MOVIE ANALYSIS.

Tanya Kim Mehra,

A015116721023

PSYC153: Basic of Psychological Processes, Professor Akshita Attree

IMA, AIPS, AMITY UNIVERSITY NOIDA.
 CORALINE
Revolves around parent-child dynamic (mostly mother-daughter)
and dissatisfaction of childhood.

CAST
▫ Coraline Jones- Dakota Fanning
▫ Mel Jones (mother)- Teri Hatcher
▫ Charlie Jones (father)- John Hodgman
▫ Wyborne ‘Wybie’ Lovat- Robert Bailey Jr.

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 ABOUT
Coraline Jones has just moved into a new, boring and dull place, leaving her best friends behind.
On her mission to erase her boredom she comes across her crazy neighbours and a strange boy
named ‘Wybie’. After not much help from the neighbour, she explores her century old house as
told by her busy parents. She finds nothing extraordinary besides a tiny door which leads to
nowhere. Later, when she is supposed to be asleep, she slips out of bed to chase the mice and
ends up at the tiny door, but she sees a tunnel that leads to a house almost exactly like hers.
Almost the same besides her mother and father being exactly the way she wishes them to be.
Everybody in the neighbourhood is different. Everything seems perfect until the Other Mother
asks Coraline if she would like to stay forever, with the condition that she wears button eyes.

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 Coraline and her parents
Children seek comfort and safety from their parents. After moving into the
new house, Coraline feels as if she is being isolated and left behind because
of her parents’ busy work schedule. When Coraline goes to her mother to ask
if she could garden outside in the rain and if she would like to join her, she is
turned down immediately.⁽¹⁾ And is told to stop disturbing her. Later on, she
asks her father if she could go outside but she is again turned down and is
brushed off saying that he doesn’t have much time for her.⁽²⁾ Coraline is then
left alone to venture into the house. This shows how parents are unaware of
simple words hurting their children. Due to this, basic anxiety can develop if
the parent does not respect the child, rejects their child, or fails to fulfill the
child’s basic wants and needs.
Coraline Jones

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 Moving to Pink Palace
When she moved to the dull grey place, her first thought
was to go back to her best friends and live with them.
The place did not suit her and she did not want to
believe that such a desolate place could ever grow on
her.

She was introduced to an unknown environment and a

handful of strange people. Without her parents to guide
her through this change, she is left alone to seek comfort
in her dreams. So, she creates illusions who will shower
her with love and care and give her the attention her
parents were unable to provide.

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 The Dream Parents
As she falls asleep, Coraline meets her Other Mother. Struck with the view
of a perfect family, Coraline compares the ‘Other World’ with her reality.
The ‘Other World’ is the way Coraline wishes her world to be, it is full of
colours, it is vibrant and the neighbours are less strange, Wybie doesn’t
speak and most importantly, her parents are there for her and listen to what
she wants.⁽³⁾ It can be seen that Coraline wants her parents to change; for
her mother to cook her good food and be supportive of what she wants to
do, and her father to be family-oriented. Her dreams show what she desires
in real life and what she cannot get. In contrast to reality, Other Mother
spoils Coraline rotten, which ultimately makes Coraline wish for her real
mother to be more like Other Mother.
Coraline’s Other Parents

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 Dreams And Reality

Although she had started dreaming of the Other Mother and Other Father,
she had a sense of reality. She was able to differentiate between dream and
reality, constantly comparing them to each other.

Nearing the end of the movie she loses the grip she had once, she mixes
them up, unable to tell them apart. She is disoriented and unaware of her
surroundings. Even though she had created the illusions to cope with the
lack of attention and love.⁽⁴⁾ And in this process she ends up losing her
parents to the Other Mother.

Coraline’s parents

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 Other Mother
In the ‘Other World’, Coraline’s Other Mother is the main
component, she makes Coraline feel as if whatever is happening
around her is happening due to her own will. Other Mother
created a drift in Coraline’s mind, she has a perfect world and
perfect parents, why would she want to go back?

In the meantime, the real mother is strict and does not want Coraline to get hurt, she herself is aware of
the emotions Coraline is feeling but she is unable to do anything. Nearing the end, it is revealed that the
Other Mother is someone who fed off of children to remain young and all-powerful. Her true form is of a
spider. And according to Freud, he believed that dreaming of spiders represents the mother that devours
her children (which she does through possessiveness or guilt.) When she loses her real parents she realizes
that the all sweet and perfect world was something that could never exist, it is momentary, she wants to
live with her real parents in the real world. So she decides to outsmart the spider-demon to get her mother
and father back.⁽⁵⁾

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 Acceptance
From the beginning, she has been portrayed as a character who is brave, adventurous, strong, and
creative. Someone who is capable of making sensible judgments and even her parents are aware of
this.

The whole ordeal seems to show how it was there to oppose Coraline’s pre-existing perspective.
She views her mother as someone who is emotionally neglectful and her father as someone who is
owned by his work schedule. But she, later on, realizes that the move has made her parents busy,
even if they are only absent temporarily it has made an impact on how Coraline perceives the
people around her. She becomes more capable and grateful for the magic in her daily life. Her
parents are just as boring, loving, and reliable as they should be. And her neighbours are not weird
and strange, they are eccentric and wonderful. ⁽⁶⁾

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 Conclusion
How the parents behave around their child makes a huge impact on how a child will behave
around people and in the future. Coraline was a child who hated her parents for not giving her
attention and love, a child’s basic need. Due to this and the move, her behaviour was
somewhat rude towards people she did not know. There was a wall between her and her
parents, they were not able to maintain emotional stability, and no one told the other what the
actual problem was. Later on when she realizes the value of her parents, as most people realize
the value of others after losing them. Coraline fantasizes in order to avoid reality. Though, she
eventually accepts her new life, even if it took some time.

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 Clips
▫ “I almost died mom.”- https://youtu.be/hNxbzhxBJe0?t=493 ⁽¹⁾
▫ Busy dad- https://youtu.be/hNxbzhxBJe0?t=565 ⁽²⁾
▫ The Other World- https://youtu.be/hNxbzhxBJe0?t=1007 ⁽³⁾
▫ Coraline tries to get her mother’s attention- https://youtu.be/hNxbzhxBJe0?t=2498 ⁽⁴⁾
▫ When Coraline’s parents are taken away- https://youtu.be/hNxbzhxBJe0?t=3955 ⁽⁵⁾
▫ Organises a garden party- https://youtu.be/hNxbzhxBJe0?t=5585 ⁽⁶⁾

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THANK YOU.

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