Well, I watched it when I was about 8 I believe, I'm still traumatized and also a huge fear of spiders. Before this movie I even had a pet spider xD So I would say no.. :E
it mostly follows the novel, but the novel itself is much scarier; there's no wybie to lighten the mood, so coraline is pretty much alone Plus things aren't made of sand in the other world, they bleed, and are fleshy; instead of the other father turning to stone, she finds him reduced to a pale amorphous blob in a dark corner
Yeah, the book is very fast in getting to the action. Within like three chapters, we're already at the part where Coraline denies the Other Mother's gift.
Also, we get an insight of her relationship with her dad. He is the one who teaches her about being brave and that's something that helps her keep going. In the movie, she is neglected, but having those little insights in the book makes it seems like that's something that changed when they moved to the new house. One of the theories for this movie is that Beldam does have some kind of control over Caroline's parents, to make her feel alone, which would make her feel more welcome and eager to go to the other world.
And there was no magically transporting back and forth between worlds if I remember correctly, and the others mother had a weird conversation about killing her own mother. Oh and the dogs would talk about being forced to watch the show forever, remember it being so much creepier then the movie! I’m like a super fan of both lol
Fun fact, the writing on the cake "Welcome Home", the "o" of the welcome is written with one loop, while the other "o" in home is with two loops inside, meaning that she IS welcome, but she's not home. Double loops in "o" ( according to graphology) means the one writing is lying.
Graphology is barely pseudoscience and not taken seriously in any scientific circle. Thinking you can infer a persons personality just by how they write letters is laughable and ridiculous.
@@WalkerRileyMC Exactly! It's on the level of physiognomy for me. That said, writers can pull from the loosest of sciences for their stories (references or otherwise).
The reason the basement neighbors say "no whistling in the house" is because they're ex-actors, and there's bad juju in the theater about whistling (most stagehands used to be sailors, since they know how to tie knots and such, and sailors used to whistle as a way of saying "look out", so, the only reason you should ever whistle backstage is if something bad is happening)
I love the movie and the book so much. I wish they’d found a way to incorporate this part in the book… “Coraline: How do I know you’ll keep your word? Other Mother: I swear it on my own mothers grave. Coraline: does she have a grave? Other mother: oh yes. I put her in there myself, and when I found her trying to crawl out, I put her back.”
I always had a theory that if Coraline let the other mother promise on her mother, would it had been the "grandmother" rather than her right hand that came for the key?
I think the bathtub Coraline notices the dead spider the size of a cat in.. is the other mothers mother's grave... I reckon she's the dead spider because every-time she tried to "crawl out" she "put her back" One of my favourite animals are spiders and I often leave a towel on the side of the bathtub in-case any fall in and can't climb back out.
@@nickreacts6394 He was actually added because in the book Coraline has a lot of internal monologue and they didn't want her talking to herself!! The ending was also changed a bit instead of a struggle and a fight she outsmarted the hand by placing a blanket over the well, putting the key in the middle and pretending to play a tea party with her dolls , when the hand (which btw was a very much real severed hand in the book not a mechanical one) tried to grab the key it weighted the blanket too much and it fell to the well with the key! They also scrapped what I think was the scariest thing in the book and that was the unknown ancient entity that lived in the tunnel!
@@annahajkova5642 I think that's a very clever technique for the filmmakers to give us a glimpse into Coraline's thoughts without excessive voiceover. And hearing those details from the book makes me want to read it...
@@nickreacts6394 You should!! It's a very good book! It's quite short too :)) The author is Neil Gaiman who is like.. one of the best modern authors imo he also wrote things like Stardust (amazing book AND a movie too although the movie is quite different it's still great), Neverwhere, American Gods, Good Omens (with sir Terry Pratchett as collaborative writing) and a bunch of screeplays (notably a lot of Doctor Who)
I find it funny that in almost every Coraline reaction that I have seen, people seem to not like the way Coraline treats Wybie. I find this funny because when they first met he scared her half to death and almost ran her over, and then continues to follow her around. Another thing is her parents. They let their child go alone to the neighbors house after they said that the man upstairs is drunk and the women downstairs are pretty much crazy. They just moved so they don't really know these people.
That's true, although I'm not sure Wybie was trying to scare Coraline at the beginning, at least not in a mean-spirited way. And the parents were certainly flawed and inattentive, and I think even by the end were far from perfect. But I like the difference in how Coraline learns to respond to that lack of attention by the end of the film, I thought she matured significantly
@@nickreacts6394 In my opinion, I think she just chose the lesser of two evils. Coraline would have stayed had the other mother not have brought up the button eyes thing. They almost had her and they would have. I also think that the parents were playing a dangerous game because they weren't attentive to her for almost 3 days. She could have ran away, gotten kidnapped or killed and been in a situation she couldn't escape from. They were able to be comfortable because Coraline fought her way out but if she hadn't they would have spent the rest of their lives wishing they had done things differently. Thank you for your reaction and for responding. I love seeing different perspectives.
@@moonchildyoushine2486 Although you're right about the parents playing a dangerous game with leaving Coraline alone, i do get it because 1. the parents are already in a difficult spot with Coraline's mom being in a neck brace indicating an accident and the parents trying to pay off the medical bills and such with extra work. 2. Coraline is a child so in her eyes, not being the center of attention is what she wants but not what she needs.
@@bluewolf6323 I totally understand and I don't think she needs to be the center of attention. However, they had just moved so Coraline doesn't have her friends to hang out with anymore, and she hasn't started school yet. So I feel that the attention she wanted made sense because she is still a kid and kids can only entertain themselves for so long. Not mention that Coraline's parents didn't just leave her alone they verbally pushed her away. I get being under a lot of stress but it isn't Coraline's fault that she is still a child. They made it seem like she was causing them problems. Stress is inevitable, but they shouldn't have let it get to them so much that they treated her the way they did. Coraline is still a child so she is not going to think, "My parents are under a lot of pressure so that's why they are acting this way, it doesn't mean anything." She is going to think "Wow my parents must really not want me around, they don't want to play with me and they are being mean."
The cat in the end entered a "portal" to the other world. It's a while since I read the book, but I believe it was well established that although the button-key doors are the biggest and also the most convenient entrance into Beldame's reality, it isn't the only one. The cat regularly travels to the other world, not using the locked door but other passages. It was suggested that another passage actually IS the bottom of the well. The ending scene with our cat friend passing through this portal is supposed to be unnerving, for firstly, that means the realm of Beldame hasn't fully collapsed and still exists, secondly, because there are other means to travel there or from there apart from the tiny door.
If there were other entrances she would've gone there herself instead of using the hand that was out. And she obviously can't use the passages the cat uses.
The true problem is what will the beldam eat? Not only is she skin and bones but she's replaced parts of her body. On top of that the average time she takes to kill a child is 50 years. As the first was around 150+, second 100+, and the last 50+ with a living sister. Beldam needs to eat soon and now she has a broken hand and missing eyes she has to fix in her weaken state. I highly doubt she'll survive.
Oh yeah, the book is even worse. I remember at the very least that when the world breaks down, it’s not all fake dolls and stuff-it’s rotting flesh and corpses. Just to give you the idea.
Neil Gaiman actually wrote the book because his daughter loved scary things and he wanted to make a book that was scary and complex but still aimed for kids. As a former creepy kid, i think he did amazing!
Neil Gaiman (the author of the original book), lived in a house much like the one in the story, including the bricked up door. His kid liked the horror genre so he wrote about that and the name Coraline came from a mistake in the ink when he originally intended to write Caroline, so he just went with the current name.
15:13 "Never wear green in your dressing room" is an old theatre saying. It's one of those things that are to do with luck, like "break a leg" or "never mention the Scottish play" (the latter which was actually said by Miss Forcible in the novel). They're retired British actresses, they would dispense this kind of advice.
@@bradleybarnett1469 What's that mean? (The word) and Life partners? as in they're a married couple? I always thought they were Sisters or friends so that's cute:)
@@mar420.74 Burlesque Is a type of show with dancing, coreo AND sometimes singing but in a kinda sexy way there's a movie about those shows called Burlesque with Cher AND Christina Aguilera 😊
Liking before watching....when my daughter brought this book home (she was quite advanced in reading, so she would check out books far beyond her age group's approved books, and I would "check" them for content), she was about 8 yrs old. I saw the illustrations, let alone the text of the book, and I was QUITE concerned. BTW, the illustrations are very similar to the film's animation. I had to have a long talk with her, read the book myself, and read certain parts WITH her...She had no problem with it at all, lol, and it's continued to be one of her faves!
Well that's some solid parenting in my book (I have no experience, but just my take haha). I like how you were concerned enough to look through the book but also open to reading some parts to your daughter. And that's really neat the animation style replicated the feel of the book's illustrations!
The first "adult' book I read was Issaac Asimov's The Naked Sun (Sci-fi murder mystery with Robots), I think I was about 8, (3rd or 4th grade reading report). My mom also had Ray Bradbury's Illustrated Martian Chronicles that I had read a year or so earlier, some nightmare fuel in there for young readers for sure.
