Coraline: The Monster You Missed

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There’s a monster in Coraline that everyone  missed. This being is powerful, sneaky,   and once it traps you, good luck finding  your way out. It’s not the Other Mother.   It’s not a creepy doll. It’s not even the Pink  Palace! (although that's getting closer) It IS   ancient and similar to the living corridor  between realms, but it’s one of the earliest   characters we see in the movie and books…  but everyone missed it. Quite literally. So in this video I went through and obsessively  watched this entity through EVERY WINDOW that   appears in the film. (those 12 leaky windows have  NOTHING on the toll this took on my brain) I know   that sounds like overkill, but it was necessary  research, and there are a LOT of interesting,   creepy things that I discovered doing this!  And THEN I also reread the book and graphic   novel and compiled all my notes on THEM in order  to paint the most complete picture that I could   about this slippery, ‘mystical’ being, and what it  means for Coraline… and for you. So, if you like   deep dives into very obscure details and ancient  folklore, I hope you enjoy my twisted tale… and   the special announcement at the end of this video! Coraline is lovingly crafted, frame by painstaking   frame, so everything in it is intentional. Same  for crafting a story with words. Or images. Which   is why when something is mentioned repeatedly, we  should take notice… But what if the thing we’re   supposed to notice… is visually subtle? Well,  that’s exactly what the mist is in Coraline. It’s…   alive., Now hold on, I know you might be  thinking… The mist? Yes, it sounds bizarre,   but by the end of this video I assure you’ll  think differently of this foggy fiend. We have   a lot to cover in both the movie and book,  but we first need to make some things clear.  It’s important to note from a lore and climate  perspective that the book takes place in England,   a place heavily steeped in folklore, and not the  Pacific NorthWest like the movie. In the book   there is no Wybie or doll, but there are RATS  that are NOT costumed as cute little rodents.   The pacing is also VERY DIFFERENT in the book vs  the movie. The book is much faster and creepier   in most ways, but despite the differences,  the mist seeps through the plot similarly. I’m going to start off with the book’s timeline  to put some hyper focus on all the occurrences   of mist and fog, and pop into the movie  for the relevant scenes as we get to them! To quickly set up: The Book mentions the Door on  the first story page, but Coraline lives in the   new old house for 2 weeks before that, exploring  the grounds in the colder-than-usual summer,   finds the well and “a fairy ring, made of squidgy  brown toadstools which smelled dreadful if you   accidentally trod on them.” Which, this is  fairy 101 - DO NOT ENTER MUSHROOM RINGS lest   you enter the fairy realm unknowingly. Book  Coraline, at this point, could very likely be   in the another realm. But unaware, and she keeps  exploring outside until one day the rain makes it   impossible. So she explores the house and finds  the creepy large door. She  has mom unlock it, and because it leads to bricks,   mom doesn't’ lock it. That night, it creaks  open, Coraline wakes to investigate it,   tracking a little patch of moving rat shadow to  the creepy door, behind which is still bricks.   Coraline also casts a shadow in the room - but  “she looked like a thin giant woman.” Hello   Other Mother! She’s already watching Coraline  in the real world - as if simply unlocking the   door unleashed the Other Mother… and SOMETHINGS  ELSE. Anyway, bravely, Coraline returns to sleep,   but the slippery rats infiltrate her  dreams with their creepy, creepy poem song. “The next day it had stopped raining, but a  thick white fog had lowered itself over the   house.” Lowered itself, you say?! Book Coraline  goes out in it, where she runs into Miss Spink   who comments on the “rotten weather” and then  gets lost in memories Coraline walks away,   a mere three quarters of the way around  the house in fact, when she bumps into   Miss Forcible who asks after Miss Spink,  saying “I do hope she doesn’t get lost”   This mist is SO disorienting that the theater  gals have lost each other already. “You’d have   to be an explorer to find your way around  in this fog.” Which, of course, she is. “Coraline continued walking through the gardens  in the gray mist. She always kept in sight of   the house. After about ten minutes of walking she  found herself back where she had started.” Which,   remember, Coraline has spent 2 WEEKS getting  familiar with these grounds. This dense mist,   which soaks Coraline’s hair and face, rolls  in RIGHT AFTER the door was unlocked (but NOT   entered) is NOT natural. Not only had it “lowered  ITSELF over the house” but it's made Miss Spink   and Forcible lost and on edge in their own way,  and has Coraline, the capable explorer, walking   in circles, unintentionally. Like the movie, the  mice warn Coraline not to go through the door,   but also “The mice do not like the mist. It  makes their whiskers droop.” These mice know a   LOT, and you KNOW if they fear the mist  it’s for more than a bad whisker day.   