Coraline remains a Laika movie that keeps on giving, with another re-release in 2024 so more fans can discover the various Coraline Easter eggs. Coraline Stole hearts everywhere when it hit the big screen in 2009 as Laika’s first major motion picture. Based on the bestselling book by Neil Gaiman, Coraline was done in stop-motion animation. Those who worked on it put a lot of detail into the tiny worlds that the titular character ventures into. Some of these details are obvious at first glance, but others are not so easy to spot.
There are so many details that helped create the world of Coraline. The story of the girl who ventures into a parallel universe, only to be trapped in it by a woman with buttons for eyes, took a long time to create. The entire film took a total of 20 months to shoot, not including the time it took to conceptualize and create everything needed for shooting. No shortcuts were taken, and every little aspect served.Which explains its lasting legacy, as it surpassed $160,000 in its last return to theaters.
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The welcome cake reveals the other mother’s true intentions
The cake shows the other mother lying down
When Coraline first enters the alternate world and meets the other mother, she gets some nice surprises. Since the other mother wants Coraline to choose her, she does many things that are Meant to make Coraline want to stay there and never return to her real parents. One of the things she does is present the little girl with a welcome cake. It’s a nice and sweet moment, but it has some ominous meanings for anyone who looks closely at the cake.
The cake had some words written on it to let Coraline know that they were happy to see her and wanted her to stay. One of the words is, of course, “Welcome,” but the word is written stylistically, and the “o” in the middle of the word is written with a double loop at the top. This is a symbol that means lying or betrayal. This implies that the other mother is welcoming Coraline to her home, but she is also lying, and Coraline would do well not to feel welcome in this new house.
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The monkey slippers refer to the past
They breed the movie MonkeyBone
When a movie goes out of its way to point something out, it has meaning. Even if the meaning has nothing to do with the specific film, it is still something that the director wants people to notice. in CoralineThe girl and her father point out a small fun number, and since each of them mentions it, there is a chance that it has to mean something. Both indicate that the father has several monkey slippers that he is wearing. Over the movie. But, what is so important about monkey slippers?
Before Henry Sellick directs Coraline In 2009, he helmed a few other movies, including The Nightmare Before Christmas In 1993 and Jacob and the giant peach in 1996. But he also directed a live-action film, albeit one with many fantasy elements. This was the 2001 black comedy MonkeyBone Starring Brendan Fraser. There’s a good chance the emphasis on the monkey slippers was Selick giving a shout-out to his last movie he directed.
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Jack Skellington cameo
Jack’s face is in the eggs
MonkeyBone Is not the only homage that Henry Selick throws in as a Coraline Easter egg. He also has a blink-and-you’ll-miss-it cameo by none other than Jack Skellington. Of course, Jack is the main character in Henry’s first stop-motion animation classic, The Nightmare Before Christmas. In the movie, Jack Skellington is the king of Halloweentown, but he wants more. Jack figures if he kidnaps Santa Claus, he can also bring his form of fun to the Christmas season.
in CoralineThe whole presence of Jack Skellington takes place in a very interesting place. While the other mom is making breakfast for dinner to impress Coraline, she cracks an egg and pours it into a bowl. The camera then looks down on the egg yolk, and Jack’s skull appears in the yolk. It’s a bit of a cameo in an unexpected place, but it really shows how hard Sellick worked to pay homage to his past movies in this new masterpiece.
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The face on the dollar bill
Henry Selick’s Coraline uses stop-motion for unique charm
Henry Selick, best known for The Nightmare Before ChristmasSpent a long time working on Coraline. As soon as it was decided that Coraline Would be better received as an animated filmSelick wanted the movie done with stop-motion animation. After convincing the studio that stop-motion was the better style suited for CoralineSelik finally got the green light. Doing it in stop-motion gave Selick more opportunity to be funny and humorous with his work.
One of the first scenes in the movie involves Coraline and her family moving into Pink Palace Apartments. A moving truck named “Ranft Brothers” pulls into the driveway, and the two movers transfer all the large furniture in the home. Not only was this a shout out to successful animators Jerome and Joe Ranft, but it also led to a moment for Selick to add himself to the movie. The dollar bill that was given as a tip has Selix’s face on it. Before the audience even sees Coraline, they see the director of the film without realizing it.