I love/hate thinking about the deeper complexities of the Beldam itself. Who knows where it came from, why it exists, but that desperate longing and violent reaching for connection that consumes the lives of others is a very real human phenomenon. The emotional stakes feel super high for her, despite being utterly evil. It seems that the souls are what allow her to generate all these illusions because the world disintegrates when Coraline takes them, so the Beldam is literally just filling a bottomless void inside of her, constantly staving off loneliness by controlling and abusing children. I hypothesize that she could technically consume anyone's soul, but getting an adult to let you mutilate them is a huge undertaking. Children are much easier to manipulate via this kind of love bombing because they don't understand boundaries and their trust is simple to gain. Coraline's life was a mixed bag and she quickly got swept up in the Beldam's attention, imagine if her home life were even worse and she didn't have alright parents to come back to. That's what I imagine must be the case with a lot of the kids the Beldam managed to trap. Every bit of it is terrifying, but the fact that the underlying motivations and tactics feel like that of a real world child predator is the most terrifying.
She "feels" like a fairy, not disney, super cute and friendly fairy, but old school Fair Folk fairly, the kind that we call them fair because we dare not call them anything else. Bedlam means old woman, as in a witch. Think baba yaga.
I agree fully. I think she used the children's souls to fuel the illusions and to keep herself alive in the other world. The ghosts of the children tell Coraline that she "ate up our lives." suggesting she consumed their souls. Also when Coraline is escaping through the tunnel the other mother screams "I'll die without you." further supporting the idea she needs their souls or maybe even just their eyes to survive.
A couple things I noticed are: 1: The inside of the well looks like the dark version of the tunnel to the Other World. 2: The garden in the Other World looks like Coraline (this one is obvious). However, the less obvious one is that the garden in the real world looks like the Other Mother.
@@nickreacts6394 yes, many many times, lots of clues/hints and hidden "easter egg" like stuff to spot... including some needed use of good frame-pausing and zooming in... wink wink there's a lot more going on... much much darker stuff... the real evil is not the other mother, she's not the actual beldam that is stealing children with a seeming "perfect" dream world... the other mother doesn't fear cats... she fears... what possesses the cat... something that can travel in and out of the "dream world" at will... something very sinister... and very evil... see if you can notice the two different "cats"-characters-souls and behaviors, actions, and personalities, within the cat... when the cat is possessed and when the cat is not possessed
@@nickreacts6394 There is a TH-cam channel called the The Theorizer, he has a whole playlist dedicated to dissecting the film! And it all starts with the well looking like the portal, I recommend you react to his videos.
@@redmoonbloodmoon3161 I know that in the original book, the tunnel to the Other World is described as a creature who existed way before the Other Mother. The Other Mother is basically described as a parasite that is inside the creature.
I never noticed before how during meals when Coraline and the other father have full plates the other mothers plate is always empty, the little details in this movie are amazing
I love how the father's song is sort of a warning to Coraline being food, she's a peach, she's a button in the eyes, when she's not around our eyes will be on Coraline.
@@Kreepie11 No they weren't lol? Lalaloopsy dolls were absolutely adorable, theyre dolls the button eyes was genius, Im.. not sure how cute dolls can scare you when these dolls on this movie are absolutely nightmare fuel
There's a mushroom ring around the well she dropped the key into. That's known as a fairy ring. When they key dropped in, it fell into the other mother's world. That monster is strongly implied to not truly be trapped. That was the absolute worst place to have dropped it.
While I prefer the darker tone of the book (one of my faves) I do love the movie as well. I was Other Mother for Halloween once and actually glued the buttons to my face. Wouldn’t recommend it for everyday wear but I did get a contest win out of it, haha.
@dallace brown There's little holes in the buttons. It definitely impaired my vision but thankfully my friends warned me if I was going to bump into something lol.
I remember my entire class being absolutely traumatized in school when we had to read this book. Our teacher genuinely got a kick out of our discomfort.
Jesus, and I thought the book we had to read was traumatising (cause the kid dies in the end). I would've probably had nightmares if I had to read Coraline as a kid
I remember when my class had to read "the Black Cat" By Edgar Allan Poe, and most of my class was genuinely upset the further our teacher read into the story. I had kinda read it before hand so I knew what I was getting into but it's still a genuinely upsetting tale, specially if you're a cat lover.
@@lucia5556 Does it have animal ab^se in it, or the cat dies, or smt? Asking because I love reading Edgar's writings but don't want to traumatise myself ;-;
@@meh4019 I don't remember the specifics but said black cat dies in a f_$#@-ing gruesome Way. and then there's also a "human" murder ( the narrator's wife) that for some reason is less gruesome than the cat
I absolutely ADORE the book. The movie is a work of art and, though not 100% accurate to the book, I do think one of the creepiest lines is when the dad says “Wybie pulled a loooong face… and Mother didn’t like it.”
Yeahhh! I read this book as a kid it was one of my favorites. Way freakier than the movie in hindsight. In the book Coraline gets thrown in a pitch black crawl space with the disintegrating sawdust/doll corpse of the other father. The drawings were super creepy, kinda like the "scary stories to tell in the dark" style. I do consider the movie a fairly faithful adaptation in spirit, even though the visuals are very different along with various details. Also there was no wybie in the book, but Henry selick figured Coraline would need someone to talk to with the loss of the internal monologue. I'm not complaining, wybie is adorable.
the idea for Coraline actually comes from Neil Gaiman, the author, and his young daughter Holly. In the early 90s, she would tell him scary stories so he wanted to find some "good horror for 4-5 year-olds". There wasn't much obviously so he decided to write it himself! I've read the book and its scarier than the movie imo!
The book was written by Neil Gaiman, who if I remember correctly also worked with the makers of the movie version so it should be pretty fateful. I never read the book myself, but there are two things I know about it: 1. Wybie does not exist in the book, he was created purely for the movie version 2. Neil Gaiman's publisher was hesitant to publish Coraline as a children's book, because the story seemed way too scary for children so Gaiman suggested they read it to their own child to see if they get scared and so they did and ended up publishing it because their kid claimed that the story didn't scare them at all. Years later said kid admitted that they were actually absolutely terrified by the story, but didn't want to admit to it because they wanted to know how the story would end
The music was composed by Bruno Coulais, a prolific French composer. Soundtracks of his I would recommend are - The Secret of Kells The Song of the Sea Wolfwalkers Microcosmos Oceans Les Choristes Also, I would highly recommend you check out the first of the three listed above, if you want to see some of the most beautifully animated films ever made. The Irish studio that created them has been called the Studio Ghibli of Europe :)
The book is a decent bit darker, also Wybie does exist in the book but never appears. He is only mentioned. I read the book first as a kid, but this is the only example of me not hating the movie compared to the book. I love both equally even though they are pretty different. This is my #1 favorite movie. Some fun facts I know: The moving man who asks for a tip is actually someone who passed away when working on this movie. They added him in as a tribute. Also the man's picture shown on the dollar bill given to the movie man is the face of the director When you look at the picture of Coraline and her friends by her bed you can see her there with brown hair. Meaning coraline dyed her hair blue at some point sense then. Notice the writing on the cake in the other home. Calligraphy specialists say that if an o has one loop in it, it means what is written is truthful. However when the o has two loops it means what is written is a lie. So the writing is saying is she in fact welcome, but she is not home. The shopping scene was going to be cut as it was seen as pointless. But the director insisted on keeping it as its the last scene Coraline is seen with her parents. In the real world you never see Mr.Bobinski's dancing mice because there aren't any. Hes simply crazy. Many thought mr.bobinski had blue skin just as a creative choice, but the medal he wears through the film is actually a medal given to liquidators of the chernobyl disaster. So his skin is actually blue due to radiation.
Wybie does not exist in the book, and isn't mentioned at any point. The house in the book doesn't even have a land lord that is mentioned. Wybie and his grandma are completely original characters for the film. And Mr. B. does actually have a mouse circus. He is not crazy. Coraline, page 160: "As the first stars came out Coraline finally allowed herself to drift into sleep, while the gentle upstairs music of the mouse circus spilled out onto the warm evening air, telling the world that the summer was almost done."
Something about Coraline's Other Mother always reminded me a bit of the creature from It. Except instead of feeding on the fear of children it feeds on their love.
I don't believe she feeds on their love, she just uses love to gain the trust of children so that they will let her take their eyes and trap them. I believe she is able to feed on their souls once she has them captive.
There's a theory that Pennywise and the other mother are the simlar beings . The only difference is that she doesn't have the deadlights that Pennywise has. In the book, one of the forms IT takes is a pregnant spider and she gives birth to multiple eggs that the losers try to kill. Hopefully Welcome to Derry expans more on the king lore.
Fun fact: the design of the Seamstress (the sewing, hypnotizing, cobra-like machine from 9) was made in reference to the Other Mother/Beldam, as both movies were made by the same company and released in the same year. Bonus fact: the Seamstress was Tim Burton's favourite machine from 9.
Coraline is without a doubt my all time favorite animated movie. I really love everything about it. So dark, yet so pretty. Beautiful. I'm so glad you did this, and that you really liked it. Much love!
as someone who grew up in a messed up home, stories like this hit hard. And they're older than we think, it comes from before Peter Pan, the idea of running away from a situation but being hunted down by something.. I guess it's a way to tell children they should be strong and face it instead of running away, still pretty creepy tho
Fun fact! Bobinski wears a Chernobyl liquidation badge, given to those who entered heavily Radiated areas after the Chernobyl nuclear explosion in Russia, which is also why they his skin is Blue.
My siblings literally watched this for the first time this last Sunday. It was so fun. They made a blanket fort upstairs, made popcorn, and waited til it was dark outside to watch it. 😄
I read the novel once when I was 9 and again when I was 14 (and I think I've listened to it a few times as an audiobook later on whilst drawing). I loved the novel and definitely consider it the kind of story that gets more unsettling the older you get. The movie was quite faithful. EDIT: Also I really recommend you to look into the behind-the-scenes features on Coraline that LAIKA has posted on TH-cam. I find them as fascinating as the film itself. How they built the sets, made flowers out of pop corn and dog toys, got the worlds' only miniature knitter to knit sweaters with needles the width of a hair.
