Coraline Jones is bored in her new home until she finds a secret door and discovers an alternate version of her life on the other side. On the surface, this parallel reality is eerily similar to her real life and the people in it – only much better. But when this seemingly perfect world turns dangerous, and her other parents try to trap her forever. MPAA Rating: PG (for thematic elements, scary images, some language and suggestive humor) CORALINE ©2009 Focus Features. Review © David Bruce

DAKOTA FANNING (Voice of Coraline Jones) Born in 1994, she has developed her craft in such high-profile films as Man on Fire, War of the Worlds, and Charlotte's Web. CORALINE ©2009 Focus Features. Review © David Bruce

TERI HATCHER (Voice of Mother, Other Mother) She portrayed Lois Lane in the television series Lois & Clark: The New Adventures of Superman. She is also a Bond Girl. CORALINE ©2009 Focus Features. Review © David Bruce

JENNIFER SAUNDERS (Voice of Miss Forcible and Miss Spink) Won the American People's Choice Award for voicing the wicked Fairy Godmother in DreamWorks' animated Shrek 2 CORALINE ©2009 Focus Features. Review © David Bruce

Director: HENRY SELICK He is best known for directing The Nightmare Before Christmas, & James and the Giant Peach CORALINE ©2009 Focus Features. Review © David Bruce

NEIL GAIMAN, Author Coraline is a horror novella by British author Neil Gaiman, published in It was awarded the 2003 Hugo Award for Best Novella, the 2003 Nebula Award for Best Novella, and the 2002 Bram Stoker Award for Best Work for Young Readers.

CORALINE ©2009 Focus Features. Review © David Bruce It has been compared to Lewis Carroll's Alice in Wonderland because of its surrealism and plot based on an alternate-reality.

Having recently moved into a new flat with her loving but preoccupied parents, Coraline decides to explore. She finds a locked door in the drawing room. That night, Coraline hears a strange noise and the door, which was previously closed by her mother, is slightly open. CORALINE ©2009 Focus Features. Review © David Bruce

The next day she takes the key to the door and opens it to find a dark corridor which leads to another apartment, seemingly a copy of her own. This alternate world is inhabited by her Other Mother and Other Father, who are almost exact physical duplicates of her real parents, except they have a pair of black buttons sewn in place of their eyes. CORALINE ©2009 Focus Features. Review © David Bruce

This alternate world is inhabited by her Other Mother and Other Father, who are almost exact physical duplicates of her real parents, except they have a pair of black buttons sewn in place of their eyes.

These Other parents seem at first to be more interesting, fun and caring duplicates of her real parents. The Other Mother offers her a chance to stay in this world forever if only Coraline is willing to sew buttons over her eyes. Coraline decides she'd rather go home, much to the disappointment of her Other Mother. CORALINE ©2009 Focus Features. Review © David Bruce

Upon her return to her flat, Coraline finds her real parents are missing. When they don't return by the next day, Coraline discovers that they have been kidnapped by her Other Mother, and resolves to rescue them. Coraline travels once more to the Other Mother's world. CORALINE ©2009 Focus Features. Review © David Bruce

In the Other World, the sets may look similar to the Real World but are deeper and more dimensionally. The color is toned up and the camera moves more. CORALINE ©2009 Focus Features. Review © David Bruce

In her Real World, the camera is locked and the color is drab. Her Real World feels like a stage play. So the Other World feels more ‘real’ to her – and to the audience. ©2009 Focus Features. Review © David Bruce CORALINE ©2009 Focus Features. Review © David Bruce

TOYS ALIVE Central to the story is a childhood memory of the author’s; just as children are for a time certain that their toys come to life when they are asleep or not looking, the young Neil Gaiman had his own household suspicions. CORALINE ©2009 Focus Features. Review © David Bruce

The entire world of the movie springs from the imagination, particularly from the creative minds of the animators, who move the puppets by a matter of millimeters for each individual frame. CORALINE ©2009 Focus Features. Review © David Bruce

90% Positive Consensus voice: "Coraline is a remarkable feat of imagination, a magical tale with a genuinely sinister edge." -- Kenneth Turan, Los Angeles Times CORALINE ©2009 Focus Features. Review © David Bruce

THE LOVE THAT IS and THE LOVE THAT IS NOT “I also wanted to express that, sometimes the people who love you may not pay you all the attention you need; and, sometimes the people who do pay you attention may not love you in the healthiest way.” -- Neil Gaiman, author CORALINE ©2009 Focus Features. Review © David Bruce

REAL LOVE IS ACTIVE AND DETERMINED What does it mean when your loved ones don’t seem to love you as much as you would like? The answer in Coraline is found by flipping that question around. It’s ultimately not about how others demonstrate their love to you, but rather, who you demonstrate your love for them. Coraline’s parents are drab when it comes to affections. But when they need help, Coraline goes to great extremes to save them. Real love is active and determined. Nothing can defeat it, not even the evil Other Mother. Here is a important message in a soon to be classic movie. CORALINE ©2009 Focus Features. Review © David Bruce

OPEN TO YOUR INTERPRETATION The Other Mother and Other Father have black buttons for eyes. Author Neil Gaiman says, “It is the kind of metaphor that allows for many interpretations. They are all correct; the eyes are the windows to the soul, the Romans put coins on the eyes of the dead, and so forth.” What do the buttons mean to you? CORALINE ©2009 Focus Features. Review © David Bruce

BEING BRAVE IS AN ACTION Coraline is “about what being brave is; it’s being absolutely scared and doing what you must do, despite fear and obstacles.” --Neil Gaiman, Author CORALINE ©2009 Focus Features. Review © David Bruce