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There is a message in Coraline’s father’s song
The song signals what’s about to unfold
The first time Coraline makes her way through the portal and into the other world, she meets the other mother, also known as Beldam. The other mother is cooking dinner and tells Coraline to go and tell her other father that dinner is ready. When Coraline first meets the other father, everything seems great all around. He sings her a song that sounds fun and catchy. However, there is more to it than that.
The song that the other father sings to Coraline when she first meets him has a purpose: It is a warning sign of what is about to happen. The lyrics go, “Make a song about Coraline / She’s a peach, she’s a doll / She’s my girlfriend / She’s as cute as a button in everyone’s eyes Who ever Lay their eyes on Coraline / When she comes around exploring, Mom and I will never make it dull / Our eyes will be on Coraline.“The singing makes it look cute when it’s really a stark contrast to Beldam’s intentions.
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The cracked car
The car accident
As the Jones family settles into their new home, Coraline and her mom, Mel, talk in their kitchen. Mel is working on editing pages for Coraline’s dad, Charlie. Mel mentions something about a car accident, which is why she is wearing a neck brace. Coraline immediately screams that the accident is not her fault. The audience can conclude that the accident was most likely Coraline’s fault, or Mel blames Coraline for one too many mishaps that were not her fault.
Anyway, there was a car accident. The car the Jones family owns sits in the front driveway. It is seen several times, such as when Coraline goes to get her pink-blooming suitcase and when Coraline tries to look for her kidnapped parents. It’s not until Coraline and her mom are driving back from school uniform shopping that the results of the car accident can be seen. The front of the car has a huge crack behind one of the headlights, which makes it appear that Mel Jones was driving the car when the accident happened.
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The Detroit Zoo Snow Globe
Caroline unpacks it at the New House
The Detroit Zoo snow globe becomes an important aspect throughout the entire movie. This is one of the first things Coraline unpacks in the new house, and later, Coraline’s real mom and dad are trapped in it. It looks like just a regular snow globe from a Detroit Zoo fountain, but it has a little more realistic detail than that. The Horace H. Rackham Memorial Fountain is located in the center of the Detroit Zoo.
The fountain features two bronze bears that stand 10 feet tall, making for an incredibly large spring that pours water into a seventy-five thousand gallon pool. The fountain has become a prominent landmark in the zoo. When you look closely at the snow globe Coraline has, the fountain is a replica of the real-life zoo fountain, bears included. The bears disappear when Coraline saves her parents. Then, Coraline’s mom ends up blaming Coraline for “breaking” the snow globe.
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The bug wallpaper is a hint
Coraline’s dull world hints at the other mother’s bag obsession
Everything in Coraline’s real world is supposed to look dull and bleak, as it is intended to contrast with the world that the other mother creates. Multiple subtle hints in the real world foreshadow what’s going to happen in the second half of the movie in Beldam’s world. One of the details includes the wallpaper In the living room of Coraline’s home. The wallpaper in the living room is an ugly blue-gray color that looks to have some throwaway pattern On it, but it is pretty unassuming on the surface.
The pattern, however, actually has a bug print on it. It may be hard to see because the bugs are faint, but the bugs are definitely there. This is intended to overshadow the other mother’s desire for insects. The other mother never eats at the meals she has with Coraline; The only time she eats is when she can eat bugs. This only happens later in the movie, of course, once the Other Mother reveals her true self to Coraline.
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The soundtrack has some hidden aspects
Bruno Coulais mixed things up
The soundtrack in Coraline is originally Supposed to be done by them might be giantsAnd the band created several original songs for the film. The unfortunate part is that the band got the ax when director Henry Selick decided to change the direction of the film. He wanted the music to aim for a creepier angle instead. This resulted in the band not having any of their music in the film, Except for the song that the other father sings to Coraline with the hidden message.
When the change happened, French composer Bruno Coulais stepped in and mixed things up.
