Coraline (2009)
12-month trend
12-month trend
Monthly article views
2025-09 to 2026-08
A young girl discovers an eerie, idealized alternate world hidden behind a secret door in her new home.
The story
Eleven-year-old Coraline Jones and her parents move into the Pink Palace Apartments, an old Victorian house in Ashland, Oregon. While her parents are busy with work, Coraline explores the house and discovers a small door in the living room. One night, she opens the door to find a tunnel leading to an 'Other World,' where button-eyed doppelgängers of her parents treat her with extra attention. Unaware of the danger, Coraline enters this strange realm, only to find that the world is not as perfect as it seems, and she must navigate the mysteries of this alternate reality to find her way back home.
Full plot (contains spoilers)
After discovering an 'Other World' through a hidden door, Coraline finds a version of her parents who are more attentive but have buttons for eyes. She learns from a talking cat and local neighbors that the world is a trap set by an entity called the Beldam. When the Other Mother tries to trap her by sewing buttons onto her eyes, Coraline must navigate the realm to find her real parents. She strikes a deal with the Beldam to find her parents and the souls of three ghost children who were previously trapped there. Using a magical stone, she locates the children and her parents, who are trapped in a snow globe. Coraline escapes the Other World, and the realm begins to disintegrate. After a final confrontation where she escapes with the help of the ghost children, she returns to the real world. She eventually ensures the Beldam cannot follow her by casting the key to the door into a well, while Wybie helps her defeat the Beldam's reaching hand.
- First release year
- 2009
- Runtime (minutes)
- 100
- Production countries
- United States
- Original languages
- English
- Directors
- Henry Selick
- Writers
- Henry Selick · screenplay
- Cast and characters
- Dakota Fanning · Coraline Jones; Teri Hatcher · Melinda "Mel" Jones and The Beldam a.k.a. The Other Mother; Jennifer Saunders · April Spink and her Other World counterpart; Dawn French · Miriam Forcible and her Other World counterpart; Ian McShane · Sergei Alexander Bobinsky and his Other World counterpart; Keith David · The Cat; John Hodgman · Charles "Charlie" Jones and The Other Father; Robert Bailey Jr. · Wyborne "Wybie" Lovat
- Genres
- stop-motion animated; Gothic; dark fantasy; horror
- Themes
- parallel universes; identity; danger of obsession
- Tone and mood
- creepy; whimsical; dark
- Setting
- A Victorian house in Ashland, Oregon, and an idealized 'Other World'.
- Premise and plot tags
- portal fantasy; supernatural; stop-motion
- Source material / true-story basis
- 2002 novella by Neil Gaiman
- Content notes
- horror
- Reception
- The film was met with widespread acclaim from critics and was considered a groundbreaking work in stop-motion animation.
- Reported review scores
- Rotten Tomatoes · score: 91% · scale: percentage · review count: 279; Metacritic · score: 80 · scale: 100 · review count: 40
- Awards and nominations
- Annie Award · Best Music · 2009 · win; Annie Award · Best Character Design · 2009 · win; Annie Award · Best Production Design · 2009 · win; Academy Awards · Best Animated Feature · 2009 · nomination; Golden Globes · Best Animated Feature · 2009 · nomination; Webby Award · Best Use of Animation or Motion Graphics · 2009 · win
- Production trivia
- The film's production involved over 200,000 possible facial expressions for the puppets.; The production team initially wanted the music to be more creepy, but only one song was ultimately used.; The film's set included a model of Ashland, Oregon, with tiny details like banners for the Oregon Shakespeare Festival.
Film metadata comes from the open sources listed in Credits & Contact. Catalogue details may be incomplete.
Your lists
Loading your lists…