How Coraline Borrows from Ancient Forms of Storytelling

hi i'm michael this is lessons from the screenplay [Music] when writer director henry selick adapted neil gaiman's novel coraline into an animated film he decided to forego cgi in favor of an older analog technology stop motion animation as select explains coraline may be a fairy tale but it is set in our times modern times and stop-motion animation brings a charm a warmth the reasons i love stop motion today are not the things people want to hear when they are selling a film they want what's new what's cutting edge new is always equated with better but i always thought the story would be best served as a stop-motion animated film but coraline does more than use retro technology to tell its story both the book and the film borrow elements from some of the most ancient forms of storytelling itself so today i want to examine how coraline uses an underlying fairy tale structure to shape the protagonist's journey to dissect how the film also incorporates grotesque imagery and classic ghost story elements and to ultimately discover how utilizing all these ancient forms lends power to the story by reinforcing one of its central themes let's take a look at coraline the novel core line opens with a quote about fairy tales by author g k chesterton fairy tales are more than true not because they tell us that dragons exist but because they tell us that dragons can be beaten this quote frames the entire novel as it quickly becomes apparent that coraline borrows its structure and many familiar elements from classic fairy tales first the plot of coraline revolves around a difficult mother-child relationship when the film opens we learn that coraline has a strained relationship with her mom coraline i don't have time for you right now who spends most of her time working while ignoring her daughter i'm really really busy but after coraline discovers a secret passage into a magical mirror world she meets her other mother a seemingly perfect double of her own mom except this one is warm and loving showering coraline with attention we've been waiting for you coraline caroline's troubled mother-daughter relationship harkens back to classic fairy tales like cinderella hansel and gretel and snow white in these stories mothers and mother figures may seem kind but they are often secretly plotting against their children likewise in the film coraline at first believes that the other mother is an ideal replacement for her own but she soon discovers that the other mother has been concealing her true sinister intentions you could stay here forever if you want to really there's one tiny little thing we need to do black is traditional but if you'd prefer pink or vermilion or chartreuse though you might make me jealous no way you're not throwing buttons in my eyes which brings us to another classic fairy tale element coraline must strike a deal with her enemy at the story's midpoint coraline refuses to stay in the mirror world with her other mother but when she returns to her normal life she discovers that the other mother has kidnapped her real parents mom dad so encouraged by an animal ally another common element in fairy tales challenge her then she may not play fair but she won't refuse she's got a thing for games coraline strikes a deal with the other mother to win her parents back why don't we play a game i know you like them everybody likes games and if you somehow win this game then you let me go you let everyone go this deal echoes the bargains often made by characters and fairy tales as in rumplestiltskin when the protagonist promises to give up her first born child in exchange for help spinning straw into gold oren hansel and gretel when gretel seemingly agrees to help the witch in order to buy time to plot her and her brother's escape in stories like these as in carline bargains and deals provide the hero with a clear task and dire stakes forcing them to rely on their wits in order to beat the enemy in an all-or-nothing game if i lose i'll stay here with you forever and let you love me and i'll let you sew buttons into my eyes and for coraline winning her parents back helps her realize what she's needed to learn all along mom dad i miss you so much fairy tales which are often the first stories we hear in childhood are designed to teach lessons or virtues by borrowing the fairy tale structure found in hansel and gretel and other classics coraline takes its protagonist on a journey from meeting a seemingly perfect other mother to learning that this mother figure is actually evil to ultimately risking everything in order to win back the real parents teaching her the virtue of gratitude for what she already has but as select notes coraline doesn't just borrow elements from fairy tales in fact he calls the film and book a sort of combination of alice in wonderland and hansel and gretel and like alice in wonderland coraline is filled with grotesques as a literary concept grotesques are all about the blurring of boundaries many scholars consider lewis carroll's alice's adventures in wonderland and especially its sequel through the looking glass to offer some of literature's most classic examples of grotesque imagery some traits of the grotesque include disharmony or paradox a combination of the comic and the terrifying and extravagance and exaggeration of reality and a sense of alienation where something once understood and expected becomes foreign and threatening and just like in these stories about alice coraline's world is also filled with grotesques