French composer Bruno Coulais stepped in and mixed things up when the change happened. When you listen to the songs from the soundtrack, it sounds like it’s a beautiful, but dark, French choir, or something like that, but that’s not accurate. While there is a children’s choir singing, they are not singing in French, let alone any real language. What sounds like a foreign language is, in fact, quite gibberish. They simply sing in a stupid language.
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The Pink Palace flag
Mr. Bobinski’s flag is similar to Montenegro
When “The Pink Palace” appeared at the beginning of CoralineIt is easy to notice the flag hanging from it. It was not until later that it was discovered that The flag is above Mr. Bobinski’s apartment. Mr. B is a strange blue man with a mouse circus and he is extremely athletic although a little scatterbrained. He seems to believe that the mice are talking to him, which Coraline also believes. However, there is also a chance that he does not speak to the mice, and Mr. Bobinski’s belief that he can do this is all in his head.
The flag outside Mr. Babinski’s residence appears to be the official flag of Montenegro. It is a small country near Croatia and Serbia. While Mr. Bobinski is Russian, he makes sure to keep the flag hanging proudly outside his home. It can mean a lot of things, but there is no question that the hanging flag resembles that of Montenegro’s official flag. The only difference is that the real Montenegrin flag has a lion in the middle, whereas Mr. Bobinski’s flag has a rider.
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Mr. Bobinski’s medal
Radiation exposure explains his skin color and bridge craving
Audiences know Mr. Bobinski is Russian not only because of his accent but because of The medal he wears proudly on his shirt. Even when wearing a dirty tank, Mr. Bobinski still has his medal shiny and pinned to his chest. This medal is not a run-of-the-mill badge, though. It is a medal given to the nuclear clean-up team after the Chornobyl nuclear disaster in 1986. Mr. Bobinski’s medal even says “Participant in the cleaning campaign,” and has a picture of a drop of blood on it.
The blood drop has three lines, with each line representing a certain type of radiation. This is the only medal that has been given to participants of a nuclear cleanup. The creators of the film said that Mr. Bobinski is blue because of all the time in the cold. As said, be exposed to radiation for such a long time during the cleaning Can Also explaining his skin color (in an animated world, anyway), as well as his desire to eat raw beets.
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The button key is a hidden symbol
The key symbolizes the gate to the button-eyed world
The key that opens the tunnel door in the living room comes with the house, Where it was found in a drawer along with about a million other keys. Yet somehow, Coraline’s mother knows exactly what key she needs to open the door for Coraline. Just as well, Coraline’s mom is perfectly okay with destroying the wallpaper in her new home. Mel Jones is truly a woman of mystery and confusion.
After Coraline tells her parents about the other mother and the other father, Mel locks the door and hides the key. Coraline finds the key hanging above the doorway in the kitchen and uses her balancing skills to reach it. When Coraline is carrying the key, its shape can be easily examined by viewers. The scene offers a closer look, openly displaying it for all to see. There is a button shape on the end of the key, which makes perfect sense as the key opens the gate that leads to a life of button eyes.
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Lightning hand
The other world hides Beldom’s true nature
The first time Coraline reaches the other world, she has fun until she starts to feel uneasy. She finds it strange the other mother wouldn’t just let Coraline do whatever she wanted But also suggest ideas that her real mother was against. For example, Coraline wanted to garden in the rain earlier that day, but her real mother didn’t. The real Mel Jones doesn’t like dirt and especially doesn’t care for mud. The other mother knows that Coraline is more of a free spirit, so she suggests she play in the rain and mud.
The thing is though, it wasn’t raining when Coraline visited. After Coraline points this out, the other mother creates a storm. With the storm comes a great lightning. In a split second, the lightning forms the hand of the real Beldam. It’s a needle hand, just like the one she’s revealed to have at the end of the movie. This image also appears in the tree branches in Beldam’s world when the black cat speaks to Coraline for the first time.