Neil Gaiman wrote the Coraline novel and his publisher questioned whether it would be good for kids, but she read it to her daughter and the daughter seemed to love it. Later Gaiman talked with the daughter and she told him it was really scary but she wanted to see how it would end so she had her mom read all of it for her.
Neil Gaiman is one of those amazing writers who can create the most unique and creative stories imaginable. If you haven't read Coraline, but enjoy reading, I would highly suggest that you check it out. Having Laika Studios animate Coraline was a perfect choice, as you really can't go wrong with anything from Laika.
This movie is amazing! I’ve read the book and one thing I can say is that it is soooo much scarier than the movie. There was one chapter towards the end with the other father that scared me pretty badly (my fault for reading at night). Otherwise the movie holds up really well! Wybie isn’t even in the book, he was a movie addition. Great reaction Thor!! 🤗🤗❤️
Really great film! Such a visual feast, and really impressed by the commitment to being as scary as it was. Wish more family-friendly movies had the guts to do that more often. If you're into video essays at all, one of my favorites is a deep dive into Coraline from CJ the X -- so fascinating and philosophical, I *really* recommend checking it out if the interest is there! It really deepened my appreciation for this kind of story and how it's told.
The novel is much creepier. Especially in audio book form! I got it through my library and highly recommend! The biggest difference to me is no Wybie, most of the animals in the other world talked to Coraline as well as the cat to give her clues.
Yeeeeesss...one of my all time favorite movie...amazing video and and loved the reaction by the way...definitely rewatch it again later...as a kid the part where the other mother (beldam) transformed scared the hell out of me...these are some theories and detailes that I think you might find intresting... -Bobinsky wears a small medal on his chest containing the term 4A3C. This medallion was awarded to individuals who assisted in the aftermath of Chernobyl. It is also adorned with three droplets of blood, possibly indicating the level of radiation to which he was subjected.his involvement in Chernobyl is the real reason for his blue skin. -if you pay attention to the writing on the cake the 'O' on the home is curved but not on the word welcome...in Calligraphy the curved O means that the word is not true and it's a lie...so it means she is welcome but this place is not her home... -there are bug prints on the wallpaper when coraline first opened the door... -the face on the dollar bill that the gave as a tip is Henry Selick, the director of the movie. -in the beginning you can see beldam sends the doll in a sky full of stars and it's always night time in the other world.Wybie says that if you fall into the well you can see a sky full of stars indicating that the well is another portal to the other world so she basically gave beldam the key... -the other father was actually warning coraline in the song he played... Making up a song about Coraline She's a peach (she is food for the Beldam to eat) She's a doll (referencing the doll of Coraline used to spy on her) She's a pal of mine (the Other Father is shown throughout the movie trying to protect her from the Beldam) She's as cute as a "button in the eyes of everyone" whoever laid their eyes on Coraline (everyone has button eyes in the other world) When she comes around exploring mom and I will never ever make it boring Our eyes will be on Coraline (both a reference to her being watched and their button eyes being sewn onto her) Other double meanings: The Other Father tells Coraline he doesn't need to play piano, the piano plays him. (The Beldam is puppeting him) The Other Father asks "Who's starving, raise your hand" and the piano raises it's hands (the Beldam is controlling the piano, and is hungry for Coraline) There are so much more that I can't type and I definitely recommend you to read the book and watch some videos about the theories...sorry if it's too long...have a great day and thank you for making great commentary videos for us...🤩😍💖❤💖👏🏻🌼🌸💐
Wow, that is simply an insane level of details that I completely missed! I knew this movie was well-crafted, but all these added touches and nuances are so impressive. It's so interesting that the Other Father was warning Coraline on the down-low, really shows that he was as much a prisoner of the Beldam as the rest. Thanks for sharing this!
My father brought this home for me when it came out, not knowing it was horror (and I couldn’t stomach horror when I was that young!). Safe to say that didn’t go over well to little me Now that I’m an adult now, I look back on this story and movie and adore it. I’m happy that you shared your experience with us!
13:33 In theatre, whistling is considered bad luck on stage. Being that they are former stage performers, they do not want to bring bad luck into their home. That's why later they tell Coraline to "never wear green in your dressing room." They are just superstitions.
This was my favourite movie when I was younger! Neil Gaiman always has the best books! I still have the graphic novel (Side note: I love your videos! I just watched you react to the Green Mile yesterday! It had me in tears the first time I watched it. ...and the last, lol!
New theory I’ve never personally thought of until you said something. Maybe… maybe her parents did go look after her (never thought of this lol) and maybe the other mother had the power to separate them from Coralines fantasy world. And her parents agreed to stay ( bc the other mother hint at her button eye). And so that ties into the theory that the other mother has more power than we thought. Thus she creates the world in the ending scene
I also live in the same area as Laika Studios, and a few years back they had a big exhibit at the local art museum where they brought in a ton of their figures and sets that they preserved. The Coraline-face garden was as big as my living room and just gorgeous in person!! I love stop-motion, and I can't wait for you to see Kubo! It's my second favorite Laika film.
I love this rendition and the book as well. There are some changes but in this case i think they enhance the story and Gaiman did have some hand in it. Love this movie! In the book the tunnel is alive too and it's hinted the Other Mother is afraid of it. Gaiman is a Mythology and Lovecraft buff so it's always in his stories if you look hehe. Like a Beldam is actually a creature.
Ahhh I'm so excited to see you reacting to the Laika films! Kubo is my ABSOLUTE favorite Laika film so I'll be so excited to see what you think of that one.
Idk if anyone has said this yet but the ending means that coraline never escaped the other world since the cat can only disappear and talk in the other world. Also beldam basically means a witch or shape shifting entity.
My friend’s mom rented this for us to watch at a sleepover when I was 6. Absolute mistake. Will never be the same again. (Btw this is one of my favorite movies now, but at 6... absolutely traumatizing).
Fun Fact: So, the author of the book that this is based on (Neil Gaiman) said that his publicist thought the book was to scary for kids but they agreed that if the publicist read the story to their young daughter and she was not to scared they would publish the book. The daughter was not scared and thoroughly enjoyed the book so it got published. Years later Neil was talking to the daughter and she said that the book actually terrified her and even gave her nightmares, but she wanted to finish the story so badly that she lied to the publicist and said she was not scared.
Soooo... My parents bought the movie in DVD (they didn't expect it to be this dark and disturbing) when it came out. I watched it when I was 12 or smthg, and it utterly terrified me and my (younger) siblings. We never watched it again and my parents apologized xDD
the fact that coraline ties up the hand in the ending scene with the KEYYY!! she literally sent the key to the other mother, giving her access directly to the real world
This is also a great movie to rewatch for all the little details and hints. (Like the lightening when it rains in the other world is the shape of the other mothers needle hand etc) So cool.
Imo the end is actually not happy. Remember what Wybie said, something about looking into the pitt and seeing a night sky full of stars even in the middle of the day ?! That's the other world : it's always nighttime there. I think the pitt is a tunnel to the other, so when she threw the key there, she actually threw it accidentally to the other mother. Plus look at the cat's reaction right after she had the dream with the other childrens, when she's back home, and she got the idea of throwing the key into the pitt : he blocks her door when she's trynna get out and he looks suspicious, cause he know damn well it's a trap. Also, look at the shape of the garden at the end of the movie : not Coraline's face, it's the other mother's face ! So yeah, sorry to kill the mood here but for me, there's no happy ending ... She lost.
Great movie, great reaction, loving it! I discovered some interesting theory about Beldam's origin form on the internet: “Coraline” Theory: The Beldam is NOT a Spider …She’s a beetle. Specifically, a Goliath beetle. I think my reasoning is easier to compile into a list: 1. That’s why her final form is so tall. GOLIATH beetles are pretty big bugs. 2. It explains all the other beetle imagery in the movie- such as her eating “cocoa beetles” as a snack, the wallpaper in the Other House having beetle print on them, the beetle furniture, and even the beetles on her sewing machine at the beginning. 3. Her black, white, and red colour scheme matches that of the Goliath beetle. 4. Goliath beetles have a diet high in sugar. Perhaps this explains the Beldam’s fondness for “cocoa beetles”? 5. The Other Mother says that her “cocoa beetles” come from Zanzibar (in southeast Africa)- which is quite close to where Goliath beetles can be found in eastern-central Africa (including Tanzania). 6. Her final form doesn’t have eight limbs like a spider- she has six limbs like a beetle. Also, there was once a video floating around on TH-cam that involved the lady responsible for designing the characters’s clothing and she specifically mentioned an inspiration for the Beldam’s dresses being from the Goliath beetle (th-cam.com/video/Oplvz1bnmdw/w-d-xo.html (5:02))
YOU SHOULD WATCH EVERYTHING EVERYWHERE ALL AT ONCE! It’s an absolutely phenomenal movie that covers so many deep topics while also making you feel every emotion.
I have a Coraline backpack and people will say to me, "That movie gave me nightmares as a kid." It was always my favorite movie which makes me worry about myself sometimes
One of the first movies i remember growing up was the Saw movies, i personally am glad i grew up with movies like that and this, and just scary movies overall cause im not scared of much these days 😂
My idea is the reason the other mother takes their eyes because the eyes are supposedly the windows to the soul and she eats their souls away so taking their eyes is a symbolism of taking all those left in them that's human
The book is very similar, but the whole thing is told through her inner monologue, so wybie was added in the film to give her someone to talk to. Some other things were cut from the book's story, like an even more terrifying confrontation with the other father and the other mother's real flesh-and-blood hand being cut off.
