Coraline

"Be careful what you wish for."

2009 1h 40m EN

🙌

7.9

BANGER

★7.9TMDB · 9,528

AnimationFamilyFantasyHorror

Synopsis

Spoiler shield

Wandering her rambling old house in her boring new town, 11-year-old Coraline discovers a hidden door to a strangely idealized version of her life. In order to stay in the fantasy, she must make a frighteningly real sacrifice.

“Be careful what you wish for.”

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Cast

Dakota Fanning
Coraline Jones (voice)
Teri Hatcher
Mel Jones / Other Mother (voice)
Jennifer Saunders
Miss April Spink / Other Spink (voice)
Dawn French
Miss Miriam Forcible / Other Forcible (voice)
Keith David
The Cat (voice)
John Hodgman
Charlie Jones / Other Father (voice)
Robert Bailey Jr.
Wyborne 'Wybie' Lovat (voice)
Ian McShane
Mr. Sergei Alexander Bobinsky / Other Bobinsky (voice)

Credits

Behind the camera

Director: Henry Selick
Writers: Henry Selick, Ovi Nedelcu, Chris Butler
Languages: English
Countries: United States of America

Want more? Switch to Cinephile mode in the header for DP, composer, budget, box office, production companies, keywords, and release history.

Did you know?

Fun facts 🍿

1 / 8

MONEY

Did you know

Mid-budget at $60M — the now-extinct middle tier of Hollywood.

MoodPlayr · trivia#01

2 / 8

MONEY

Did you know

Made its money back 3.1× over at the box office.

MoodPlayr · trivia#02

3 / 8

ERA

Did you know

Released 17 years ago.

MoodPlayr · trivia#03

4 / 8

CAST

Did you know

280+ people credited in cast and crew — a small city's worth of labour.

MoodPlayr · trivia#04

5 / 8

DIRECTOR

Did you know

Directed by Henry Selick, shot by Pete Kozachik. Note their partnership — DPs and directors often return to each other across a career.

MoodPlayr · trivia#05

6 / 8

DIRECTOR

Did you know

Original score by Bruno Coulais. Worth a dedicated listen after — most great films lose half their impact without the score.

MoodPlayr · trivia#06

7 / 8

DIRECTOR

Did you know

Editor Ronald Sanders shaped the rhythm. On an edit-heavy film, the editor does more to control your pulse than the director.

MoodPlayr · trivia#07

8 / 8

CAST

Did you know

Dakota Fanning and Teri Hatcher and Jennifer Saunders carry the top of the cast.

MoodPlayr · trivia#08

Cinephile deep dive

The take

Henry Selick directs. Pete Kozachik behind the camera. Bruno Coulais scores. Ronald Sanders cuts. Made its budget back several times over at the box office. Produced in United States of America. Dialogue in English.

Trivia

Things worth knowing

1Mid-budget at $60M — the now-extinct middle tier of Hollywood.
2Made its money back 3.1× over at the box office.
3Released 17 years ago.
4280+ people credited in cast and crew — a small city's worth of labour.
5Directed by Henry Selick, shot by Pete Kozachik. Note their partnership — DPs and directors often return to each other across a career.
6Original score by Bruno Coulais. Worth a dedicated listen after — most great films lose half their impact without the score.
7Editor Ronald Sanders shaped the rhythm. On an edit-heavy film, the editor does more to control your pulse than the director.
8Dakota Fanning and Teri Hatcher and Jennifer Saunders carry the top of the cast.
9Marketing tagline: "Be careful what you wish for.".
10IMDB entry: tt0327597 — still the authoritative cross-reference for credits and trivia.
11Classified under 20 themes, including "friendship", "dreams", "based on novel or book", "halloween".
12Released under 14 different titles around the world.

The technical file

Cinematography: Pete Kozachik
Original score: Bruno Coulais
Editing: Ronald Sanders
Costume design: Margaret Meyer
Sound: Colette D. Dahanne
Runtime: 100 min · 1h 40m
Aspect ratio (typical): 1.37:1 (Academy)
Status: Released
Budget: $60,000,000
Box office: $185,860,104
Return: 310% of budget
Original language: EN
Certification (US): PG
IMDB: Coraline (2009)

Awards

BAFTA's Children & Young People Award - Feature Film
Annecy Cristal for a Feature Film

Individual records documented via Wikidata; the summary above may count more.

Also by

Henry Selick

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Community reviews

What people are saying

talisencrw2016-05-03
★ 9/10
Neil Gaiman is so contemporarily vital, both in literature and cinema, because he more than anyone else (with the possible exception of Terry Gilliam) notes that children and adults alike are fascinated with what lies outside our observable and tangible realms of existence. He realized the reasons storytelling have been significantly important since the dawn of mankind, and devised, as the Brothers Grimm did, that fairy tales and children's stories had to be haunting and entertaining to be both memorable and timeless. This is a great film depicting the growing sense as a child approaches adolescence that their parents and their world aren't exactly as they seem, and that through their trials and tribulations (the 'rites of passage', if you will) they'll reach the 'happy medium' they need to in order to find true happiness in their lifetimes. I definitely hope that all of Gaiman's books and graphic novels are made into movies (I most anticipate the 'Miracleman' graphic novels--both those by him and Alan Moore). Ones so well-written would truly be 'comic book movies' worth watching for me.
ZeBlah2019-06-29
★ 10/10
Quite dark, but entertaining and very well done. One of the few american animated movies I liked.
Kamurai2020-10-23
★ 9/10
Fantastic watch, will watch again, and do recommend. I really wish more movies would follow this simple and great movie structure. Instead of a typical 3-act structure (not that it isn't technically there), the story is much closer to that of a video game. You have a standard introductory act, but the rest of the movie is split into video game-esque "levels" that develop and unlock as Coraline makes new discoveries and completes different sections of the "map" / house. There is a lot of messaging here as well, mostly concerning relationships between children and parents and how to navigate those in regard to real life events, but everything is "do not tell" levels of subtle so it's not in your face at all. The Beldam itself is a magnificent creation of a "thing that bumps in the night" style of monster. While there is a lot left unexplained, there is plenty that is exampled about the Beldam and her world. The movie also reminds me a lot of "The Wizard of Oz" in a few different ways so its good that there are family friendly movies of this quality that make vague callbacks to classic movies.