This pervasive fog is a hint at what’s to come  once   she finally does traverse the Corridor into the  Other World… or SHE’S ALREADY ON HER WAY THERE. Because you see, the Corridor Door is LOCKED.  And, unlike the movie, mom didn’t do it. Coraline   hasn’t gone through the door yet, but she DID trod  on a mushroom circle AND walked through this MIST.   She’s also so taken with the mist that she tries  drawing it, but “after ten minutes of drawing she   still had a white sheet of paper with M I S T  written on it in one corner in slightly wiggly   letters.” Mist IS REALLY DIFFICULT to capture on  paper, and yet it completely changes environments   and feels as though it transports you ANYWHERE.  And, what’s more, this mist changes form in the   other world… it becomes gray and the world  becomes sketches (so Coraline’s drawing is   kinda prescient!) Barely a page later (after  her iconic interaction with bored overworked   dad,) Coraline finds herself in  Miss Spink and Forcible’s flat, where they read   ambiguous “danger” in her leaves, and give her  the stone with the hole it in. Eventually Coraline   heads out where, “The mist hung like blindness  around the house.” she “stopped and looked   around. In the mist, it was a ghost-world.”  Which could mean it’s even thicker now,   or has altered the landscape in some way, or has  ensnared Coraline and is bringing her elsewhere. In the movie, this scene takes place  AFTER Coralline has unlocked and GONE   THROUGH the door. But to get us here from the  movie’s perspective, let’s rewind just a bit:   Mist is one of the first characters we meet!  Right after the Other Mother sews the Coraline   doll and it flys out the starry window, we see  our hidden monster right away: in the moody,   heavy gray clouds and in the mountains. It's  in the first shot the whole time - with Mr Bobo   (bravely!) doing calisthenics on the roof of the  ominous Pink Palace, the moving truck, movers,   mom, neighbors, a beetle themed front door,  etc. This mist also creeps into the mountain   sides. Quintessential Pacific Northwest,  right? Perfect for setting the tone and   location of the movie, right? Yes, but it’s so  much more! The clouds loom overhead as Coraline   explores and unwittingly steps into a mushroom  ring. (not great) And then sticks her head in. The next day, the clouds are CLOSER to the  house. It’s raining so much that exploring   outside is impossible… almost like Something  wanted Coraline to HAVE to stay in… to find   (and unlock) the creepy little door. _ When  Coraline bargains with her mother in the kitchen,   we see raindrops though the thicker, blurry  kitchen window. Judging by the swaying pine   trees it’s pretty windy… And yet… it’s  still FOGGY Despite this. This cloud   must be TENACIOUS and purposefully moving  towards the house, like it has a mission!   This is when Coraline gets the spying doll.  Every window leading up to finding the door   is misty - dad’s office one is dreary. The “12  Leaky Windows” are, surprise surprise, FOGGED   THE FOG UP. The Drawing room beetle-themed windows  are clear, but rainy, which she finds the door. That night, Coraline goes through  the tunnel to the other world,   where all the windows are NOT misty, but clear  and starry. (A tiny tiny sliver of a waxing   moon is hanging in the kitchen window,  and dad’s office shows twinkling stars,   not dreary rain!) This is VERY reminiscent  of the Intro scene - all darkness and stars. Coraline wakes, in what we assume is her real  bedroom, and there is low billowing mist right   outside of her window. Well, DENSE FOG (Fog  is technically denser than mist). Cut to the   kettle with steamy steam to crank up this extra  misty morning! Just look at that heavy fog that   rolled in…EVEN CLOSER to the house! (This is that  mist scene from the book, but visually changed so   we could see the animation and not just fog).  