History Headscratchers / Coraline

##Mrs. Lovat used to live in the Pink Palace along with her tenants, in something like a boarding house or pseudo-roommate situation.

*** ^Well, yes, but only because those types of housings (retirement communities) don't operate within the usual housing jurisdictions, whereas the Pink Palace, from what's kinda implied, does. There's a few plausible explanations for that rule and they've already been mentioned, though, one thing, exactly, that Wybie said was ''usually'', so it's not real, real clear if she's always had that policy or, alternatively, if it's something of a new policy; just it''s been around for as long as Wybie was alive. That said, for such policy to exist, there are two (more) explans with US setting of the movie:

*** ^Well, yes, but only because those types of housings don't operate within the usual housing jurisdictions, whereas the Pink Palace, from what's kinda implied, does.

* From Main/TheFilmOfTheBook: Wybie mentions that his grandmother doesn't rent to families with children--she seems to realize ''something'' in the house preys on children, including her long-gone sister. It's never explained why Coraline's family is an exception, or why she doesn't intervene once she's realized (because of the missing doll) that Coraline's in danger.
** I always construed that as the landlord not wanting to deal with certain liabilities from having kids running around. #1 is the presence of a poorly-protected well. It doesn't appear that the grandmother knew the doll had anything to do with her sister's disappearance.

** I once went on a trip with my folks when I was 12 when the only available hotel in the area was a "no kids", they decided not to turn us away since I was not really a ''little'' kid who'd stick random objects in my nose, run around being loud, leave toys everywhere, disturb the other guests, etc. [[WildMassGuessing Maybe that's the case here?]]
*** This is what I thought was the case. The Jones could easily loophole the 'no kids' agreement by saying something like, "Oh, our daughter's not a child, she's pretty much a teen!"

*** Actually, if I remember this correctly, the Ghost Kids tell Coraline that, even though she got rid of the doll, the Beldam still could come after Coraline so long as the key was still there, in which case, while she had a clue about the doll (and hid it away), Grandma Lovat wasn't aware of the key.

*** If [[ClingyMacGuffin that's]] the case, then how can we be sure that [[FridgeLogic throwing it away in the well at the end of the film]] [[FridgeHorror would have stopped it coming back?]]
*** The well has a fairy ring around it. It's possible that the well would be the only way of disposing of the key for good, due to its magical properties. Or maybe it'll just take too long for the key to return.

** Unfazed? Re-watch the scene where she first meets Other Mother, she gasps and takes a step back, saying "You're not my mom!" in a pretty freaked-out tone. She must have thought it was a dream (the blossoming mice, button eyes, dad's musical number) and played along. It's worth noting she's pretty freaked out in that first visit because of the insta-rain and thunder Other Mother calls down. Even still, the assumption it's not a real place lasts her approximately three more visits ''and'' a lot of frustration at home before she starts seeing not just as real, but ''preferring'' the Other Mother's world to her own (and she's still suitably horrified when told she needs to get button eyes to live there full time).

** Some people ''do'' "react to stuff like that" when dreaming. One person might freak out over button eyes, while another might simply go, "Okay, button eyes, sure," and still someone else might not even notice at all until waking up and remembering.
** Coraline actually has ''less'' of an instinctive reaction to the Other Mother's button eyes in the book, where she doesn't even comment on the button eyes. The only way to explain this is that she really thought she was dreaming and was acting much like Alice did in Wonderland. I actually prefer the movie's depiction of the other world to the book's, as it's more plausible that Coraline would want to stay there with all the wonderful things going on and only a hint here and there as to the Other Mother's true intentions until TheReveal, than in the book where the inherent creepiness and wrongness of the other world is much more apparent (the rats' song alone should be enough of a warning bell to anyone).
*** Having read the book I felt as if the whole thing was written in the style of a fairytale. fairytales, to the best of my awareness, have this certain... way of being written, where strange things like little girls being eaten by wolves or old women being killed for their Tinderboxes, are described in a somewhat matter-of-fact tone. That's the way Coraline the book felt to me when I was reading it. It made the whole thing a little more creepy.
** Perhaps anything Coraline found odd or unsettling about the Other World she ignored simply because everyone in it was showering her with love, affection, and excitement that she wasn't getting from her real family? The situation unravels differently in both versions. In the book, Coraline visits once for a long time, and then the Other Mother offers to sew buttons on her eyes. In the movie, she makes several short visits. Either way, it's possible she may have been in denial about the craziness of the world because as a child she has a WeirdnessCensor and enjoys being the centre of attention. But maybe she did have a nagging doubt at the back of her mind, so that when the button request was made, all those doubts came to the forefront and she was like "I have to get out of here!"

