Thu, 25 Apr, 2024

Coraline: Think before you Imagine

By Ashmita Kunwar

It is always wonderful to watch a movie that puts the story about an imaginary world, where you find everything that you like and those little things that you have been deprived of in your real life. What will happen when everything you imagine comes to be true in your life? Will you depart from your real life and move into that imaginary one and swap every little thing, even your mother and father? Sounds interesting, yes, “Coraline” is a movie about such thought-provoking concept. Coraline is an animated movie, which was released in 2009 by Focus Pictures. It is a stop- motion movie aimed for young people who love imagination and have control over the imagination. This movie has been liked by many people for its story and the visuals. The movie is simple, sweet, co-ordinated, and has a twisted story at some point and psychological depth. The first scene of the movie, where a pair of creepy metallic hands replace the old doll into the new doll where, the main replacement is of the old eye with the button eyes. This scene sums up the whole story of the movie, which we realize after watching the whole movie. Coraline is the name of the girl in the movie who has been shifted in the new house with her parents. The little girl, is 11, curious, imaginative, strong, explorer and adventure lover beyond her age. She is fed up with her parent’s busy schedule as they do not have time for her. One day while exploring her new house, she finds a small door which was truly enthralling to her. Walking through the door and venturing in the spooky pathway, she explores the alternative version of her life which was wonderful and interesting to her. She does not want to return back to her real life because the new world is everything she wishes for, but the fact is that, it was all fake created by the sadistic handler (another new mother) to manipulate her and keep her there with herself. She was unaware and was fascinated, ready to live there, for that, new mother asked her to replace her beautiful eye with the buttons. Coralline refuses the deal to replace her eye, after that she knew the reality and wanted to go back to her real mom and dad. The illusions of the other world is broken, she sees the true form of her new mother, a skeleton spider-like monstrosity. She uses her mind and finally gets out of that place. The movie is interesting, which is based on the symbolism of the menacing hand (sadistic handler), manipulating her, entry in the world she wished for and the reality behind it. The message seems to be that ‘the grass is always greener on the other side’. When Coralline came to find the reality, she decided to leave and wanted to be with her real parents; this suggests that, we should be happy with what we have, we should never think of replacing our real life with the fake one being selfish. Be happy with what you have, be ready to bear with what you go through in your life. Something that I did not like about the movie is that, Coraline’s imagination led her to the danger; this is not good to deliver in the movie. We are always told to imagine in our life. Imagination is an essential part of life, imagination makes you achieve what you want in your life, but here in the movie it is reverse, it led to danger. It suggests that “think before you imagine”, I am confused is that good or the bad? Perhaps it’s saying ‘Be careful what you wish for, you might actually get it.’