Coraline parents guide

Coraline Parent Guide

While some may enjoy a venture into this outlandish world, viewers with children will likely choose to leave the door locked on this dark and creepy universe.

Overall B-

Coraline thinks she has found a place where all her dreams have come true when she opens a secret door she discovers in her new home. But the more time she spends in the magical world of this parallel universe, the more nightmarish it becomes.

Release date February 6, 2009

Violence C
Sexual Content C+
Profanity B+
Substance Use B+

Why is Coraline rated PG? The MPAA rated Coraline PG for thematic elements, scary images, some language and suggestive humor.

Run Time: 110 minutes

Official Movie Site

Parent Movie Review

The world of Coraline Jones (voice by Dakota Fanning) is set in a fantastical 3D environment with eccentric residents and stunning visuals. But even in this imaginative locale, life isn’t always perfect. Her parents (voices by Teri Hatcher and John Hodgman), both work-from-home writers, are under pressure from a looming deadline. Not only do they completely ignore their daughter, they get after her for interrupting their work. (It’s a scenario that is sure to make similarly employed parents squirm just a little.)

Forced to amuse herself in the sparsely furnished and dilapidated apartment, Coraline comes across a small locked door hidden behind a layer of wallpaper. Hounding her mother to unlock the entrance, they find only a bricked up wall. But when Coraline revisits the door on her own during the night, she discovers a magical tunnel that leads to another dimension.

There, she meets her “other” parents (also voiced by Hatcher and Hodgman) who are greatly improved copies of her real-life mother and father. In fact, everything on the other side of the tunnel is more colorful, tasty and inviting. Although Coraline is initially put off by the inhabitants’ button eyes, she can’t help but feel drawn to these grown-ups whose only concern seems to be her amusement and happiness.

Even the neighbors who share the house—also enhanced duplicates of the ones back home—are more fun and engaging. The two amply endowed, aging actresses that live downstairs put on a show for Coraline and her friend Wybie (voiced by Robert Bailey Jr.), as does the circus performer upstairs. But before long, Coraline realizes all this doting comes with a price when her “other” mother demands that she sew on her own pair of button eyes.

However, the dark storyline about childhood fears becomes secondary to the special effects as the images become increasingly bizarre and frightening for young viewers. While trying to escape from the “other” world, Coraline is confronted by a man made of rats and chased by a spider-like appendage through a dark forest. The colorful animation may also be too graphic for some audience members when one of the elderly actresses appears on stage in an almost non-existent bikini bottom with her grossly-exaggerated bosom covered only by a couple of tiny pasties.

While some may enjoy a venture into this stunningly rendered world, which is based on a book of the same name, there is no doubt that the experience will scare some kids spitless. But if a good scare is what they want, this movie is sure to provide it.

Starring Dakota Fanning, Teri Hatcher, John Hodgman. Running time: 110 minutes. Theatrical release February 6, 2009. Updated

Coraline
Rating & Content Info

Why is Coraline rated PG? Coraline is rated PG by the MPAA for thematic elements, scary images, some language and suggestive humor.

The fantastical world of Coraline is filled with eccentric characters, frightening scenes and moments of peril for the young heroine. A stuffed doll serves as a spy from another dimension. Coraline crawls through a secret door into this other world where the characters have button eyes and morph into grotesquely distorted figures. Dead pets are stuffed and displayed on shelves in their owners’ home. A cat catches and kills a rat. Mice run up and out of a person’s sleeve. A girl is thrown in a dungeon where ghost-like figures of children appear. Characters are chased by a spider-like claw, fall over the edge of a deep well, are hit by a motorcycle, and pretend to eat slugs. Adults are captured and imprisoned. Other characters morph into frightening, distorted versions of themselves. An amply endowed woman is seen wearing only tiny pasties on her bosom and a skimpy bikini bottom. An unclothed man drives a tractor-like contraption through a garden. A painting depicts partial nudity. The script contains infrequent terms of Deity and depictions of crude bodily functions.

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Coraline Parents' Guide

How does Coraline’s adventure change her feelings about her parents? Do her parents make any real improvements? Why does she feel differently?

In this story, things are not always as they appear. How can the reality of something differ from what appears to be true?

Home Video

The most recent home video release of Coraline movie is July 21, 2009. Here are some details…

Release Date: 21 July 2009

Coraline enters the alternate universe of the home video market on DVD and Blu-ray. Both formats offer the theatrical 2D and 3D versions of the animation (along with some 3D glasses to use at home).

The DVD edition of Coraline provides audio tracks in Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround (English, French and Spanish), and subtitles in English, SDH, French and Spanish. The disc also comes with an audio commentary by Director Henry Selick and Composer Bruno Coulais.

The 2-Disc Blu-ray edition of Coraline has audio tracks in DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1(English) and DTS 5.1 Surround (French and Spanish). Subtitles are available in English, SDH, French and Spanish. Bonus materials include:

- Deleted Scenes

- Audio Commentary (with Director Henry Selick and Composer Bruno Coulais)

- Featurettes (The Making of Coraline, Voicing the Character and Creepy Coraline)

- BD Live Features (My Scenes Sharing and The World According to Henry)

- Interactive D-Box

- U Control (Picture in Picture, Picture in Picture Animatic and Tours and Voice Sessions)

Related home video titles:

Secret studies and hidden doors are the entry points into unknown worlds for other inquisitive children who discover these passages in the Chronicles of Narnia, the Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe and The Spiderwick Chronicles. The film MirrorMask tells the tale of another young lady who becomes entangles in a parallel world. This movie is directed by Henry Selick, who also directed The Nightmare Before Christmas.