Coraline goes out in it, and it’s gets thicker   up by Mr Bobo’s flat, inside of which is a pot  boiling over: steam spewing out of it’s lid! By   the time Coraline gets to Spink and Forcible’s  flat downstairs, the mist has reached the house,   and fog has gotten so heavy it’s absolutely  pouring down into the stair well. Almost like   it’s reaching for Coraline, following her, trying  to grab her. And, because we’re 2 for 2, let’s go   for 3: As the actresses warn Coraline about danger  and prattle about death, the tea kettle boils,   more misty steam coming out of it! (And then  of course the tea cup and pot). So there’s   misty wonderland outside, of course, but ALSO  mist INSIDE each residence too! When Coraline   leaves Spink and Forcible’s flat, the low mist  has thickened even more and it keeps on pouring   in! So much so that it completely obscures slug  hunter Wybie and the cat. It’s also moving much   much faster and feels… agitated. And pushy. And  hungry. It’s been getting closer… now it’s HERE. In the book, after the big mist, “The next  day the sun shone” Almost too good to be   true, hmm? Coraline goes shopping, asks about  the empty flat beyond the bricks, and FINALLY   GOES THROUGH the musty old CORRIDOR. She meets  the Other Mother (who is creepy right away),   goes to the theater show, and retreats back to  the real world, where HER PARENTS ARE MISSING.   Already. Like the movie, her parents appear in  the mirror. Now interesting thing about THIS   MIRROR in particular is that it was already in  the house when book Coraline’s family moved in.   They didn’t bring it with them. It could be a  window into another realm, could be anything.   The trapped parents cannot speak through  it, but mist allows them to communicate:   Mom breathed on it “and quickly, before the fog  faded, she wrote SU PLEH with the tip of her   forefinger. The fog on the inside of the mirror  faded, and so did her parents.”” Then Coraline   realized “They aren’t going to come back, are  they? Not under their own steam.” Which, Breath.   Fog. Mist. Steam. All clouds. All mysterious  and important in this story. The Book Other   Mother twists this fog when she uses the mirror to  show Coraline’s parents, happy to be rid of her. In the movie, this seems to be icy fog mom and  dad use to communicate in the mirror. It’s still   raining outside when Coraline burns the doll,  but note that the snowglobe, in this world,   is STILL mist free, even though her parents are  gone. It’s like the Other Mother’s magic cannot   work in Coraline’s world, but this foggy frothy  outside Mist… CAN. Through the Corridor we go,   and the ONLY snowglobe that is misty is the one  her parents are trapped in! Here, mist is used to   obscure. But there’s something else: it’s also  possible that the MIST itself stole them - mom   went out into the mist to get groceries and  we never saw her again. Dad was in town. Now   they’re gone. Something to watch: as the Other  Mother’s power wanes, this globe stays misty. On the Other grounds - the further Both Coralines  get from the house the sketchier the trees get   until they become the rough IDEA of trees. Then….  “She kept walking. And then the mist began. It was   not damp, like a normal fog or mist. It was not  cold and it was not warm. It felt to Coraline   like she was walking into nothing.” The other  Mother could only create the house. The MIST   is just … HERE. On the borders. AS the borders,  perhaps? “The world she was walking through was   a pale nothingness, like a blank sheet of  paper or an enormous, empty white room. It   had no temperature, no smell, no texture, and no  taste. ‘It certainly isn’t mist’ thought Coraline,   although she did not know what it was. [...] there  was no ground beneath her feet, just a misty,   milky whiteness.” Just like her first mist  adventure, she’s back where she started:   the ”dark house, which loomed at  them out of the formless whiteness.”   The cat confirms she hasn’t gotten turned  around, but it’s just a very small world. This scene plays the same  in the movie, but the house,   instead of looming darkly like in  the book, sorta Twilight Princess   glitches back into existence on top of  the empty white fog that’s not a fog. After she finds the second soul: “outside, the  world had become a formless, swirling mist with   no shapes or shadows behind it, while the house  itself seemed to have twisted and stretched.” The   Other Mother’s power is weakening with every  soul found, and the Mist that lingers on the   edges of her power is encroaching more and more,  erasing her ‘trees’ distorting her home. Coraline   tells the Other Mother she has only one more  soul to find…. “Thank you, Coraline,’ said   the other mother coldly, and her voice did not  just come from her mouth. It came from the mist,   and the fog, and the house, and the sky.” She’s  just creepily standing there in “the paper-gray   fog of the flattening world.” Between her voice  coming from everywhere, and the flattening of   the world into fog, It seems like the Other  Mother is unraveling in this mystical mist. On here way to the third soul, Coraline  “walked around to the side of the house,   in the gray mist that wasn’t a mist.” “”I’m an  explorer,’” said Coraline out loud, but her words   sounded muffled and dead on the misty air” This  more-than-mist entity is everywhere and hungry,   eating her words. And, from now on, the word  “mist” is no longer referenced, but “gray” seems   to have replaced it, like the gray in the movie.  Once the exists have flattened. The house no   longer looks real - “more like a drawing, a crude,  charcoal scribble of a house drawn on gray paper.”   The ‘mist’ (well, “gray’) is EVERYWHERE now.  Gray overtaking the scrawled house. The souls’   marbles are “a frosted gray” (like the Other  Mother’s influence had been drained from them) The movie ALSO uses gray in this way - to show the  Other Mother's power draining out of the world,   the souls, whatever it was used to create, and  the Grey Nothing is taking the space back. And   like Book coraline’s words, something's  “eating” the stars: After the Theatre,   there are less stars out, and more distant  clouds and the shadowed moon is nearly full.   By the time we see Wybie’s clothes hanging,  there are barely any stars left in the sky. The button is about to eclipse the  moon when Coraline nearly loses the   third soul. The cat's timely… ah gift…  stops it in its tracks though. There are   EVEN FEWER stars in the gray sky now. Like  something’s obscuring them, or eating them. The movie uses the button shadow the show  the other mother’s “score in the game against   Coraline” if you will. But there’s another  thing at play here: I think the glitchy gray   is her score against the MIST. And uhh… she’s  losing there! When the last soul is collected,   I think the near last bit of the Other Mother’s power is  lost: the part holding the white mist, the Gray   Nothingness REST of the other world at bay. The Other Mother  lives in pocket, and has been able to maintain her   home for so long only by harvesting souls… which  she no longer has. With the power crumbling, the   house crumbles, paper peels, and the defenses of  the Other world in general are crumbling against   the bigger, blank threat of the gray emptiness.  The button moon that was keeping Coraline’s score   now implodes to show the Other Mother’s time is  nearly up. She can no longer maintain illusions. But something is still maintaining that misty  snow globe on the mantle! In a last ditch effort   to steal power, the Other Mother resorts to  overtly trapping Coraline in her actual web…   which is NO LONGER an illusion but a flimsy  spiderweb amid the vastness of blank white   mist-but-not mist nothingness. It’s scary how  small she feels now, how insignificant her power   feels when this is in the picture. The web is  literally her last thread against the blank mist. Back in the book, Coraline, now home  still has more to do to get rid of the   gray in the REAL WORLD, because it’s bled over  metaphorically to that world too! The gray,   predawn light showed her the whole of the  corridor, (not THAT corridor) completely   deserted.” she “opened the front door and  looked at the gray sky” knowing she has to   get rid of the key. Yes, these are poetic  uses, but it feels as though this gray is   fighting for it’s grip on Coraline’s world…  and losing. Because after this gray morning,   the weather is wonderful! And once Coraline tricks  the hand, the night finally turns warm. The End! And to end the movie, the clouds do this same  lingering in the real world. After escaping,   for the first time the outside world is  not rainy, or misty! Mom and dad are back,   and it’s an uncannily clear night at  what we HOPE is the real pink palace.   We can see the first moon in the real  world (again if you trust that’s where   we are) - and it’s waning! Losing face,  just like the Mist and the Other Mother. As Coraline and Wybie struggle to destroy  the hand and dispose of the key, the clouds   above are positively roiling and boiling - like  they’re fighting from above! When they succeed,   The clouds thin to almost nothing, and have STOP  moving once the hand is gone and the well sealed.   