Coraline

Rated PG for thematic elements, scary images, some language and suggestive humor.

reviewed by Christopher Lyon

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The Story

Based on a popular children’s horror novella by acclaimed author Neil Gaiman, “Coraline” has been adapted for the screen by stop-motion animation director Henry Selick (“The Nightmare Before Christmas”).

Coraline (voiced by Dakota Fanning) is a young girl with blue hair who discovers a portal to another dimension through a little door inside her family’s old rented house in rainy Oregon. In the Other World, she discovers everything is the same as in the real world except that it’s wonderful.

Other Mother (Teri Hatcher) and Other Father (John Hodgman) have all kinds of time to spend with her, listen to her, and make her wonderful meals—unlike her own parents. So what if they have buttons sewn where their eyes should be? The place is downright magical.

But when Other Mother demands that Coraline replace her own eyes with buttons, the girl begins to realize she’s been lured into a witch’s trap just like three other kids before her. Can she save the souls of those kids, save herself, and protect her parents from the powerful, needy, and deceptive Other Mother?

Content Issues

Should younger kids see “Coraline,” which is pretty much billed as a children’s horror movie? That’s up to you. It would have freaked me out for a week or forever if I’d seen it when I was 10 or younger. The very expressive tyke behind me at our screening went absolutely still about halfway through the film and didn’t say a peep until the credits. Then he couldn’t stop talking about how verrrrrrry scary it was.

And the story does involve a witch and three sweet ghost children who are dead but stuck in an alternate reality and parents that are trapped behind a mirror and an evil Mommy double who wants Coraline to sew buttons on her eyes. Also, in Other World, two old, rotund actresses put on a show in which one gets pretty much naked and flies around on a trapeze singing a song about the size of her bouncing breasts (covered in pasties). The only swearing is Coraline’s use of God’s name a couple of times. As visually amazing as it is, “Coraline” doesn’t feel like a kids’ movie to me.

Worldview Talking Points

“Coraline” raises two broad areas of potential discussion with your kids. One has to do with contentment and gratitude. The other has to do with the nature of evil to use our lack of gratitude against us.

Coraline attracts the attention of the evil Other Mother because she is so deeply unhappy with her life, but nearly losing everything helps her to appreciate her overworked parents and their loving rules for her.

Additionally, the nature of temptation is revealed. We mentioned in our PlanetWisdom review for students that even Satan clothes himself as an angel of light to draw people to himself. (See 2 Corinthians 11:13-15.) Other Mother’s world starts out looking like the answer to every problem and desire Coraline has—until it’s nearly too late for her to escape the trap.

The following questions might help in starting a productive conversation with your son or daughter about learning to value our families (including Mom and Dad!), as well as learning to be wary of evil packaged as fun.

• Did Coraline have a bad attitude at the beginning of the movie? Did that attitude make her vulnerable to the Other Mother’s temptation to leave her family?
• How would Coraline’s story have changed if she had been choosing to be thankful instead of to be discontent?
• Coraline’s parents were always working and never had time for her. Do you ever feel that way about our family?
• Are there things that you wish were different in our lives? How do you handle it when we can’t find a way to change those things?
• How does God provide for you when your parents or other family members are not always available?
• Do you think God tells kids to honor and respect their parents because parents are always right? Of course, we’re not, so why does He tell you to do that? (See Ephesians 6:1-3) [Be sure to let your kids know that learning to obey, honor, and respect you even though you’re not perfect is how they learn to obey, honor. and respect God.]
• “Coraline” is just a story, but there is real evil in the world. What are some things you would describe as evil?
• Do you ever feel tempted to do something you know you shouldn’t because you think it will make you happy?
• How did Other Mother build her magical world to try her best to trap Coraline?
• If someone was going to try to trap you, what kinds of things could they use to get your attention and try to make you believe they could make you happier?
• How can you tell when someone is trying to trick you by offering you something that seems too good to be true?
• Did the darkness in this movie bother you? Where do you think Other Mother’s supernatural power came from? Where did the old actresses’s power to read tea leaves and use charms come from? Where did Coraline’s power to use a divining rod come from?
• In the real world, where does supernatural power come from? [Be sure to emphasize that the Bible teaches that real supernatural power comes only from God or Satan. So if it doesn’t come from God, it can only come from one other source—and we should get away from it.]

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