* Why bother changing "find the ghost children's souls" to "find their eyes" for the movie? The fact that there was still only one of each and they didn't exactly look like eyes(except for being spherical) just gets me -- what was the point of changing just what they were called?
** For Symbolism, in the Other World, you lose your real eyes when you don the buttons. It can also mean that, since "the eyes are the window of the soul" when you are wearing those buttons your soul is missing or trapped, and the ghosts needed those eyes to become free.

* In the book, Coraline's parents seemed more distant and uncaring. But in the movie, her parents seem almost cruel, especially the way her mom treats her. The "dingbat" comment in particular leaves one to wonder why these two wanted a daughter in the first place. Sure, Coraline's a bit annoying and bratty, but what do you expect when all you do is tell her to get lost? If your work is that arduous, why have children in the first place? I'd hate to think who took care of the girl when she was a baby.

* In the book, isn't the policeman Coraline calls after her parents disappear downright unrealistically dismissive? Yes, Coraline explains her predicament in child-like terms, but wouldn't the alarm bells start to ring in the man's head when she tells him that her "other mother" has taken her parents? That sounds like a pretty serious custody-related crime: a kidnapping or murder.
** Yeah, but I'm pretty sure Coraline said her parents were trapped in a mirror. It's a possibility that she might have sounded quite young so would have been dismissed. Not forgetting that emergency numbers, sad as it is, do get prank called so something as outlandish as 'my parents have been trapped in a mirror by my other mother' would be seen as someone taking the Mickey.

*** Honestly the book feels a lot more... ambiguous about how old she’s meant to be. She looks about twelve in the illustrations, but little details like the story she types out on her dad’s computer suggest a much younger kid. (It’s also not that easy to tell a child’s age over the phone, and wouldn’t it come across as a little odd if a twelve-year-old called the cops over a supposed bad dream?)

** So adults can't get through it. The Other Mother has no use for them.

* What's with the SchizoTech going on? They have an ancient computer and everything looks a little backward and run-down, so you could almost figure this was meant to take place in the eighties or nineties. And then you have a flip-open cellular phone. Okay, late nineties early zeroes. Then you have... a brand new VW Beetle? The computer's the most weird thing, since even if they were financially strapped they'd almost ''have'' to do better than that, especially if they actually wanted it to interface with a printer of any quality.

* Why don't Coraline's parents swap household jobs with each other? Charlie is obviously a terrible cook, and I would think cooking might be less strenuous on Mel's neck than cleaning would be.
** He seems less bad and more... esoteric.

*** No, it's just a cat. Cats are magic.

*** Literature/TheOceanAtTheEndOfTheLane, anyone? Ursula Monkton/the Flea/Skarthach of the Keep seems to be cut from the same [[StealthPun cloth]] as the Beldam. Throughout the story, the boy narrator befriends a little creature which for all intents and purposes is a cat, and is still alive some forty years later. While he holds the cat Ursula can't seem to hurt him, and the cat very clearly hates her.

*** Reverse psychology. She wanted to trick Coraline into thinking that it was a bad thing to drop the key into the well.