13:34 There's a superstition that you're not supposed to whistle in a theater (sailors served as set crew long ago and because they communicated by whistle on ships they'd mistake someone whistling for one of their cues)
Since you liked Shrek, try Gnomeo and Juliet. A star-studded cast, jokes that are sooooo inappropriate, and most of the plot is demented. Yet oddly heartwarming and satisfying. An underrated gem.
The producers offered a Canadian band called They Might Be Giants to do the entire soundtrack, but they ended up not using most of it and stiffing TMBG on the check. The only song they did use was the introduction of Other-Father. The singer of that song in the film is the main vocalist of TMBG.
Sixth birthday? That is quite young for this one... I think I would've had a similar reaction at that age. Do you like it now that you're older, or does the scary memory make it hard to enjoy?
Some say that this movie is way too creepy for children, but let's not forget that life's no fun without a good scare, right? Also, if you think about it, many classic fairy tales are even creepier from adult perspective. Children just have a different approach, taking things not as "seriously" as adults
I agree! Lots of amazing fairy tales, and even some older Disney animations show some surprisingly serious themes, and I think that children can honestly pick up on a lot
@@nickreacts6394 Yeah. And as about the eye-tapping thing, it WAS a hint, but different from the one used in the book: there, Coraline asks the Other Mother a different question ("How big are souls anyway?", for the ghost children asked her to find their souls, not eyes), and she responds with this very gesture, hinting that they are eye-sized
@@CarolinePhoenixMe but then what was the hint in the movie? that the parents were hidden in something water-related (the snow ball) and that's why the eye-tapping connected to the droplets? i've been thinking about it for so long and i can't think of any hint jsjsks
@@patriciamerinolopez9545 The Other Mother told the truth about "ghosts' eyes being hidden in plain sight", and I guess eye-tapping meant that Coraline needs to look for something literally eye-sized (or perhaps it could be a reference to the book... or just plain gloating: "it is so obvious" and all)
I'm usually not keen on a lot of reaction videos but you're so calm and sweet about everything! You also provide good thoughts/opinions on the film. Subbed!
BRO, I love this movie. An all time favorite. Thanks for reacting to it! No other movie has precisely this vibe for me, something very unique about it. Also Teri Hatcher's voice as the 'Other Mother' is peak *gay terror* for me every time LMAO. 😆
The part of Coraline making pillow imitations of her "real" parents is what stuck to me most as a kid. Being born when my mother was menopausal, I saw my parents physically get old as I grew up. And that one scene from Coraline got me thinking of what ifs. Like losing parents; or the whole family.
This is definitely my fav movie of all time. i remember being so fascinated by it when i first watched it at 6 years old in 3D it was revolutionary to me and ever since then i've been watching it at least once a year and each time i enjoy it as much as watching it for the 1st time
I just came across your channel, and I love how you talk about the filmmaking aspects of films like the musical score, camerawork and animation. I also love how you take time at the end to talk a bit more about your opinion on the film as a whole. That said, this movie is definitely a favourite of mine as the animation is really flipping impressive and the story has always creeped me out. I remember when I was younger that I could not sleep after seeing the film, or even when I read the book. Also, I could be wrong but I believe that the director, Henry Selick didn’t want this film to have any/much VFX, so stuff like the fog seen later in the film was actually real, and was green screened into the film. There’s a BTS on TH-cam of this film that I’d recommend you check out. And finally, there’s this TH-camr called The Theorizer and for a long time he made dozens of theories on Coraline, and I’d also recommend him as his theories are actually really well informed and creepy. He did this one about how Coraline never actually left the Other World and how the Beldam (The Other Mother) was fooling Coraline into believing that she had left the Other World, as later in the film, when the Beldam was pretending to be Coraline’s mother after Coraline went back to save her; we briefly see that the Beldam can actually make her own eyes appear human, so that’s how that theory came to be. There’s also more evidence for this theory, as pointed out by The Theorizer. However, If this theory is true, then this movie just became ten times more creepier for me. But, sorry for the long read; there was just some stuff I wanted to say about the film. Anyway, I can’t wait to see more of your reactions in the future as I’ve subscribed.
I read the novel when I was a kid and watched the movie when i was a senior, and it's so funny that it's true that kids and adults/adolescents have a different reaction to Coraline
Sellick directed both this film and Nightmare Before Christmas. Burton wrote the original poem Nightmare was based on and produced it, but Sellick is like the biggest name in stop motion today.
A few years ago my mom had gotten an antique doll as a gift. She didn't do much with it. It just stayed in her closet over time in her bedroom downstairs. Over time we both got creeped out by it but my mom was too scared to throw it out so I said a prayer and took the doll from her closet and threw in in the trash and it worked out perfectly because the truck was coming down the road to pick up the trash. We never saw that doll again
The other fathers song is actually a warning to coraline. Telling her qbout the button and eyes watching her. That she'll have fun but she's a peach-something to eat to the other mother and that hes a friend of his and he doesn't want to hurt her
The doormat by the two old theater ladies door that said - No whistling in the house. Well it is a superstition among actors and actresses (at least back in the day). If you whistle in the 'house' (theater) it will cause bad luck of some kind, same with the curse of the Scottish play 'Macbeth'
I love how even though the opening theme song for Coraline is just a jumble of gibberish words it is so weirdly catchy and fits the vibe of the movie perfectly. Whenever I’m drawing or doing anything creative I listen to it and it just gets the whimsical/ artsy vibes flowing. I loved creepy claymation movies and Tim Burton movies as a child so I’m biased to saying it is 100% appropriate for children, especially the creative types. Whilst every child is different the story does end happily with an overall great message to appreciate the things you have and not to take them for granted. At least that’s the message I got from the film. Also, as a side note, I always thought Coraline was sort of intentionally rude to Wybie to push him away since she missed her old friends and her old life and was determined not to find the good in where she was and desperately wanted the “better” life that she ended up getting from the other mother. The other mother chose Coraline and the other children because she saw they were unhappy and could prey on that so I always thought she was sort of purposefully negative towards everything in her real life out of spite for missing her old life and home. Just my two cents 🤷🏻♀️ Loved the reaction! 🖤🤗
First person I've heard that mentioned Henry Selick. Henry is also responsible for directing The Nightmare Before Christmas, Tim Burton was executive producer to both productions.
Is this movie appropriate for children??
uh sure yea i watched it when i was like 4-5
I think it’s a great intro horror film for kids 😅
My daughter had this as her favourite film from age 7, before that it was Nightmare Before Christmas, and she's turning out great!
Depending how brave the kids are.
Well, I watched it when I was about 8 I believe, I'm still traumatized and also a huge fear of spiders. Before this movie I even had a pet spider xD
So I would say no.. :E
it mostly follows the novel, but the novel itself is much scarier; there's no wybie to lighten the mood, so coraline is pretty much alone
Plus things aren't made of sand in the other world, they bleed, and are fleshy; instead of the other father turning to stone, she finds him reduced to a pale amorphous blob in a dark corner
And the tunnel was bigger and is probably a big monster.
That part of the book, with the other father, is one of the most tense moments . The other mother seems more vicious, and weird from the start.
Yeah, the book is very fast in getting to the action. Within like three chapters, we're already at the part where Coraline denies the Other Mother's gift.
Also, we get an insight of her relationship with her dad. He is the one who teaches her about being brave and that's something that helps her keep going. In the movie, she is neglected, but having those little insights in the book makes it seems like that's something that changed when they moved to the new house. One of the theories for this movie is that Beldam does have some kind of control over Caroline's parents, to make her feel alone, which would make her feel more welcome and eager to go to the other world.
And there was no magically transporting back and forth between worlds if I remember correctly, and the others mother had a weird conversation about killing her own mother. Oh and the dogs would talk about being forced to watch the show forever, remember it being so much creepier then the movie! I’m like a super fan of both lol
Fun fact, the writing on the cake "Welcome Home", the "o" of the welcome is written with one loop, while the other "o" in home is with two loops inside, meaning that she IS welcome, but she's not home. Double loops in "o" ( according to graphology) means the one writing is lying.
Wow! Didnt think about that, That's fascinating!
Laika Studios says that's not what they intended but they loved the analysis anyway.
Another fun fact, Mr. Bobinski was a Chernobyl liquidator, you can see that by th medal he's wearing
Graphology is barely pseudoscience and not taken seriously in any scientific circle. Thinking you can infer a persons personality just by how they write letters is laughable and ridiculous.
@@WalkerRileyMC Exactly! It's on the level of physiognomy for me. That said, writers can pull from the loosest of sciences for their stories (references or otherwise).
The reason the basement neighbors say "no whistling in the house" is because they're ex-actors, and there's bad juju in the theater about whistling (most stagehands used to be sailors, since they know how to tie knots and such, and sailors used to whistle as a way of saying "look out", so, the only reason you should ever whistle backstage is if something bad is happening)
lol i thought it was because of the dogs
@@SykoMuffinsame lmao
I love the movie and the book so much. I wish they’d found a way to incorporate this part in the book…
“Coraline: How do I know you’ll keep your word?
Other Mother: I swear it on my own mothers grave.
Coraline: does she have a grave?
Other mother: oh yes. I put her in there myself, and when I found her trying to crawl out, I put her back.”
Oh I remember having literal chills reading that part... As a grown woman.
Best line of the book by far.
