CORALINE

Meet Coraline Jones... A young explorer at heart. Coraline's biggest annoyances are not being taken seriously because she's young and that everyone mistakes her name for Caroline. Nevertheless, she is always curious, resourceful, smart and courageous.

Her parents, Mr. Charlie and Mrs. Mel Jones both have home based work. They are always in front of the their computers and want everything quiet including Coraline, to concentrate. Coraline's parents are a bit boring, but the two definitely love their daughter.

She and her parents currently move in the "Pink Apartment"; a Queen Anne Style house that's been divided into four compartments.

On the basement lives two elderly women, retired actresses, Miss Spink and Miss Forcible

who used to perform on carnival stage.  Their ageing Scotties named as Hamish, Angus and Jock and many more are so loved and they don't wannabe detached to them, so the two old ladies are very favorable on stuffing them. Miss Spink and Miss Forcible also talk in theater jargon, often referencing their good old-time as actresses.

On Coraline's stop for a tea with Miss Spink and Miss Forcible, using Coraline's left tea leaves, Miss Spink assumed Coraline's future as dangerous and give her a stone with a hole in it to help protect her. In the other world they are young, pretty, and perform unendingly in front of many different dogs, who, in the Other World, behave like humans.

and on the topmost lives Mr. Bobinski, A retired Russian mouse circus trainer and circus performer; he is commonly referred to as the Crazy Old Man Upstairs or simply Mr. B.  She gave him the sample cheeses that the mail man leaves in front of their doorstep. And after their chitchat, Mr. B shared to her a message from the mice, "do not go through little door..."

He claims to be training mice to perform in a mouse circus, he want the mice to go "Oooompah Oooompah!" but the mice only do "twiddle toot" that's why he's experimenting on cheese.  His counterpart in the Other World trains rats, and is in fact made of rats.

She befriended Wybourne 'Wybie' Lovat.

He is a bit weird to her like all of her other new neighbors, and constantly gets her name wrong. He even decided to give her a nickname, Jonesy, which she disliked even more.

His grandmother is the landlady of the Pink Palace, and seemingly his guardian because his parents aren't ever mentioned. His grandmother also lost her twin sister when she was Coraline's age at the same pink apartment, hence, she usually avoid accepting tenants with children for fear they'll be gone as well...

He is the one who gives Coraline the doll that look exactly like her, that turns out to be a way for the Other Mother to spy on her victims' lives.

Coraline Doll

Her first day on their new house was a bit boring because her parents are busy on their work and she's not allowed to go outside since it's raining and her mom do not want extra things to do like cleaning mud. So her dad gave her things to do, like search the house and count everything in blue. On her search and discovery of the house, she found a locked drawing-room. She asked her mom for the key of the door and was disappointed to see that it's all bricked up.

Caroline's curiosity gets the best of her!

Despite warnings, Coraline decides to follow the mice , unlock the door and finds the brick wall behind the door gone. In its place is a long passageway, which leads to a flat identical to her own, inhabited by her Other Mother and Other Father, who are replicas of her real parents except, they have button eyes and exaggerated features.

In the “Other World”, Coraline finds everything better than her reality: her Other Parents are attentive, cooks good food, loves mud, have a gorgeous garden that looked like her, plays music and her toy box is filled with animate toys that can move and fly!

The Other Miss Spink and Miss Forcible forever perform a cabaret show in their flat and the Other Mr. Bobinsky have a mice show upstairs! She even find the Other Wybie cool for not being able to talk! lol

She even finds the feral Black Cat can talk that wandered around the house in the real world , however she learns he is not part of the Other World and has come to warn the "Other World" is dangerous... The cat is very sarcastic, but helpful and  acts as a mentor and guides her through her journey to escape from the other mother.. He claims to have no name and he does not have an "other world" counterpart, saying that unlike other creatures in the world, cats can "keep themselves together". He moves freely from one world to the next, although he can only talk in the other mother's world.

The story will keep you more and more hooked up! The fun starts to run out when the Beldam asked her to stay forever by sewing on button in her eyes which obviously make Coraline freaked out...

Characters in Coraline Animation

She even met three ghost children, each from a different era, one she recognized as the blue sad boy in the painting, the other girl was Wybie's grandmother's twin sister who all had let the Beldam sew buttons in their eyes.

After the Other Mother releases Coraline from the mirror, Coraline proposes a game in which she must find the ghost children’s souls and her parents, which lay hidden throughout the Other World. If Coraline wins, she, her parents and the ghost children may go free. If not, Coraline will let the Other Mother sew the buttons into her eyes.

The plot was fun and the twist are very unexpected! I love how Coraline defeated the Other Mother. And in the end, the story shows that we should be contented on what we have right now. We should love the imperfection!

So, have you seen your other mother lately?