Why Coraline Was Confused for a Tim Burton Movie (It’s Complicated)

Coraline is gothic in tone, stop-motion in style, and definitely weird, but did Tim Burton make Coraline? Since Coraline Notice, the movie is mistakenly associated with The Nightmare Before Christmas Creator and dead bride Director Tim Burton. It is true that Coraline Shares a lot of things in common with many Tim Burton movies like Frankenvenie – It’s a kid-friendly, stop-motion horror film featuring the gothic vibe Tim Burton has become synonymous with throughout his decades-long career. Despite the similarities, Tim Burton actually has nothing to do with Coraline Production. Coraline is not directed by Tim Burton, but Henry Selick.

The filmmaker behind Coraline Is Wendel & Wilde Director Henry Selick, But that hasn’t stopped comic Neil Gaiman’s beloved adaptation from being wrongly attributed to Burton by far too many people. Despite the fact that Selick is clearly credited as the Coraline Director, the misconception that Tim Burton directed it still persists. It is clear that the problem is back The Nightmare Before Christmas. The classic stop-motion spook-fest was released in 1994 and is based on a book by Burton. Tim Burton did not direct CoralineBut sad for the legacy of the phenomenal Henry Selick, the comparisons between them do not stop.

Henry Selick’s work is often mistaken for Tim Burton’s

The director undeservedly lived in Burton’s shadow

It’s unfortunate that so many people mistakenly think that Tim Burton is directing Caroline, And it must be frustrating for those Coraline director to have his movies attributed to Burton so often. like CoralineMany people don’t know Tim Burton didn’t direct Nightmare before Christmas. Jack Skellington’s holiday escapades are, rather ironically, also helmed by Coraline Directed by Henry Selick (in his film debut, no less). So, when posters for Coraline had a tagline proclaiming that the movie was “from the director of The Nightmare Before Christmas,Many mistakenly believed that this was referring to Tim Burton.

The Nightmare Before Christmas And Coraline They’re not the only Henry Selick movies plagued by this misconception, either. When Selick released his second feature, Jacob and the Giant Peach, In 1996, it was also mistakenly assumed to be a Burton-helmed movie, although his only involvement with the Roald Dahl adaptation was as a producer. Given how creepy the 1996 movie adaptation is and how unique the animation is, the audience once again mistakenly attributed the film to Tim Burton.

In 2022, Netflix released Selick’s first feature film since Coraline. titled Wendel & WildeThe dark fantasy film with Selick’s trademark stop-motion animation and the voices of Keegan-Michael Key and Jordan Peele as the titular Wendell and Wilde – a pair of scheming demon brothers escaping from Hell. It bears a passing stylistic resemblanceOh The Nightmare Before Christmas And CoralineBut luckily stands apart from Selik’s first animated features. Until now Wendel & Wilde Seems to avoid the Tim Burton comparisons. A good thing, too, since Selick’s long overdue credit for his movies (instead of falsely praising Tim Burton).

The Coraline confusion exposes a Tim Burton problem

Henry Selick’s movies wouldn’t be mistaken for Burton if Burton wasn’t formulaic

While Tim Burton is a wildly talented director with an illustrious career, the fact that people think Coraline Is a Tim Burton movie proves that he has a problem on his hands. The Wednesday The director has such a distinctive style that anything even vaguely resembling his movies, especially animation, seems to be mistakenly credited to him. However, this is not a problem that needs to be solved by movies like this Coraline Or directors like Selick – that’s an obstacle for Burton himself. Over the years, Burton’s movies have become tonally almost identical. It surprises many to learn how short the list of animated movies he’s directed actually is.

Tim Burton only directed two stop-motion movies, Frankenvenie And dead brideAlthough of course, the full title of Tim Burton’s The Nightmare Before Christmas Also puts it in the “Animated Tim Burton Movie” category. The gothic look and feel of the stories have been repeated throughout almost all of Tim Burton’s movies, from Sweeney Todd to be widely hated Planet of the Apes Reboot. While it speaks volumes for his success that the “Tim Burton movie” is essentially now a subgenre in its own right, it also raises questions about his artistic versatility.