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The framed silhouettes are hints of ghost kids
Beldam’s dark past and intentions
The amount of effort that went into some of the details is truly remarkable. Tiny details that very few people will ever notice are worked into the background of “The Pink Palace.” An important aspect of Coraline involving the ghost children. The kids are vital because they, just like Coraline, are tricked into believing that the other mother is going to give them a better life. Coraline finds their eyes, and in return, the ghost children help Coraline escape from Beldam.
The ghosts in the house don’t stop until Caroline’s third visit when Beldam throws Caroline behind the mirror. Hints of them are scattered around, though. Foreshadowing their appearance later in the film, The silhouettes of the children appear on the wall in the dining room in the other world. On the wall behind where Coraline sits at the table, there are three silhouettes. What makes Beldam even creepier is realizing that she ate away the lives of kids and then hung their pictures in her dining room.
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Beldam’s humming hints at her connection to the soundtrack
It is almost impossible to notice
The fact that the soundtrack is made up of complete gibberish ties the movie together, And director Henry Selick puts it to good use by having the other mother humming while she cooks. Beldam cooks a lot but doesn’t eat the food. Cooking becomes a major theme throughout the movie as Coraline constantly complains about the lack of good food in the real world. She also complains that her real mom never cooks, so of course her other mother cooks big meals all the time.
Beldam hums as she cooks. The first time Coraline sees her is when Coraline smells something good coming from the kitchen. She walks in, and Beldam is turned away by Coraline, but she grumbles. The songs she hums aren’t just random songs, though – The tunes come directly from the soundtrack. It is almost not noticed, because the melody sounds so familiar that there is apparently nothing to stop and think about.
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Coraline’s hat is a nod to the director’s son
Coraline’s quirky style
One of the funniest scenes in the film comes when Coraline goes to her family’s car after a night of rain and gets her pink flowered suitcase off the roof. Coraline didn’t mind that she left her suitcase out in the car all night. Even stranger is the fact that the only thing in the suitcase is a black military-style hat. Coraline puts on her hat and goes on her adventure.
The hat is, in fact, a Japanese schoolboy hat. Director Henry Selick said that he found a similar one for his son, but since his son had no interest in it, he decided to give Coraline the same storyline. In theory, Coraline did the same thing. She found the hat, but instead of not doing with it like Selix’s son did, she decided to wear it. It helps that it very much suits Coraline’s quirky style, as there are very few kids who would wear something like this, but Coraline doesn’t care.
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An unexplained ketchup stain
Coraline’s dad has a stain on his shirt for no reason
One of the most memorable lines in Coraline comes when Mel offers Coraline lunch: “How do you feel about a mustard-ketchup-salsa wrap for lunch?” Coraline makes a face at the thought. Once she makes her journey to the other world to save her parents, they come back home and announce that their garden book has been well received. This puts them in a good mood, so they have a good Night of family fun.
“How do you feel about a mustard-ketchup-salsa wrap for lunch?“
Ketchup comes back into play when Coraline’s father, Charlie, puts her to bed. He plays with her stuffed octopus, which Coraline finds absolutely hilarious. Pretending that the octopus is against his face, Charlie Jones makes an ordeal of the whole thing. His over-the-top performance is why most viewers don’t notice the ketchup stain on his shirt in that scene. The unexplained element is only there because of a deleted scene that happened earlier. It is difficult to notice, but once you see it, it will be difficult to forget about it.
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The Stopmo Rules Graffiti pays homage to its creators
Recognition for the hard work of the movie creators
Henry Selick pushed the idea of making Coraline Use stop-motion animation. Leica is known for stop-motion animation, however Coraline was their first feature-length movie. It was a major risk to make the movie in stop-motion animation, especially since there was so much content that needed to be covered in the film. Coraline was the longest-running stop-motion animation film ever, in one hour and 40 minutes (Kubo and the two strings was more a few years later).
As stop-motion was a major achievement for the film, it was only natural to give a shout out to the hundreds of people who worked on it. On the back of the Ranft brothers’ moving truck seen at the beginning of the movie, There is graffiti on the bottom right corner that says “StopMo Rulz” with a crown on top. Obviously, that stands for “Stop-Motion Rules,” which is basically a pat on the back for the people who made the movie.