Coraline (film)

Coraline is a 2009 American animated Gothic dark fantasy horror film written and directed by Henry Selick, based on the 2002 novella Coraline by Neil Gaiman. It is produced by Laika as the studio's first feature film. It stars the voices of Dakota Fanning, Teri Hatcher, Jennifer Saunders, Dawn French, Keith David, John Hodgman, Robert Bailey Jr., and Ian McShane. The film tells the story of its eponymous character discovering an idealized alternate universe behind a secret door in her new home, unaware that it contains something dark and sinister.

Just as Gaiman was finishing his novella, he met Selick and invited him to make a film adaptation, as Gaiman was a fan of Selick's other stop-motion works, The Nightmare Before Christmas (1993) and James and the Giant Peach (1996), both with Tim Burton. When Selick thought that a direct adaptation would lead to "maybe a 47-minute movie", the screenplay was expanded. Looking for a design different from that of most animation, Selick discovered the work of Japanese illustrator Tadahiro Uesugi and invited him to become the concept artist. His biggest influences were on the color palette, which was muted in the real world and more colorful in the Other World, as in The Wizard of Oz (1939). To capture stereoscopy for the 3D release, the animators shot each frame from two slightly apart camera positions. Production of the stop-motion animation took place at a warehouse in Hillsboro, Oregon.

Coraline premiered at the Portland International Film Festival on February 5, 2009, and was released theatrically in the United States on February 6 by Focus Features. The film was met with widespread acclaim from critics and grossed $125.5 million; several theatrical re-releases over the years raised its box office total to $185.9 million worldwide, making it the third-highest-grossing stop-motion film of all time, following Chicken Run (2000) and Wallace & Gromit: The Curse of the Were-Rabbit (2005). The film won Annie Awards for Best Music in an Animated Feature Production, Best Character Design in an Animated Feature Production, and Best Production Design in an Animated Feature Production, and was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Animated Feature and a Golden Globe Award for Best Animated Feature Film. It has been regarded as one of the greatest animated films of all time.