I always had a theory that if Coraline let the other mother promise on her mother, would it had been the "grandmother" rather than her right hand that came for the key?
I think the bathtub Coraline notices the dead spider the size of a cat in.. is the other mothers mother's grave... I reckon she's the dead spider because every-time she tried to "crawl out" she "put her back"
One of my favourite animals are spiders and I often leave a towel on the side of the bathtub in-case any fall in and can't climb back out.
@@Kaijufan360 This movie is the reason to as how I came up with my own term for that - TimBurtonesque, lol - when it looks like Tim's work but isn't.
I've read the book. It's a fairly accurate adaptation. The biggest change is the addition of Wybie. He's original to the movie
Oh no way! I think he played a really important role in the film, I like that addition
@@nickreacts6394 He was actually added because in the book Coraline has a lot of internal monologue and they didn't want her talking to herself!! The ending was also changed a bit instead of a struggle and a fight she outsmarted the hand by placing a blanket over the well, putting the key in the middle and pretending to play a tea party with her dolls , when the hand (which btw was a very much real severed hand in the book not a mechanical one) tried to grab the key it weighted the blanket too much and it fell to the well with the key! They also scrapped what I think was the scariest thing in the book and that was the unknown ancient entity that lived in the tunnel!
@@annahajkova5642 I think that's a very clever technique for the filmmakers to give us a glimpse into Coraline's thoughts without excessive voiceover. And hearing those details from the book makes me want to read it...
@@nickreacts6394 its a very good, easy read. Can get it done in a few hours.
@@nickreacts6394 You should!! It's a very good book! It's quite short too :)) The author is Neil Gaiman who is like.. one of the best modern authors imo he also wrote things like Stardust (amazing book AND a movie too although the movie is quite different it's still great), Neverwhere, American Gods, Good Omens (with sir Terry Pratchett as collaborative writing) and a bunch of screeplays (notably a lot of Doctor Who)
I find it funny that in almost every Coraline reaction that I have seen, people seem to not like the way Coraline treats Wybie. I find this funny because when they first met he scared her half to death and almost ran her over, and then continues to follow her around. Another thing is her parents. They let their child go alone to the neighbors house after they said that the man upstairs is drunk and the women downstairs are pretty much crazy. They just moved so they don't really know these people.
That's true, although I'm not sure Wybie was trying to scare Coraline at the beginning, at least not in a mean-spirited way. And the parents were certainly flawed and inattentive, and I think even by the end were far from perfect. But I like the difference in how Coraline learns to respond to that lack of attention by the end of the film, I thought she matured significantly
@@nickreacts6394 In my opinion, I think she just chose the lesser of two evils. Coraline would have stayed had the other mother not have brought up the button eyes thing. They almost had her and they would have. I also think that the parents were playing a dangerous game because they weren't attentive to her for almost 3 days. She could have ran away, gotten kidnapped or killed and been in a situation she couldn't escape from. They were able to be comfortable because Coraline fought her way out but if she hadn't they would have spent the rest of their lives wishing they had done things differently. Thank you for your reaction and for responding. I love seeing different perspectives.
Be nice to your neighborhood stalker guys LMAO. x
@@moonchildyoushine2486 Although you're right about the parents playing a dangerous game with leaving Coraline alone, i do get it because 1. the parents are already in a difficult spot with Coraline's mom being in a neck brace indicating an accident and the parents trying to pay off the medical bills and such with extra work. 2. Coraline is a child so in her eyes, not being the center of attention is what she wants but not what she needs.
@@bluewolf6323 I totally understand and I don't think she needs to be the center of attention. However, they had just moved so Coraline doesn't have her friends to hang out with anymore, and she hasn't started school yet. So I feel that the attention she wanted made sense because she is still a kid and kids can only entertain themselves for so long. Not mention that Coraline's parents didn't just leave her alone they verbally pushed her away. I get being under a lot of stress but it isn't Coraline's fault that she is still a child. They made it seem like she was causing them problems. Stress is inevitable, but they shouldn't have let it get to them so much that they treated her the way they did. Coraline is still a child so she is not going to think, "My parents are under a lot of pressure so that's why they are acting this way, it doesn't mean anything." She is going to think "Wow my parents must really not want me around, they don't want to play with me and they are being mean."
The cat in the end entered a "portal" to the other world. It's a while since I read the book, but I believe it was well established that although the button-key doors are the biggest and also the most convenient entrance into Beldame's reality, it isn't the only one. The cat regularly travels to the other world, not using the locked door but other passages. It was suggested that another passage actually IS the bottom of the well. The ending scene with our cat friend passing through this portal is supposed to be unnerving, for firstly, that means the realm of Beldame hasn't fully collapsed and still exists, secondly, because there are other means to travel there or from there apart from the tiny door.
If there were other entrances she would've gone there herself instead of using the hand that was out. And she obviously can't use the passages the cat uses.
She still died.
The true problem is what will the beldam eat? Not only is she skin and bones but she's replaced parts of her body. On top of that the average time she takes to kill a child is 50 years. As the first was around 150+, second 100+, and the last 50+ with a living sister. Beldam needs to eat soon and now she has a broken hand and missing eyes she has to fix in her weaken state. I highly doubt she'll survive.
I love this twisted, dark psychological stuff. Also if I remember correctly, the book is waaayyyyy freakier. Can't wait for Kubo! Love that movie!
Same! I really love animations/ movies with this tone. And the book is freakier?? Haha now I really need to read it
@@nickreacts6394 Yeah, it’s really freaky.
Oh yeah, the book is even worse. I remember at the very least that when the world breaks down, it’s not all fake dolls and stuff-it’s rotting flesh and corpses. Just to give you the idea.
Kubo is also great!!!
I remember the basement part in the book being really tense, really need to reread it again~
Neil Gaiman actually wrote the book because his daughter loved scary things and he wanted to make a book that was scary and complex but still aimed for kids. As a former creepy kid, i think he did amazing!
And he initially wrote it for his daughter, Caroline, but misspelled it and went hey screw it let’s do this
Bro went all in 💀
Neil Gaiman (the author of the original book), lived in a house much like the one in the story, including the bricked up door. His kid liked the horror genre so he wrote about that and the name Coraline came from a mistake in the ink when he originally intended to write Caroline, so he just went with the current name.
15:13 "Never wear green in your dressing room" is an old theatre saying. It's one of those things that are to do with luck, like "break a leg" or "never mention the Scottish play" (the latter which was actually said by Miss Forcible in the novel). They're retired British actresses, they would dispense this kind of advice.
They're Burlesque Actresses... And Life Partners! Which surprised me, but Neil confirmed it in a Q&A
@@bradleybarnett1469 What's that mean? (The word) and Life partners? as in they're a married couple? I always thought they were Sisters or friends so that's cute:)
@@mar420.74 Burlesque Is a type of show with dancing, coreo AND sometimes singing but in a kinda sexy way there's a movie about those shows called Burlesque with Cher AND Christina Aguilera 😊
Liking before watching....when my daughter brought this book home (she was quite advanced in reading, so she would check out books far beyond her age group's approved books, and I would "check" them for content), she was about 8 yrs old. I saw the illustrations, let alone the text of the book, and I was QUITE concerned. BTW, the illustrations are very similar to the film's animation. I had to have a long talk with her, read the book myself, and read certain parts WITH her...She had no problem with it at all, lol, and it's continued to be one of her faves!
Well that's some solid parenting in my book (I have no experience, but just my take haha). I like how you were concerned enough to look through the book but also open to reading some parts to your daughter. And that's really neat the animation style replicated the feel of the book's illustrations!
@@nickreacts6394 Neil Gaiman (sp?) Is still one of her favorite authors.
Dave McKean (the illustrator) collaborated a bunch with Gaiman and he did some pretty great covers for the Sandman books.
The first "adult' book I read was Issaac Asimov's The Naked Sun (Sci-fi murder mystery with Robots), I think I was about 8, (3rd or 4th grade reading report). My mom also had Ray Bradbury's Illustrated Martian Chronicles that I had read a year or so earlier, some nightmare fuel in there for young readers for sure.
@@spacedinosaur8733 Dear Lord, Bradbury at 7???? (LOVE him)
I love/hate thinking about the deeper complexities of the Beldam itself. Who knows where it came from, why it exists, but that desperate longing and violent reaching for connection that consumes the lives of others is a very real human phenomenon. The emotional stakes feel super high for her, despite being utterly evil.
It seems that the souls are what allow her to generate all these illusions because the world disintegrates when Coraline takes them, so the Beldam is literally just filling a bottomless void inside of her, constantly staving off loneliness by controlling and abusing children. I hypothesize that she could technically consume anyone's soul, but getting an adult to let you mutilate them is a huge undertaking. Children are much easier to manipulate via this kind of love bombing because they don't understand boundaries and their trust is simple to gain. Coraline's life was a mixed bag and she quickly got swept up in the Beldam's attention, imagine if her home life were even worse and she didn't have alright parents to come back to. That's what I imagine must be the case with a lot of the kids the Beldam managed to trap.
Every bit of it is terrifying, but the fact that the underlying motivations and tactics feel like that of a real world child predator is the most terrifying.
She "feels" like a fairy, not disney, super cute and friendly fairy, but old school Fair Folk fairly, the kind that we call them fair because we dare not call them anything else. Bedlam means old woman, as in a witch. Think baba yaga.
I agree fully. I think she used the children's souls to fuel the illusions and to keep herself alive in the other world. The ghosts of the children tell Coraline that she "ate up our lives." suggesting she consumed their souls. Also when Coraline is escaping through the tunnel the other mother screams "I'll die without you." further supporting the idea she needs their souls or maybe even just their eyes to survive.