* What's the point of giving any of her (Other Mother's) Creations free will? Both Other Whybie and Other Father go against Other Mother's desires and help Coraline against her, which seems very counter-intuitive. It's not like Other Bobinski or, Other Ms. Spink and Forcible, seem to have free will.
** Different purposes and FridgeBrilliance. The other Father and Whybie were apparently made to love Coraline unconditionally and be her friend, appearing as simply better versions of their real-world counterparts, while the other creations, such as the Spink, Forcible, and Bobinsky were created to simply entertain her. However that said, they came across to me as all having free will, the Spink and Forcible quoting Hamlet, (which could be interpreted as a warning, similar to the other father's song) and the other Mr. Bobinsky attempting to convince Coraline to stay. Free will goes both ways, so it could be that The other Father and Whybie defied the other mother, with the other three supporting or bending to her. It is also notable that, in the book, the other father was only able to hold off attacking Coraline for so long before being forced to obey, perhaps making the movie one subject to AdaptationalHeroism.
** The way I see it, The Other Mother needs to make her illusions as convincing as possible so she can more easily convince children of how much better things are in her world. After all, one common TruthinTelevision is that children are uncannily good at noticing things they shouldn't simply because they don't have the years of building up SelectiveObliviousness that older people tend to develop, so she gives her creations just enough free will so that they can act in a manner that would be most enticing, without her needing to constantly puppeteer them or having to divide her attention in ways that could possibly allow for a SpottheThread situation. Normally this would be good enough since she's usually fed enough on her previous victims that she can maintain control even if her creations have free will. However, what she didn't count on was being near starving by the time she met Coraline, and as such her strength would likely be considerably weaker than past attempts. This on top of desperation would mean that she isn't paying as much attention as she should to her control over her constructs' free will, thus allowing them more autonomy than would normally be allowed.
** It could also be that while the Beldam has godlike reality-warping powers, she doesn't have corresponding godlike multitasking ability. She has to engineer her world piece by piece like a magical version of a mad scientist. Consequently, she simply has to give some of her creations consciousness and consequently, free will, because she doesn't have the mental capacity to puppeteer an entire miniverse. So she gives them consciousness and gives them a submissive personality, bullies them into playing their roles, and hopes for the best.

* Why does the Other Mother allow the Other Father to say so much? Yes, she granted him free will, but surely she could have shut him up earlier all the times he gives away crucial information. Yes, it's for storytelling purposes, but in real life, it seems like she would have intervened a bit sooner. I suppose it could be argued that she was stealing the Joneses then, but what about her absence before the theater scene? Was she kidnapping one parent at a time?

** And the Other Mother is virtually desperate at this point. Notice how every time Coraline comes into the world, she gets paler, thinner, and closer to her real form. She's starving and trying her damnedest not to let her go.

** Maybe she literally dragged them through the mirror, since it also seems to work as a conduit between the two worlds. Mel would have gone on her food-shopping expedition and then picked Charlie up from his meeting on the way back. Picture this: They get home, they're in good spirits about being finally done with their catalog and they want to celebrate, just the way they are at the end. But where's Coraline? They go around the house, calling for their daughter, with no response. The Other Mother could then have called out to them from behind the mirror, shapeshifting her voice to sound like Coraline's the way she would mimic Mel's voice to get Coraline to trust her. She then conjures up an image of Coraline to lure the parents to the mirror, one or both of them touches the glass, only to get pulled through and stuck in the snowglobe the way you would trap a butterfly in a jam jar.

* If the Other Wybie had been able to escape from the Other World, what Coraline would have done with him? Does she was gonna present him to his real-world counterpart or to his parents, like saying something like "Hey Wybie, look at this doppelganger of yours from an alternate world with creatures with button eyes. Can you be his friend too?" or "Hey, mom! Hey, Dad! Here's a creation from this Other World I have told you from my dreams. Do you see? I wasn't crazy at all! Can we adopt him?"

** Coraline took for granted that sleeping in her Other Bed would get her out of the "Dream" (as evidenced by how surprised she was that when she woke up she was still in the Other world.) By saying she just needed to sleep on things, she ''was'' telling the Other Mother to let her go home one more time, and suggesting that she would come back later after she'd had some rest. She was just too frightened by what the Other Mother was asking to put on a convincing act (and remember that the Other Mother being nice to her and saying it was still her decision was also an act.) At that point, it's unlikely the Other Mother would have been convinced by any excuse she gave to go home.

** Potentially if it was a child without a mother at all (gay couple or single father,) she could have gone with a lie that she was just their mother, no "other" about it--but that's assuming she can't shapeshift into a man, which could also be possible. For a kid with two moms, she could probably just do the same shtick as in the film and make herself a fake wife to go along with the charade, even if the "''other'' other mother" and "''other'' other other mother" thing would be a bit of a mouthful. The Other Mother's whole MO is lying to a child and manipulating them, so I don't see how these tricks would be out of the question as long as she could get the child to believe it.

* Why did Mel hide the key? Being a FantasyForbiddingMother at that time seems counter-productive considering Coraline was desperately looking for ways to have fun at home.