Other Mother misty hands finally release their  hold on the moon, and we transition into the FIRST   SUNNY DAY in the whole movie! I WOULD say ‘happily  ever after” but I have serious doubts about that. In the book, this Mist appears AFTER the door  is unlocked, but BEFORE Coraline goes into the   Corridor, like it’s been unfettered and eager  to escape. Mist is also used to communicate,   and to twist and deceive. As the Other Mother’s  power weakens, the Mist or Gray Nothingness   gains strength and space. It’s everywhere  - outside, in the mind, in the other world.   It destroys whatever is too weak. The Mist in  the movie is similar to the mist in the book,   although visually it had to change. It’s there all  the time, constantly waiting in the background,   but AFTER Coraline has visited the other world  it feels like it followed her back out and is   clawing to get her back. In both book and movie,  the fog and mist is present in the real world,   AND the other world, both as clouds, and THEN  as gray nothingness. The Other Mother’s magic   (specifically the snow globe) does NOT  show in the real world, but the mist does. By looking through all of  the windows in the movie,   we get to track few things. First is the  mist, and how it works between worlds:   generally it’s always raining/foggy in the real  world, and starry clear in the Other World. Then   they flip. As the OM’s power weakens, there  are fewer and fewer stars in the other world,   and it becomes dark, where as the clouds pull  away from the real world windows. Second:   Through the windows we also get to track how time  is passing in the Other Realm via the moon phases: When Coraline first visits the other world, we see  a tiny sliver of a waxing moon. In Our Real world   this would actually be a waning moon - it’s almost  a dark moon. But here it either seems backwards   (And I’ll call them by the motion of light across  the moon surface that we see in the movie), or   relative to the Other Mother’s increasing  or decreasing power. Because Next trip   through has a HALF moon rising above the  garden, and by dinner breakfast time,   the moon outside the kitchen window is now  a smidge more than half full. Next time,   after Coraline runs upstairs to get away from the  Buttons, we see NEARLY FULL MOON! Back home after   saving her parents, Coraline’s real bedroom  window shows a waning moon in a clear night. If these moon phases are anything to go  by, time passes a lot FASTER in the other   realm - we went from essentially a New  Moon to a FULL Moon over the course of   a couple days in the real world. In the book  too: a ghost child says: “...she’ll keep you   here while the days turn to dust and the  leaves fall and the years pass one after   the next like the tick-tick-ticking of a clock.  ” Time passes differently in the other realm,   kinda like the fairy realm… which is a MAJOR  clue to what our sentient seeming mist could be. And, finally this is where we’re getting nerdy  into specific mist folklore. Unlike rain,   where there’s usually some warning it’s on the way  (tree leaves will turn upwards (thanks grandma!)   as a hint) Mist can just… appear. Sometimes  out of nowhere. Specifically Fairy fog,   or Féth fíada. We’ve sorta covered it here  before, but it’s extremely important in this   context. Especially when you consider the  book and how it’s more steeped in folklore.   The Fairy Mist’s purpose is many-fold: It is  what ancient beings, the Tuatha De Danann,   would wrap themselves in to hide from humans.  According to legend, this enabled them to survive,   but also to sneak up on enemies, or to capture  mortals. (Book coralline accuses the Other   Mother of “stealing” her parents, and Wybie  uses the world STOLEN when talking about his   great-aunt) This mist can roll into the hills and  mountains of the country side without warning,   and woe be to anyone caught unawares in it… They  could be transported to the fairy realm. The   Coraline mist could be a type of the Fairy Mist.  