A couple things I noticed are:
1: The inside of the well looks like the dark version of the tunnel to the Other World.
2: The garden in the Other World looks like Coraline (this one is obvious). However, the less obvious one is that the garden in the real world looks like the Other Mother.
Dang, thanks for pointing out these details! This movie is one I need to watch several times to fully appreciate
@@nickreacts6394 yes, many many times, lots of clues/hints and hidden "easter egg" like stuff to spot... including some needed use of good frame-pausing and zooming in... wink wink
there's a lot more going on... much much darker stuff... the real evil is not the other mother, she's not the actual beldam that is stealing children with a seeming "perfect" dream world...
the other mother doesn't fear cats... she fears... what possesses the cat... something that can travel in and out of the "dream world" at will... something very sinister... and very evil...
see if you can notice the two different "cats"-characters-souls and behaviors, actions, and personalities, within the cat... when the cat is possessed and when the cat is not possessed
idk why ppl say it looks like the other mother. I literally pulled up both images and it's exactly the same.
@@nickreacts6394 There is a TH-cam channel called the The Theorizer, he has a whole playlist dedicated to dissecting the film! And it all starts with the well looking like the portal, I recommend you react to his videos.
@@redmoonbloodmoon3161 I know that in the original book, the tunnel to the Other World is described as a creature who existed way before the Other Mother. The Other Mother is basically described as a parasite that is inside the creature.
I never noticed before how during meals when Coraline and the other father have full plates the other mothers plate is always empty, the little details in this movie are amazing
I love how the father's song is sort of a warning to Coraline being food, she's a peach, she's a button in the eyes, when she's not around our eyes will be on Coraline.
The Other Father is the MVP of this movie.
This movie spooked me so much as a kid. I vividly remember being unsettled by commercials for a doll with button eyes called Lalaloopsy
YES!!🫵🏻
To be fair, they were terrifying.
Me too. With the movie and those dolls
All of us are now scared of button eyes and small doors lol
@@Kreepie11 No they weren't lol? Lalaloopsy dolls were absolutely adorable, theyre dolls the button eyes was genius, Im.. not sure how cute dolls can scare you when these dolls on this movie are absolutely nightmare fuel
This is my all-time favourite film adaptation of a book that I've read. They made some minor changes but captured the feel of the story so perfectly.
Glad to hear it captures the spirit of the book! I'm interested to check it out now
There's a mushroom ring around the well she dropped the key into. That's known as a fairy ring. When they key dropped in, it fell into the other mother's world. That monster is strongly implied to not truly be trapped. That was the absolute worst place to have dropped it.
While I prefer the darker tone of the book (one of my faves) I do love the movie as well. I was Other Mother for Halloween once and actually glued the buttons to my face. Wouldn’t recommend it for everyday wear but I did get a contest win out of it, haha.
I need to check the book out ASAP. And talk about a perfect Halloween costume, I'm glad you won :)
@dallace brown There's little holes in the buttons. It definitely impaired my vision but thankfully my friends warned me if I was going to bump into something lol.
I remember my entire class being absolutely traumatized in school when we had to read this book. Our teacher genuinely got a kick out of our discomfort.
Jesus, and I thought the book we had to read was traumatising (cause the kid dies in the end). I would've probably had nightmares if I had to read Coraline as a kid
I remember when my class had to read "the Black Cat" By Edgar Allan Poe, and most of my class was genuinely upset the further our teacher read into the story.
I had kinda read it before hand so I knew what I was getting into but it's still a genuinely upsetting tale, specially if you're a cat lover.
@@lucia5556 Does it have animal ab^se in it, or the cat dies, or smt? Asking because I love reading Edgar's writings but don't want to traumatise myself ;-;
@@meh4019 I don't remember the specifics but said black cat dies in a f_$#@-ing gruesome Way. and then there's also a "human" murder ( the narrator's wife) that for some reason is less gruesome than the cat
@@lucia5556 ohhhhh okay I sure as hell won't read it then. Thank u for the info :)
Still my favourite movie to this day. The Other Father’s song has so much meaning behind it, he’s trying to warn Coraline
I absolutely ADORE the book. The movie is a work of art and, though not 100% accurate to the book, I do think one of the creepiest lines is when the dad says “Wybie pulled a loooong face… and Mother didn’t like it.”
Yeahhh! I read this book as a kid it was one of my favorites. Way freakier than the movie in hindsight. In the book Coraline gets thrown in a pitch black crawl space with the disintegrating sawdust/doll corpse of the other father. The drawings were super creepy, kinda like the "scary stories to tell in the dark" style. I do consider the movie a fairly faithful adaptation in spirit, even though the visuals are very different along with various details. Also there was no wybie in the book, but Henry selick figured Coraline would need someone to talk to with the loss of the internal monologue. I'm not complaining, wybie is adorable.
Warning ⚠️ book spoiler
the idea for Coraline actually comes from Neil Gaiman, the author, and his young daughter Holly. In the early 90s, she would tell him scary stories so he wanted to find some "good horror for 4-5 year-olds". There wasn't much obviously so he decided to write it himself!
I've read the book and its scarier than the movie imo!
The book was written by Neil Gaiman, who if I remember correctly also worked with the makers of the movie version so it should be pretty fateful. I never read the book myself, but there are two things I know about it:
1. Wybie does not exist in the book, he was created purely for the movie version
2. Neil Gaiman's publisher was hesitant to publish Coraline as a children's book, because the story seemed way too scary for children so Gaiman suggested they read it to their own child to see if they get scared and so they did and ended up publishing it because their kid claimed that the story didn't scare them at all. Years later said kid admitted that they were actually absolutely terrified by the story, but didn't want to admit to it because they wanted to know how the story would end
The music was composed by Bruno Coulais, a prolific French composer. Soundtracks of his I would recommend are -
The Secret of Kells
The Song of the Sea
Wolfwalkers
Microcosmos
Oceans
Les Choristes
Also, I would highly recommend you check out the first of the three listed above, if you want to see some of the most beautifully animated films ever made. The Irish studio that created them has been called the Studio Ghibli of Europe :)
The book is a decent bit darker, also Wybie does exist in the book but never appears. He is only mentioned. I read the book first as a kid, but this is the only example of me not hating the movie compared to the book. I love both equally even though they are pretty different. This is my #1 favorite movie.
Some fun facts I know:
The moving man who asks for a tip is actually someone who passed away when working on this movie. They added him in as a tribute.
Also the man's picture shown on the dollar bill given to the movie man is the face of the director
When you look at the picture of Coraline and her friends by her bed you can see her there with brown hair. Meaning coraline dyed her hair blue at some point sense then.
Notice the writing on the cake in the other home. Calligraphy specialists say that if an o has one loop in it, it means what is written is truthful. However when the o has two loops it means what is written is a lie. So the writing is saying is she in fact welcome, but she is not home.
The shopping scene was going to be cut as it was seen as pointless. But the director insisted on keeping it as its the last scene Coraline is seen with her parents.
In the real world you never see Mr.Bobinski's dancing mice because there aren't any. Hes simply crazy.
Many thought mr.bobinski had blue skin just as a creative choice, but the medal he wears through the film is actually a medal given to liquidators of the chernobyl disaster. So his skin is actually blue due to radiation.
Wybie does not exist in the book, and isn't mentioned at any point. The house in the book doesn't even have a land lord that is mentioned. Wybie and his grandma are completely original characters for the film.
And Mr. B. does actually have a mouse circus. He is not crazy. Coraline, page 160: "As the first stars came out Coraline finally allowed herself to drift into sleep, while the gentle upstairs music of the mouse circus spilled out onto the warm evening air, telling the world that the summer was almost done."
Something about Coraline's Other Mother always reminded me a bit of the creature from It. Except instead of feeding on the fear of children it feeds on their love.
I don't believe she feeds on their love, she just uses love to gain the trust of children so that they will let her take their eyes and trap them. I believe she is able to feed on their souls once she has them captive.
There's a theory that Pennywise and the other mother are the simlar beings . The only difference is that she doesn't have the deadlights that Pennywise has. In the book, one of the forms IT takes is a pregnant spider and she gives birth to multiple eggs that the losers try to kill. Hopefully Welcome to Derry expans more on the king lore.
maybe it's an alternate universe where it realized love is stronger than fear and attempted to feed on that instead
@@lilenwasnothere6867 no
@@danalynch118 you don't know that lol
Fun fact: the design of the Seamstress (the sewing, hypnotizing, cobra-like machine from 9) was made in reference to the Other Mother/Beldam, as both movies were made by the same company and released in the same year.
Bonus fact: the Seamstress was Tim Burton's favourite machine from 9.
Coraline is without a doubt my all time favorite animated movie. I really love everything about it. So dark, yet so pretty. Beautiful. I'm so glad you did this, and that you really liked it. Much love!
Same
as someone who grew up in a messed up home, stories like this hit hard. And they're older than we think, it comes from before Peter Pan, the idea of running away from a situation but being hunted down by something.. I guess it's a way to tell children they should be strong and face it instead of running away, still pretty creepy tho
22:06 "how does she get her hair to stick like that?" yeah that was definitely the most questionable thing in the scene Thor...😂😂😂
The garden at the end is the other mother’s face and the cat shows that there are still portals open that lead to the other world.
I love the detail at 16:22 of the cat noticing the doll watching Coraline
The cat in this movie is goated the beldam is scared of cats he can freely travel between worlds and he just helps people
This is easily my favourite movie. Always cool seeing people reacting to it!
