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CORALINE

[PILOT SHOW/EPISODE ONE]: CORALINE

[OPENING CATCH FRASE]: From your favorite books to movie adaptations, we’ve seen them all, read them all, and we’ll break them all down for you.

[INTRODUCTION]: This is Ali, and this week’s book is Coraline by Neil Gaiman and directed by Henry Selick.

[PART ONE]:

The twisted mind of Neil Gaiman brought us one of our childhood nightmares, Coraline, a young girl whose family moves into a house that is too big for just her family. Her strange neighbors become her only acquaintances as she waits for the new school year to begin.

Coraline begins to explore the big house on her own as her parents unpack and dedicate their time to work from home. Coraline seems to often be ignored by her busy parents so she takes it upon herself to entertain herself by creating vivid daydreams of adventures around the house.

[THE CHARACTERS]:

Coraline visits Miss Spink and Miss Forcible, to learn they are two old women who once lived the life of actresses but were now left alone to live in a basement with their stuffed dogs and various tea’s. She also visits a man who lives in the attic, Mr. B, who claims to have a circus of talented rats that no one can see.

It is important to point out that in the book, Coraline does not have any friends as of yet, no nehibors her age, so the addition of Wybie Lovat to the movie was caused a change in the story.

In the book, Coraline was woken up by the small sounds, she stands up and follows a spider like shape, that we asume is the other mother, but she ends up finding a door with a brick wall on the other side.

“ The black shape went into the drawing-room and Coraline followed it in, a little nervously. The room was dark. The only light came from the hall, and Coraline, who was standing in the doorway, cast a huge and distorted shadow on to the drawing-room carpet: she looked like a thin giant woman.”(Neil Gaiman,pg.4)

In the movie, Coraline finds the door while exploring, finds a small door behind boxes and hidden behind wallpaper as if it was sealed in on purpose. She calls out to ther annoyed mother who tears the paper open and lets he see the nothingness on the other side. At night though she is visited by the circus rats who lead her to the other side of the door.

This change of the story could have lessened the horror aspect the book provided as the mysterious shape of the other mother was revealed far before the end of the movie while the movie much like Narinia hids the horror behind fantastic scenes.

Both the book and the movie continue the same plot line as she enters the other house, well... all but the inclusion of a musical father who plays music for his daughter. In the book she is welcomed by a feast of delicious foods that entice her to return again, once again much like in Narnia.

Though Wybie’s character enters an interesting loop of events into the movie such as his character being silent in the other world, while talking non stop in the real world. He gives Coraline a hint at the begining of the movie about “the weird things that happened there....but im not supposed to talk about it” This leads the audience to beleive that there is a hidden story and gived Wybie an important role througout.

Wybie hands Coraline a ‘spooky’ doll that looks just like her, he explains that it was in his grandmothers home. The inclusion of this scene perhaps gives us a multiverse introduction as she resues the children in the other house from the other mother. The possibility that Coraline freed them from their exsisting time line shows that probably one of those children was Wybies grandmother who made the doll in her memory.

While the doll’s role in the movie is one that leads Coraline to suspition she does not meet this doll in the book but instead learns the hard way that there is something wrong with everything being perfect.

In the book she reveals all the plot twists and has a character growth as she learns that her busy parents cannot give her every moment of their time but love her none the less.

In the movie she does not learn the important value on her own but rather with the help of the talking cat, Wybie, and the other father who admits the evil other mothers plan.

The inclusion of a weak other father to the movie could have taken away the mistery factor of the book, as she begind to learn things by intuition while in the movie things unfold for her, leaving no space, once again, for her character growth.

Another scene added into the movie that does not belong in the book, is the talking portrait of Coralines friends. Though this scene doesnt change the plot at all in either book or movie, it gives us a little peak at Coraline’s old home and life.

While the ending of the book and movie were much alike, we point out both movie and book are different in their basic elements. Not to say one is worse than the other but certainly different.

I recomend that if you wish to introduce horror to your child or sibling, let them read the book as it allow imagination fill those gaps but if you want a soft horror then introduce Coraline’s movie as it will be softer on the plot.

The addition of animation in a Tim Burton style like film gives the imagination a kick.

[ENDING]: Hope you enjoyed our first episode of Books vs Adaptations inc.

This was your host Janet Ali, please like, subscribe, and maybe even share this video with your firends.

We will be uploading every Friday, feel free ro comment below what book and movie you want me to talk about next.

That is all, thank you so much, Bye!

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