There’s a fine line between developing a distinctive style and being a one-trick pony. He doesn’t have a perfect track record either, with outings like the aforementioned 2001 Planet of the Apes and 2012s Dark shadows Failing to match anywhere near the acclaim of Edward Scissorhands Or beetlejuice, Despite all four being unforgivingly Bertonesque in style. However, its non-existent Coraline Separately, Burton has once again received critical acclaim for his work on Netflix WednesdayAnd no Tim Burton movie project is more promising than this Beetlejuice 2 Movie.

How Coraline is different from Tim Burton movies

There are some aesthetic subtleties that set it apart from Tim Burton

Tim Burton did not direct Caroline, And the only reason many mistakenly thought he did is that the film is a creepy stop-motion adventure with a similar overall vibe to the The corpse bride And Frankenvenie. However, there are a few quirks in the animation style and character design of Coraline Which are signs that Burton has no involvement. Every stop-motion Tim Burton movie is based on character designs the director creates himself, and none of his signature style is present in the Coraline Letters.

whether it is The corpse bride Or movies like The Nightmare Before Christmas Which Burton was the creative force behind but did not actually direct, stop-motion Tim Burton characters all share a few traits. The most notable of this is their eyes. Human characters in animated movies directed by Tim Burton almost all have round, round eyes. What’s more, their eyes also tend to be surrounded by dark circles, giving the characters a strong appearance. Any of the letters in Coraline looked like this.

Even carolineHis father, who always had bags under his eyes and heavy eyelids, did not have the typical Tim Burton borders to his eyeballs. It’s a subtle difference, but an important one. There was also much more variation in general between the designs of the human characters in Coraline. In Burton’s stop-motion movies, the human characters all appear cut from the same aesthetic cloth, whereas Coraline Uses a much wider variety of skull structures, eye shapes and other facial aspects. There is a subtle difference between Coraline And movies directed by Tim Burton, but this is a notable one.

How Coraline is similar to Tim Burton movies

The Other Mother feels like something straight out of a Burton story

While Henry Selick directs Caroline, There are certain elements of the movie that, it must be said, wouldn’t feel out of place in a Tim Burton story. Coralines antagonist, the other mother, is the strongest example of this. A demon that takes the shape of children’s parents and replaces the eyes with buttons is almost textbook Tim Burton, as he is (after all), the one who was with such monstrosities as the clown with the teary face of The Nightmare Before Christmas (Even if he didn’t direct it).

Of course, the key reason many casual viewers mistake Coraline For a Tim Burton movie is that it is creepy and animated in stop-motion, but Burton far from owns horror movies animated in this medium. The reason that many more astute viewers still mistake it for a Tim Burton story is that there are parallels between many of Coraline Ideas and Burton’s work, at least in terms of aesthetic and general weirdness.

The history of Coraline comes from the Neil Gaiman book of the same name, and Gaiman invited Selick to direct the film because he was a fan of Henry Selick’s work on The Nightmare Before Christmas – A movie that came from a story and character designs created by Tim Burton. Because it was so, There is a connection between Tim Burton’s fantasy and Caroline, Although a thick and detached one, so it is understandable that there are some similarities.

Other films that get confused for Tim Burton movies

Something gothic or creepy seems to be attributed to The Corpse Bride and Edward Scissorhands director

Along with Coraline And The Nightmare Before ChristmasAudiences have confused Burton for directing a number of other animated movies. 2009s 9 is a unique computer-animated film about an apocalyptic war between humans and machines, and a living ragdoll is the key to the salvation of humanity. The story is typically dark and the ragdoll is a typical quirky protagonist that can be found in almost every Burton-directed movie. However, Burton produced the film, and because he has a huge fan base, the filmmaker’s name was used to promote the film, which did not help the confusion.

It’s not just Coraline And other animated movies that audiences think Tim Burton directed, but live-action movies too. The most notable movie series that is often mistaken for a Tim Burton project is the 1990s Addams Family movies. Both The Addams Family And Addams Family Values were directed by Barry Sonnenfeld, but they have the same gothic aesthetic as Beetlejuice, along with the creative practical effects, so it is not surprising that the viewers thought the 1991 movie was Burton’s movie. Batman Follow-up. Ironically, Burton actually refused The Addams Family Still offered to show it.