It's one of my top animated (stop motion) movies!
Fun fact! Bobinski wears a Chernobyl liquidation badge, given to those who entered heavily Radiated areas after the Chernobyl nuclear explosion in Russia, which is also why they his skin is Blue.
My siblings literally watched this for the first time this last Sunday. It was so fun. They made a blanket fort upstairs, made popcorn, and waited til it was dark outside to watch it. 😄
That sounds very fun
One interesting thing to notice is that the Other Mother _never_ eats any of the food she's cooking. Her plate is always empty.
I read the novel once when I was 9 and again when I was 14 (and I think I've listened to it a few times as an audiobook later on whilst drawing). I loved the novel and definitely consider it the kind of story that gets more unsettling the older you get. The movie was quite faithful.
EDIT: Also I really recommend you to look into the behind-the-scenes features on Coraline that LAIKA has posted on TH-cam. I find them as fascinating as the film itself. How they built the sets, made flowers out of pop corn and dog toys, got the worlds' only miniature knitter to knit sweaters with needles the width of a hair.
Neil Gaiman wrote the Coraline novel and his publisher questioned whether it would be good for kids, but she read it to her daughter and the daughter seemed to love it. Later Gaiman talked with the daughter and she told him it was really scary but she wanted to see how it would end so she had her mom read all of it for her.
This took almost 4 years to make! And fun fact Henry Selick's children voiced ghost boy and Michigan friend
Talk about dedication to the craft, and it really paid off! And that's really neat that Henry Sellick would let his kids have a small part
Wonderful! I love this film. Gonna be fun watching you wrap your brain around this. Thanks for sharing. Here we go!
I was thoroughly impressed!
Neil Gaiman is one of those amazing writers who can create the most unique and creative stories imaginable. If you haven't read Coraline, but enjoy reading, I would highly suggest that you check it out. Having Laika Studios animate Coraline was a perfect choice, as you really can't go wrong with anything from Laika.
This movie is amazing! I’ve read the book and one thing I can say is that it is soooo much scarier than the movie. There was one chapter towards the end with the other father that scared me pretty badly (my fault for reading at night). Otherwise the movie holds up really well! Wybie isn’t even in the book, he was a movie addition. Great reaction Thor!! 🤗🤗❤️
Thanks so much! And seeing so many comments saying the book is even scarier really makes me want to read it
Really great film! Such a visual feast, and really impressed by the commitment to being as scary as it was. Wish more family-friendly movies had the guts to do that more often.
If you're into video essays at all, one of my favorites is a deep dive into Coraline from CJ the X -- so fascinating and philosophical, I *really* recommend checking it out if the interest is there! It really deepened my appreciation for this kind of story and how it's told.
I do like video essays, thank you for the recommendation! And I agree with your thoughts 100% about family-friendly movies!
Second this! CJs video essays and his channel in general are so great
“Caroline, Caroline, Caroline you are in terrible danger” messed something up in me as a kid lol
The novel is much creepier. Especially in audio book form! I got it through my library and highly recommend! The biggest difference to me is no Wybie, most of the animals in the other world talked to Coraline as well as the cat to give her clues.
Yeeeeesss...one of my all time favorite movie...amazing video and and loved the reaction by the way...definitely rewatch it again later...as a kid the part where the other mother (beldam) transformed scared the hell out of me...these are some theories and detailes that I think you might find intresting...
-Bobinsky wears a small medal on his chest containing the term 4A3C. This medallion was awarded to individuals who assisted in the aftermath of Chernobyl. It is also adorned with three droplets of blood, possibly indicating the level of radiation to which he was subjected.his involvement in Chernobyl is the real reason for his blue skin.
-if you pay attention to the writing on the cake the 'O' on the home is curved but not on the word welcome...in Calligraphy the curved O means that the word is not true and it's a lie...so it means she is welcome but this place is not her home...
-there are bug prints on the wallpaper when coraline first opened the door...
-the face on the dollar bill that the gave as a tip is Henry Selick, the director of the movie.
-in the beginning you can see beldam sends the doll in a sky full of stars and it's always night time in the other world.Wybie says that if you fall into the well you can see a sky full of stars indicating that the well is another portal to the other world so she basically gave beldam the key...
-the other father was actually warning coraline in the song he played...
Making up a song about Coraline
She's a peach (she is food for the Beldam to eat)
She's a doll (referencing the doll of Coraline used to spy on her)
She's a pal of mine (the Other Father is shown throughout the movie trying to protect her from the Beldam)
She's as cute as a "button in the eyes of everyone" whoever laid their eyes on Coraline (everyone has button eyes in the other world)
When she comes around exploring mom and I will never ever make it boring
Our eyes will be on Coraline (both a reference to her being watched and their button eyes being sewn onto her)
Other double meanings:
The Other Father tells Coraline he doesn't need to play piano, the piano plays him. (The Beldam is puppeting him)
The Other Father asks "Who's starving, raise your hand" and the piano raises it's hands (the Beldam is controlling the piano, and is hungry for Coraline)
There are so much more that I can't type and I definitely recommend you to read the book and watch some videos about the theories...sorry if it's too long...have a great day and thank you for making great commentary videos for us...🤩😍💖❤💖👏🏻🌼🌸💐
Wow, that is simply an insane level of details that I completely missed! I knew this movie was well-crafted, but all these added touches and nuances are so impressive. It's so interesting that the Other Father was warning Coraline on the down-low, really shows that he was as much a prisoner of the Beldam as the rest. Thanks for sharing this!
My father brought this home for me when it came out, not knowing it was horror (and I couldn’t stomach horror when I was that young!). Safe to say that didn’t go over well to little me
Now that I’m an adult now, I look back on this story and movie and adore it. I’m happy that you shared your experience with us!
13:33 In theatre, whistling is considered bad luck on stage. Being that they are former stage performers, they do not want to bring bad luck into their home. That's why later they tell Coraline to "never wear green in your dressing room." They are just superstitions.
This was my favourite movie when I was younger! Neil Gaiman always has the best books! I still have the graphic novel (Side note: I love your videos! I just watched you react to the Green Mile yesterday! It had me in tears the first time I watched it. ...and the last, lol!
This is a great choice as a favorite: strong story, amazing style, scary in the best way. And that's so kind of you to say, thank you!
New theory I’ve never personally thought of until you said something. Maybe… maybe her parents did go look after her (never thought of this lol) and maybe the other mother had the power to separate them from Coralines fantasy world. And her parents agreed to stay ( bc the other mother hint at her button eye). And so that ties into the theory that the other mother has more power than we thought. Thus she creates the world in the ending scene
I also live in the same area as Laika Studios, and a few years back they had a big exhibit at the local art museum where they brought in a ton of their figures and sets that they preserved. The Coraline-face garden was as big as my living room and just gorgeous in person!! I love stop-motion, and I can't wait for you to see Kubo! It's my second favorite Laika film.
I love this rendition and the book as well. There are some changes but in this case i think they enhance the story and Gaiman did have some hand in it. Love this movie!
In the book the tunnel is alive too and it's hinted the Other Mother is afraid of it.
Gaiman is a Mythology and Lovecraft buff so it's always in his stories if you look hehe. Like a Beldam is actually a creature.
Ahhh I'm so excited to see you reacting to the Laika films! Kubo is my ABSOLUTE favorite Laika film so I'll be so excited to see what you think of that one.
Fun fact the medal on Mr. Bobinskys chest shows that he is Chernobyl liquidator, that's why he is so funny looking
Ooh good choice Thor. This is a classic.
Easily my favorite Henry Selick film so far!
Idk if anyone has said this yet but the ending means that coraline never escaped the other world since the cat can only disappear and talk in the other world. Also beldam basically means a witch or shape shifting entity.
Loved your summing up of this one... my dad used to say, 'if something seems too good to be true, it probably is!'
My friend’s mom rented this for us to watch at a sleepover when I was 6. Absolute mistake. Will never be the same again. (Btw this is one of my favorite movies now, but at 6... absolutely traumatizing).
Fun Fact: So, the author of the book that this is based on (Neil Gaiman) said that his publicist thought the book was to scary for kids but they agreed that if the publicist read the story to their young daughter and she was not to scared they would publish the book. The daughter was not scared and thoroughly enjoyed the book so it got published. Years later Neil was talking to the daughter and she said that the book actually terrified her and even gave her nightmares, but she wanted to finish the story so badly that she lied to the publicist and said she was not scared.
Soooo... My parents bought the movie in DVD (they didn't expect it to be this dark and disturbing) when it came out. I watched it when I was 12 or smthg, and it utterly terrified me and my (younger) siblings. We never watched it again and my parents apologized xDD
the fact that coraline ties up the hand in the ending scene with the KEYYY!! she literally sent the key to the other mother, giving her access directly to the real world
This is also a great movie to rewatch for all the little details and hints. (Like the lightening when it rains in the other world is the shape of the other mothers needle hand etc) So cool.
Imo the end is actually not happy. Remember what Wybie said, something about looking into the pitt and seeing a night sky full of stars even in the middle of the day ?! That's the other world : it's always nighttime there. I think the pitt is a tunnel to the other, so when she threw the key there, she actually threw it accidentally to the other mother. Plus look at the cat's reaction right after she had the dream with the other childrens, when she's back home, and she got the idea of throwing the key into the pitt : he blocks her door when she's trynna get out and he looks suspicious, cause he know damn well it's a trap. Also, look at the shape of the garden at the end of the movie : not Coraline's face, it's the other mother's face ! So yeah, sorry to kill the mood here but for me, there's no happy ending ... She lost.
