Is this movie appropriate for children??

Fun fact, the writing on the cake "Welcome Home", the "o" of the welcome is written with one loop, while the other "o" in home is with two loops inside, meaning that she IS welcome, but she's not home. Double loops in "o" ( according to graphology) means the one writing is lying.

I've read the book. It's a fairly accurate adaptation. The biggest change is the addition of Wybie. He's original to the movie

I find it funny that in almost every Coraline reaction that I have seen, people seem to not like the way Coraline treats Wybie. I find this funny because when they first met he scared her half to death and almost ran her over, and then continues to follow her around. Another thing is her parents. They let their child go alone to the neighbors house after they said that the man upstairs is drunk and the women downstairs are pretty much crazy. They just moved so they don't really know these people.

it mostly follows the novel, but the novel itself is much scarier; there's no wybie to lighten the mood, so coraline is pretty much alone
Plus things aren't made of sand in the other world, they bleed, and are fleshy; instead of the other father turning to stone, she finds him reduced to a pale amorphous blob in a dark corner

I love the movie and the book so much. I wish they’d found a way to incorporate this part in the book…

“Coraline: How do I know you’ll keep your word?
Other Mother: I swear it on my own mothers grave.
Coraline: does she have a grave?
Other mother: oh yes. I put her in there myself, and when I found her trying to crawl out, I put her back.”

The reason the basement neighbors say "no whistling in the house" is because they're ex-actors, and there's bad juju in the theater about whistling (most stagehands used to be sailors, since they know how to tie knots and such, and sailors used to whistle as a way of saying "look out", so, the only reason you should ever whistle backstage is if something bad is happening)

The cat in the end entered a "portal" to the other world. It's a while since I read the book, but I believe it was well established that although the button-key doors are the biggest and also the most convenient entrance into Beldame's reality, it isn't the only one. The cat regularly travels to the other world, not using the locked door but other passages. It was suggested that another passage actually IS the bottom of the well. The ending scene with our cat friend passing through this portal is supposed to be unnerving, for firstly, that means the realm of Beldame hasn't fully collapsed and still exists, secondly, because there are other means to travel there or from there apart from the tiny door.

Neil Gaiman actually wrote the book because his daughter loved scary things and he wanted to make a book that was scary and complex but still aimed for kids. As a former creepy kid, i think he did amazing!

I love this twisted, dark psychological stuff. Also if I remember correctly, the book is waaayyyyy freakier. Can't wait for Kubo! Love that movie!

Neil Gaiman (the author of the original book), lived in a house much like the one in the story, including the bricked up door. His kid liked the horror genre so he wrote about that and the name Coraline came from a mistake in the ink when he originally intended to write Caroline, so he just went with the current name.

I love/hate thinking about the deeper complexities of the Beldam itself. Who knows where it came from, why it exists, but that desperate longing and violent reaching for connection that consumes the lives of others is a very real human phenomenon. The emotional stakes feel super high for her, despite being utterly evil.

It seems that the souls are what allow her to generate all these illusions because the world disintegrates when Coraline takes them, so the Beldam is literally just filling a bottomless void inside of her, constantly staving off loneliness by controlling and abusing children. I hypothesize that she could technically consume anyone's soul, but getting an adult to let you mutilate them is a huge undertaking. Children are much easier to manipulate via this kind of love bombing because they don't understand boundaries and their trust is simple to gain. Coraline's life was a mixed bag and she quickly got swept up in the Beldam's attention, imagine if her home life were even worse and she didn't have alright parents to come back to. That's what I imagine must be the case with a lot of the kids the Beldam managed to trap.

Every bit of it is terrifying, but the fact that the underlying motivations and tactics feel like that of a real world child predator is the most terrifying.

I love how the father's song is sort of a warning to Coraline being food, she's a peach, she's a button in the eyes, when she's not around our eyes will be on Coraline.

I never noticed before how during meals when Coraline and the other father have full plates the other mothers plate is always empty, the little details in this movie are amazing

Liking before watching....when my daughter brought this book home (she was quite advanced in reading, so she would check out books far beyond her age group's approved books, and I would "check" them for content), she was about 8 yrs old.  I saw the illustrations, let alone the text of the book, and I was QUITE concerned. BTW, the illustrations are very similar to the film's animation. I had to have a long talk with her, read the book myself, and read certain parts WITH her...She had no problem with it at all, lol, and it's continued to be one of her faves!

I absolutely ADORE the book. The movie is a work of art and, though not 100% accurate to the book, I do think one of the creepiest lines is when the dad says “Wybie pulled a loooong face… and Mother didn’t like it.”

15:13 "Never wear green in your dressing room" is an old theatre saying. It's one of those things that are to do with luck, like "break a leg" or "never mention the Scottish play" (the latter which was actually said by Miss Forcible in the novel). They're retired British actresses, they would dispense this kind of advice.

While I prefer the darker tone of the book (one of my faves) I do love the movie as well.  I was Other Mother for Halloween once and actually glued the buttons to my face.  Wouldn’t recommend it for everyday wear but I did get a contest win out of it, haha.

the idea for Coraline actually comes from Neil Gaiman, the author, and his young daughter Holly. In the early 90s, she would tell him scary stories so he wanted to find some "good horror for 4-5 year-olds". There wasn't much obviously so he decided to write it himself!
I've read the book and its scarier than the movie imo!

There's a mushroom ring around the well she dropped the key into. That's known as a fairy ring. When they key dropped in,  it fell into the other mother's world. That monster is strongly implied to not truly be trapped. That was the absolute worst place to have dropped it.