphic novel highly. The novel was first published in 2002.

In Coraline’s family’s new flat are twenty-one windows and fourteen doors. Thirteen of the doors open and close. The fourteenth is locked, and on the other side is only a brick wall, until the day Coraline unlocks the door to find a passage to another flat in another house just like her own.

Only it’s different…

At first, things seem marvelous in the other flat. The food is better. The toy box is filled with wind-up angels that flutter around the bedroom. But there’s another mother, and another father, and they want Coraline to stay with them and be their little girl. They want to change her and never let her go.

Other children are trapped there as well, lost souls behind the mirrors. Coraline is their only hope of rescue. She will have to fight with all her wits if she is to save the lost children, her ordinary life, and herself.

Now, the film:

This movie was nominated for an OSCAR, okay? An Academy Award for Best Animated Feature. Obviously, it’s animated, but the cast is pretty intense. Dakota Fanning is Coraline. Teri Hatcher is her mother. Henry Selick directed and wrote the screenplay. He also did Nightmare Before Christmas (obviously..stylistically that’s obvious) and James And the Giant Peach.

The movie was released in 2009, which is a lot further away than I remembered it being. I must not have seen the film when it first came out.  Still,it holds up. It has a 90% on Rotten Tomatoes, which is insane. Nightmare has a 95% though so…some work to do.

You can steam Coraline on Hulu, Amazon Prime, or Starz, so no excuses.