We’ve also covered that the Cat could be a type of   fairy entity, and we also know from the book that  the Other Mother has access to the fairy realm:   by the little fairy soul she trapped ages ago  or the other world is a fairy world itself. Fairies are notorious for unfair bargains  (here, skinned as “games”). They also use   food as a way to entrap a mortal in their  realm longer - just like the Other Mother   and her mouthwatering cooking. Also, everything  supernatural happening after Coraline crosses a   mushroom circle at the very start of the stories  certainly seems like fairy mischief to me! All these little details add up. The mist in  Coraline seems to act just as Fairy Fog but WITH   SOME MIND OF ITS OWN, or worse, a mindless need to  expand and overtake. It is present in both realms,   and also changes form in the other realm,  and I think overwhelms the Other Mother’s   little pocket of pink palace - with her power  waning she can no longer maintain her borders,   and she (and her home) are dissolving in it. (Like  they’re in the stomach of a much bigger entity…   hello old corridor!) The mist is disorienting,  and potentially, indiscriminately destructive. Another way to look at this is mist in  terms of being a symbol: Mist is commonly   used to represent the border between reality and  non-reality. Like dream worlds, fairy words, and,   in this case, the Other World. It’s a liminal  space, where anything can happen - best dreams   and worst fears. And appears naturally on  BOTH sides of the things it’s separating,   like the real and other world. It can go between  because it IS the between. And, if one of the   worlds is losing power, well, the border pushes  more and more into it. In Coraline, all it took   was a little key and a lot of imagination to  set it loose and begin a terrifying adventure! To get a bit esoteric: This border concept  is perfectly summed up in one particular   type of tarot card: The ACE. It can be  of any suit (cups, pentacles, swords,   wands) because they all follow the same theme: A  Single HAND, holding the suit (potential) coming   Out Of The Clouds. Clouds here are used as  a threshold, or entry point to reality. The   obscured made visible. It’s full of potential. Can  we just appreciate how cool that is? It just feels   like the Other Mother’s hand is trying to guide…  or beguile us! Or handing us a ‘key’ to a problem. But now, I’d like to demystify something else…  something special and OTHER worldly… I’ve been   uploading videos to Nebula, which is now my  Other home in a way! Nebula is a creator-owned   and operated streaming service where creators get  to experiment with new and interesting content,   and I’m thrilled to be a part of  it! I’ll actually be releasing my   next video on Nebula first. But it is  not just early access to my videos,   Nebula is filled with exclusive original content  that ONLY lives there! Like fellow creator Tale   Foundry’s exploration into Neil Gaiman’s creative  process, which covers some of my favorite works,   like Coraline, and the Sandman. I’ve just moved  in with my creepy and weird animated stories,   and if you want even more animated lore, check  out Tale Foundry and Extra (Mythology) there too! Right now, Nebula is offering my viewers  an incredible 40% off annual subscriptions,   which works out to $30 / year or just $2.50 /  month. That’s it, for exclusive and hand-crafted   early content from your favorite creators,  with no ads or interruptions! You can even   download episodes in the app and listen to them  on the go, or drift off to sleep while listening   to me recount the creepiest of dark fairytales  (sweet dreams friends and fiends!) This month,   Nebula is offering lifetime memberships for $300.  That’s ‘forever and always!’ But, honestly, the   annual subscription is the absolute best deal. And  using my link would support my channel directly,   just like watching my videos over there  does! Thank you so much for checking out   go.nebula.tv/abitfrank, and seeing what Nebula  is all about! I hope to see you there very soon! Mist. What everyone… Missed. I hope you enjoyed  this kinda poetic, very obsessive video about the   mists in Coraline! Just what or who is maintaining  the snow globe trap: the powerless other Mother,   or the swirling, shapeless tasteless mist? Or  something else? Let me know in the comments below! If you’re out exploring, and a fog rolls  in around you, do keep your wits sharp,   and your non-button eyes peeled! And be sure to  subscribe so you wont miss the next spooky video!
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Channel: abitfrank
Views: 1,015,418
Rating: undefined out of 5
Keywords: abitfrank, Coraline, coraline the movie, how coraline could have been creepier, henry selick, neil gaiman, book vs movie, coraline animation, coraline creepy, coraline 2, coraline theory, laika, other mother, coraline movie, coraline book, coraline well, coraline corridor, coraline jones, coraline ending, coraline cat, coraline cat theory, the cat theory, coraline other father, coraline other mother, coraline mist theory, bug theory, coraline bug theory, coraline mist
Id: Q2PJdUKldbA
Channel Id: undefined
Length: 24min 7sec (1447 seconds)
Published: Sun Sep 03 2023
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