from the beginning of the story the supporting characters in coraline her neighbors all have exaggerated features and as coraline passes into the mirror world she and the audience experience a through-the-looking glass feeling where the familiar and friendly gradually become foreign and threatening she meets button-eyed versions of the same neighbors whose features become increasingly unnerving and sinister as the story goes on all of these supporting characters provide strong visual examples of grotesques because they evoke blended reactions in both coralline and the viewer we're not sure whether this is comedy or horror if we should be feeling empathy or disgust and the soul of the grotesque is especially evident in the other mother who eventually reveals herself to be nothing short of a monster all of these grotesque images emphasize the story's theme coraline learns that the perfect world she thinks she wants is actually rotten and terrifying underneath and it's here as the story gets darker that we realize that coraline is also a full-on ghost story there are some classic ghost story elements present in coraline from the very beginning as the film opens we see coraline and her family moving into a haunted house in classic ghost stories a setting with a disturbing or mysterious history plays a crucial role in creating dread or suspense around what will happen the same is true in carline when she learns that a child once vanished in the house that she and her family have just moved into when they were kids grandma's sister disappeared she says she was stolen much later after the other mother reveals herself as the beldum the monster she really is she imprisons coraline you may come out when you've learned to be a loving daughter where coraline meets the ghosts of three children who have all been captured and killed by the other mother over the years she said that she loved us but she locked us here and ate up our lives as in many classic ghost stories these ghosts want something from coraline find our eyes mistress and our souls will be freed they ask her to find their eyes which were stolen by the other mother so that they can finally be free in a classic ghost story as in coraline storytellers tend to refrain from fully explaining the mystery because the emphasis is on what the protagonist learns the story doesn't concern itself with how the afterlife works offering no explanation of the machinery behind the eyes coraline must find or how they will set the ghosts free and ghost stories are often about obsession about the cost of getting what you want so she lured us away with treasures and treats and games to play gave all that we asked yet we still wanted more when coraline encounters the ghost children she realizes that they like her were tempted by the promise of a perfect family yet it cost them everything and their final warnings to coraline even if you win she'll never let you go help her to outwit the beldum and escape with her parrots [Music] and put an end to the monster once and for all just like the fairy tale structure and grotesque imagery coraline's ghost story elements enhance the story's theme teaching coraline about the dangers of obsession and the cost of getting the perfect family she thinks she wants coraline is an excellent example of a modern film that leverages the power of some of storytelling's oldest forms fairy tales grotesques and ghost stories it uses the deep psychological effects of these ancient tales to reinforce a timeless theme that chasing something seemingly better newer or more exciting can prevent us from appreciating what we already have hey guys michael here no in here in revisiting coraline i was reminded that some of my earliest films were stop motion videos i made with legos this also reminded me of how cool legos are so i checked out a fun documentary on curiosity stream called the secret world of legos it goes inside the world of legos to see why we're so obsessed with them and to unpack the philosophy of the company and it's just one of the thousands of educational documentaries available on curiositystream and what's great is that when you sign up for curiositystream you get nebula for free nebula is the streaming service built by creators to be a place where we can house our content ad free and where we can experiment with original content you can watch h bomber guy dissecting the opening title sequence of true detective watch tom scott for some youtubers to compete for ten thousand dollars or watch me explain mulan ruse to alex from technicality who was born the gear the movie came out if i said gichi gichi yaya to you does that mean anything to you not at all no both curiosity stream and nebula have a ton of great content and you can get them both for less than fifteen dollars by going to the link in the description thanks to curiositystream for sponsoring this video well said thank you as always to the patrons on patreon for making this channel possible thank you for watching and i'll see you next time

Channel: Lessons from the Screenplay

Views: 252,072

Keywords: Michael Tucker, Screenwriting techniques, Screenplay, Screenplay tips, Screenwriting tips, Writing tips, Screenwriting, Script, Structure, Dialogue, Robert McKee, John Truby, Character, Scene, Education, How to write a screenplay, Learn screenwriting, Writing, Filmmaking, Filmmaker, Tips, Coraline, Henry Selick, stop-motion, animation, fairy tales, grotesque, ghost story, ghost stories

Id: NR3Q3IAMVXM

Length: 11min 58sec (718 seconds)

Published: Thu Oct 22 2020