Kristina Campbell- Coraline (2009)

The original opening title.

The movie's first scene is a mysterious creepy needle hand taking apart a rag doll with button eyes, remodeling it, and then sending it back out into the world. As the movie goes on, this doll will make much sense.

The Jones family moves into their new apartment unit at the Pink Palace Apartments. We meet Coraline who is a blue haired explorer, always wearing rain boots and is very spunky. We meet Mr. and Mrs. Jones who are too involved in their work to pay any attention to Coraline.

To keep her entertained, Coraline goes on an adventure around the complex and meets a sassy black cat.

She also meets Wybie Lovat, who’s grandma owns the apartment complex. Coraline and Wybie don't get off on the right foot as Coraline feels offended when Wybie makes fun of her name and personality.

The next day, Coraline receives a ragdoll that looks just like her from Wybie. Wybie had found it in his grandma’s trunk.

Coraline's dad gives her a task to explore the apartment and record everything she sees as a way to keep her busy since they don’t have time for her due to work.

Coraline comes across a small door covered up by the wallpaper. After begging her mother to come take a look, she uncovers the door and opens it with a long black key with a button at the end. They open it to only reveal bricks on the other side.

This is what the tunnels to the other world looks like. It would important to incorporate this in my project.

In the middle of the night, Coraline is awakened by the sound of a mouse. She ends up following it down the stairs and watches it go behind the same tiny door. When Coraline opens it, she sees a beautiful, ethereal-like tunnel. Coraline crawls through the tunnel and on the other end, she finds herself in an exact replica of the room. The only difference is that it’s a lot nicer.

Coraline enters the kitchen and is met by her “Other Mother”. Her “Other Mother” is an exact copy of Coraline mother back home but is much nicer and has buttons for eyes. Coraline's father is also very charming and personable.

Throughout the night, the Other parents entertain Coraline and shower her with attention. They feed her a delicious meal and put her to bed in her “Other bedroom” that is beautifully decorated.

Coraline falls asleep but wakes up to find herself back in her regular room. She tries to tell her parents what happens but brushes off her dream. Coraline sets off an excursion to meet other tenants of the Pink Palace.

She first meets Sergei Alexander Bobinsky who is this weird blue glue that was a former Chernobly liquidator. He is a tall and acrobatic Russian man and tells Caroline that he is training circus mice. Before Coraline leaves, he issues a warning form his mice: “They say, ‘do not go through little door’.”

Coraline heads to the lower flat to visit Miss Spink and Miss Forcible, two retired burlesque actresses. They offer her tea and Miss Spink predicts that she is in danger. Again, another warning.

Coraline sees Wybie spying on her when she leaves and goes outside. Wybie explains that his grandmother had a twin sister but disappeared. His grandmother believes she was stolen. Coraline asks why the doll looks like her but Wybie said he just found it.

Coraline goes through the tunnel a couple of times to meet others who live in that world. The Other mother tells Caroline that she can stay in the Other World forever if she wants but there's only one tiny condition. Coraline has to have a button sewn into her eyes to which Coraline refuses. She requests to go to bed early in hopes of waking up in her real world but finds out she's trapped.

Coraline demands to see the Other mother but the Other father tells her they mustn’t talk when “mothers are not around” Coraline tells him that she is going to look for the Other Wybie but the Other father tells her there's no point. Before he could say too much he was silenced by the puppet hands.

Coraline runs outside and begins to walk away from the house and is later accompanied by the sassy black cat. They walk together as the Other World begins to deteriorate into nothing. The cat tells Caroline that the Other mother only created what she knew Coraline would like and soon find themselves walking straight back towards the house.

Coraline goes back inside and enters the drawing room where the Other Mother is. The small door is blocked by beetle looking furniture that comes to life. Coraline demands to be allowed to go home but the Other Mother gets angry and transforms, growing grotesquely tall and elongated. The Other Mother grabs Coraline and throws her through a mirror into a dark room. She tells Caroline she may come out when “she learns to be a loving daughter”.

Coraline meets three ghostly children. They reveal that they don’t remember their names but tell Coraline how The other mother used the doll to spy on them and see what made them unhappy. She lured them into the Other World and ate up their lives and cast their souls aside, locking them inside the mirror. Their eyes were stolen and their souls will be set free if found.

The other Wybie rescues her from the other side of the mirror and helps her escape back through the door and into her regular apartments. She found no one home.

Wybie pays Coraline a visit, asking for the doll back due to it once belonging to his grandma missing sister. She brings Wybie upstairs to give him the doll and explain everything that has happened along the way. Wybie runs from the house screaming that Coraline is crazy and she throws a shoe at him.

Coraline sees an image of her parents shivering in the cold and writing “help us” on the frosted glass. She must go back through the tunnel to rescue her parents.

Before going back through the tunnel, Miss Spink gives Coraline a small stone with a hole in the middle of it. She says it is good for “bad” things as it will help Coraline save her parents.

Coraline goes back to the Other apartment and strikes a deal with the Other Mother. If Coraline is able to locate her parents and the soul of the ghost children then the other Mother will let her go. If she fails, Coraline will have to stay in the Other world forever and have buttons sewn into her eyes.

Coraline plays the game cunningly, using her hollowed-out stone as a tool to help her find the eyes of the ghost children. Coraline also found her parents hidden inside a snow globe. She throws the cat at The Other Mother as a diversion to grab the snow globe and narrowly escapes from the Other Apartment.

Coraline makes it back to her apartment safely and so does her parents. Unfortunately, she manages to sever off the Other Mother's weird needle hand in the process and is now after the key to unlock the door.

In the middle of the night, Coraline decided to drop the key in an old well away from the house. The severed needle hand catches up to her, almost getting the key until Wybie comes flying in on his bike to save the day. He manages to smash the hands and throw it along with the key down the well.

The movie ends with Coraline and her parents throwing a garden party for all their neighbors.