Great movie, great reaction, loving it! I discovered some interesting theory about Beldam's origin form on the internet:
“Coraline” Theory: The Beldam is NOT a Spider
…She’s a beetle. Specifically, a Goliath beetle.
I think my reasoning is easier to compile into a list:
1. That’s why her final form is so tall. GOLIATH beetles are pretty big bugs.
2. It explains all the other beetle imagery in the movie- such as her eating “cocoa beetles” as a snack, the wallpaper in the Other House having beetle print on them, the beetle furniture, and even the beetles on her sewing machine at the beginning.
3. Her black, white, and red colour scheme matches that of the Goliath beetle.
4. Goliath beetles have a diet high in sugar. Perhaps this explains the Beldam’s fondness for “cocoa beetles”?
5. The Other Mother says that her “cocoa beetles” come from Zanzibar (in southeast Africa)- which is quite close to where Goliath beetles can be found in eastern-central Africa (including Tanzania).
6. Her final form doesn’t have eight limbs like a spider- she has six limbs like a beetle.
Also, there was once a video floating around on TH-cam that involved the lady responsible for designing the characters’s clothing and she specifically mentioned an inspiration for the Beldam’s dresses being from the Goliath beetle (th-cam.com/video/Oplvz1bnmdw/w-d-xo.html (5:02))
YOU SHOULD WATCH EVERYTHING EVERYWHERE ALL AT ONCE! It’s an absolutely phenomenal movie that covers so many deep topics while also making you feel every emotion.
I have a Coraline backpack and people will say to me, "That movie gave me nightmares as a kid." It was always my favorite movie which makes me worry about myself sometimes
Something you notice watching again is the Other Mothers plate at dinner is always empty and she is never eating (except for the bugs)
One of the first movies i remember growing up was the Saw movies, i personally am glad i grew up with movies like that and this, and just scary movies overall cause im not scared of much these days 😂
My idea is the reason the other mother takes their eyes because the eyes are supposedly the windows to the soul and she eats their souls away so taking their eyes is a symbolism of taking all those left in them that's human
The book is very similar, but the whole thing is told through her inner monologue, so wybie was added in the film to give her someone to talk to. Some other things were cut from the book's story, like an even more terrifying confrontation with the other father and the other mother's real flesh-and-blood hand being cut off.
13:34 There's a superstition that you're not supposed to whistle in a theater (sailors served as set crew long ago and because they communicated by whistle on ships they'd mistake someone whistling for one of their cues)
am I the only one who noticed that Mr Bobinsky has a medal given to the people who helped clean up chernobyl ?
Since you liked Shrek, try Gnomeo and Juliet. A star-studded cast, jokes that are sooooo inappropriate, and most of the plot is demented. Yet oddly heartwarming and satisfying. An underrated gem.
The producers offered a Canadian band called They Might Be Giants to do the entire soundtrack, but they ended up not using most of it and stiffing TMBG on the check. The only song they did use was the introduction of Other-Father. The singer of that song in the film is the main vocalist of TMBG.
Most terrifying thing I’ve ever seen. I got for my sixth birthday or something and it gave me nightmares for years.
Sixth birthday? That is quite young for this one... I think I would've had a similar reaction at that age. Do you like it now that you're older, or does the scary memory make it hard to enjoy?
@@nickreacts6394 respect, slightly love and hate a lot.
Some say that this movie is way too creepy for children, but let's not forget that life's no fun without a good scare, right? Also, if you think about it, many classic fairy tales are even creepier from adult perspective. Children just have a different approach, taking things not as "seriously" as adults
I agree! Lots of amazing fairy tales, and even some older Disney animations show some surprisingly serious themes, and I think that children can honestly pick up on a lot
@@nickreacts6394 Yeah. And as about the eye-tapping thing, it WAS a hint, but different from the one used in the book: there, Coraline asks the Other Mother a different question ("How big are souls anyway?", for the ghost children asked her to find their souls, not eyes), and she responds with this very gesture, hinting that they are eye-sized
@@CarolinePhoenixMe but then what was the hint in the movie? that the parents were hidden in something water-related (the snow ball) and that's why the eye-tapping connected to the droplets? i've been thinking about it for so long and i can't think of any hint jsjsks
@@patriciamerinolopez9545 The Other Mother told the truth about "ghosts' eyes being hidden in plain sight", and I guess eye-tapping meant that Coraline needs to look for something literally eye-sized (or perhaps it could be a reference to the book... or just plain gloating: "it is so obvious" and all)
this is my favorite movie since i was 7 and i love seeing peoples reactions to it bc it scares them most of the time
I'm usually not keen on a lot of reaction videos but you're so calm and sweet about everything! You also provide good thoughts/opinions on the film. Subbed!
BRO, I love this movie. An all time favorite. Thanks for reacting to it! No other movie has precisely this vibe for me, something very unique about it. Also Teri Hatcher's voice as the 'Other Mother' is peak *gay terror* for me every time LMAO. 😆
It's GREAT, and I agree, I can't think of another film that has quite the same kind of melancholy, eerie vibe
The part of Coraline making pillow imitations of her "real" parents is what stuck to me most as a kid. Being born when my mother was menopausal, I saw my parents physically get old as I grew up. And that one scene from Coraline got me thinking of what ifs. Like losing parents; or the whole family.
This is definitely my fav movie of all time. i remember being so fascinated by it when i first watched it at 6 years old in 3D it was revolutionary to me and ever since then i've been watching it at least once a year and each time i enjoy it as much as watching it for the 1st time
I just came across your channel, and I love how you talk about the filmmaking aspects of films like the musical score, camerawork and animation. I also love how you take time at the end to talk a bit more about your opinion on the film as a whole.
That said, this movie is definitely a favourite of mine as the animation is really flipping impressive and the story has always creeped me out. I remember when I was younger that I could not sleep after seeing the film, or even when I read the book.
Also, I could be wrong but I believe that the director, Henry Selick didn’t want this film to have any/much VFX, so stuff like the fog seen later in the film was actually real, and was green screened into the film. There’s a BTS on TH-cam of this film that I’d recommend you check out.
And finally, there’s this TH-camr called The Theorizer and for a long time he made dozens of theories on Coraline, and I’d also recommend him as his theories are actually really well informed and creepy.
He did this one about how Coraline never actually left the Other World and how the Beldam (The Other Mother) was fooling Coraline into believing that she had left the Other World, as later in the film, when the Beldam was pretending to be Coraline’s mother after Coraline went back to save her; we briefly see that the Beldam can actually make her own eyes appear human, so that’s how that theory came to be. There’s also more evidence for this theory, as pointed out by The Theorizer. However, If this theory is true, then this movie just became ten times more creepier for me.
But, sorry for the long read; there was just some stuff I wanted to say about the film. Anyway, I can’t wait to see more of your reactions in the future as I’ve subscribed.
A new sub here and just wanted to say I love your reactions.
Welcome, great to have you along!! And thank you :)
It’s a beautiful, scary, and whimsical tale about the grass always being greener and being careful what you wish for.
I read the novel when I was a kid and watched the movie when i was a senior, and it's so funny that it's true that kids and adults/adolescents have a different reaction to Coraline
Sellick directed both this film and Nightmare Before Christmas. Burton wrote the original poem Nightmare was based on and produced it, but Sellick is like the biggest name in stop motion today.
When I watch this movie I always remember the phrase "Eyes are the windows to the soul"
A few years ago my mom had gotten an antique doll as a gift. She didn't do much with it. It just stayed in her closet over time in her bedroom downstairs. Over time we both got creeped out by it but my mom was too scared to throw it out so I said a prayer and took the doll from her closet and threw in in the trash and it worked out perfectly because the truck was coming down the road to pick up the trash. We never saw that doll again
The other fathers song is actually a warning to coraline. Telling her qbout the button and eyes watching her. That she'll have fun but she's a peach-something to eat to the other mother and that hes a friend of his and he doesn't want to hurt her
The doormat by the two old theater ladies door that said - No whistling in the house.
Well it is a superstition among actors and actresses (at least back in the day). If you whistle in the 'house' (theater) it will cause bad luck of some kind, same with the curse of the Scottish play 'Macbeth'
OMG I'm 13 days late to see this video!! I can never get tired of watching people reacting Coraline. I'm so happy you did it too
I love how even though the opening theme song for Coraline is just a jumble of gibberish words it is so weirdly catchy and fits the vibe of the movie perfectly. Whenever I’m drawing or doing anything creative I listen to it and it just gets the whimsical/ artsy vibes flowing. I loved creepy claymation movies and Tim Burton movies as a child so I’m biased to saying it is 100% appropriate for children, especially the creative types. Whilst every child is different the story does end happily with an overall great message to appreciate the things you have and not to take them for granted. At least that’s the message I got from the film. Also, as a side note, I always thought Coraline was sort of intentionally rude to Wybie to push him away since she missed her old friends and her old life and was determined not to find the good in where she was and desperately wanted the “better” life that she ended up getting from the other mother. The other mother chose Coraline and the other children because she saw they were unhappy and could prey on that so I always thought she was sort of purposefully negative towards everything in her real life out of spite for missing her old life and home. Just my two cents 🤷🏻♀️ Loved the reaction! 🖤🤗
The portrait on the $1 tip at the beginning of the movie was that of the creator of the movie, Henry Selick the director.
Wyborne actually sounds like a actual name until you realize what’s it meant for..
First person I've heard that mentioned Henry Selick. Henry is also responsible for directing The Nightmare Before Christmas, Tim Burton was executive producer to both productions.