Coraline

I loved watching Coraline in class, I had to watch more. I ended up renting the film on iTunes, for the fabulous price of $2.99. Then I grew attached to the story.

In Coraline, she learns the lesson of loving what she has, and how to has to deal with the cards that she is dealt. The story is that there is a woman in an alternate universe that wants to take unhappy children living in the apartments away to live with her and make them and herself happy. Coraline was the her next victim. At first she willingly goes to the alternate universe, to live with her 'other' parents. Soon she realizes the corruption and that they really aren't all happy, and that something about that world is off. She then finds the other children the woman has captured over the years, like Wybie's grandmother's sister. Coraline then has to get out, but then her parents are captured, and to free herself from the woman she has to free the spirits of the children by finding their eyes, and also find her parents so they can all go home. She fights her way through and finds the eyes, destroying the world outside the house. Then she finds her parents and tricks the woman and escapes. She then returns back to her normal life, much more grateful and happy.

This story also follows the heroic journey outline, along with being a modern day myth story. If this film was in live action instead of claymation, it would be much more eire. This story can be related back to the myth of the Boogieman. The boogieman myth is told in many different ways around the world. From if you misbehave he will come take you away,

Coraline has her spiritual aid, the cat, and the other mother who acts as her "evil stepmother".
Coraline follows a specific archetype, she is a charismatic girl, unhappy with her every day life, she finds and alternative world, and wishes to not leave. Then that backfires and she has to find a way out and save herself and everyone around her. That is one reason this book and film is so successful.