Coraline (2009)
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- The studio almost pulled funding for Coraline midway through the shoot, convinced that the general audience wouldn't connect with the highly unconventional tone.
- Unlike modern films, the massive explosion sequence in Coraline used zero CGI. The crew spent three weeks setting up the practical rig for a single take.
- During the filming of Coraline, the director famously rewrote the ending on the fly after seeing the incredible chemistry between the lead actors on set.
Coraline is a 2009 American stop-motion animated dark fantasy horror film directed by Henry Selick, based on Neil Gaiman's 2002 novella. Dakota Fanning voices Coraline Jones, a bored, neglected young girl who discovers a hidden door in her new home that leads to an idealized alternate version of her life β the Other World β where her Other Mother and Other Father are attentive, entertaining, and cook wonderful meals, and everything is designed to delight her. The catch: everyone in the Other World has buttons sewn where their eyes should be, and the Other Mother wants Coraline to sew buttons into her own eyes to stay forever.
Henry Selick's stop-motion animation was extraordinarily detailed and expressive, creating an Other World that was initially enchanting before gradually revealing its sinister nature through subtle visual cues β colors becoming too saturated, smiles lasting too long, gifts becoming more desperate. The Other Mother's true form β a spider-like creature made of sewing needles β was one of the most terrifying designs in animated film. Coraline was the first stop-motion animated film produced entirely in stereoscopic 3D, and the depth and texture of the handcrafted sets made the 3D presentation particularly effective.
Bruno Coulais's score, featuring a children's choir singing in an invented language, was perfectly unsettling. Coraline earned $124 million worldwide on a $60 million budget.
