“Coraline” is filled with unsettling monsters and
creations. The Other Mother is so scary because she crafts a fine web of false security for her
victims. Her creations (the Other Father, Spink, Forcible and the rats) are so terrifying because
they are her eyes and spies and are forced to do her bidding. And then, of course, there’s the
TUNNEL, or CORRIDOR, which I believe is the most terrifying entity between the Real world
and the Other world, and even the Other Mother is afraid of it - she will only send her rats
or a part of her body, the hand, in there! But, then there’s another entity, one that is NOT
bound by the door on EITHER end of the Corridor. I’m of course talking about the Cat… the portal
hopping, nameless, mysterious, and “comforting” being that seems to know everything that goes
on in both the Real and Other worlds… There is absolutely more to this Cat, Cosmic Horror
Corridor-level stuff, and we’re going to find it! For this video, I’m diving into the Movie,
Book, and even Graphic Novel to make sure we cover all our catastic bases. Just like
the cat is everywhere between worlds, they're everywhere across these mediums. I’m
considering the books as ‘primary” lore sources, and letting you know when the movie differs
from them. I’m also pulling in info from my tunnel and rat theory videos, but I’ll try to
recap them as we go. Anyway, let’s dive in! Out of the three Coraline stories, the cat is
introduced first in the Graphic Novel. Now, I don’t mean like that was released first,
I mean cat appears on the first page, before the story even begins, whereas in the book
and movie we meet them a bit later in the story. (a cat appears WITH CORALINE on the first page
of the novel, but it’s not alone.) This graphic novel order sorta sets up that the cat is ‘pretty
important’ or ‘always there’ - a feeling that the cat themself gives when talking about their
extensive knowledge of the other world. (or, it could just be a cute way to start off a
graphic novel… which, I mean, it is). However, the cat appearing solo before we even meet our
heroine Coraline has the same feel as the Movie, where at the very END the cat disappears into
what I assume is yet another portal behind the Pink Palace sign. They are shown independently
of Coraline, whose story at the end of the movie we assume is now “happily ever after.” (lol
sweet summer child)Coraline’s story is over, but the cat's story continues… this is PRETTY
SIGNIFICANT, especially when you think back to HOW MUCH KNOWLEDGE of the Other Mother and
Other World and Other Victims they have, like: how small the world is, how it existed before the
Other Mother found it, and how they know all about “creatures like that.” This fur baby has a LOT
of knowledge of this realm and its inhabitants. And, yeah the cat would absolutely cringe at that
endearing term. (Sorry buddy!) The cat belongs to themself, and is a fur baby to no one! Even
Wybie, because, of course there IS no Wybie in the books. The cat resents names, saying:
“Cats don’t have names… Now YOU people have names because you don’t know who you are. WE know
who we are, so we don’t need names.” That’s deep, cat. It might not be, or it COULD be extremely
deep lore, like the cat is a cosmic entity beyond our mortal brains’ comprehension.
When Coralne encounters them again the cat says: “See? It wasn’t so hard to recognize me, was
it? Even without names.” and furthermore: “Calling cats is an overrated activity.
Might as well call a whirlwind.” Which, is that an admission of your true cosmic storm
form cat? I know I know probably not…. but? But there’s more to support this “Cosmic” or
“Beyond” nature. When Coraline first interacts with the cat in the Other World she says: “I
saw a cat like you in the garden at home. You must be the other cat.” The cat shook its head.
“No. I’m not the OTHER anything. I’m me.” It tipped its head to one side; green eyes glinted.
“You people are spread all over the place. Cats, on the other hand, keep ourselves together, if you
see what I mean.” Now, is the cat talking about ALL cats, or their SPECIFIC TYPE of cat. A cosmic
entity, perchance? Able to survive the corridor, pass between worlds, and into others we may
not yet know about, because they are extremely self-contained? Or just so all-encompassing
that they are everything and everywhere all the time? Haha that’s cute and terrifying. The movie
cat is very self assured and even cocky, like they are a carefree trickster god entity. In the books
they are more reserved, but no less unnerving! And here’s another thing: Only in the Other
World can Coraline have a “conversation” with the cat. (She also talks to the theater dogs
as well, although NOT in the movie) This makes me think that the rules of the Other realm let
her speak with EVERY creature - she can hear the rats’ creepy poem song too. (well, that’s in both
worlds) Maybe it’s a dream-wish-superpower thing, or maybe it’s a hive mind scenario. (or it’s a
literary and audio device to let us know that she is for sure in the Other World when
she talks with creatures.) Regardless, The Cat seems unfazed by it, even used to it. But
here’s the thing - in the movie and graphic novel, it seems as though the cat is TALKING WITH
Coraline. Like out loud, verbally. Even moving it’s mouth in the film, and with direction
speech bubbles in the Graphic novel. In the book, this is NOT the case. “Good afternoon,” said
the cat. Its voice sounded like the voice at the back of Coraline’s head, the voice
she thought words in, but a man’s voice, not a girls.” So, the cat’s voice is not
OUT LOUD. It’s like an internal monologue? Or a conscience. Haha the cat acting like a
Jiminy Cricket is laughable somehow. But yeah, this to me means that the cat communicates
telepathically. I can’t say that I think the OTHER creatures in the other world communicate
this way, because the book ONLY calls out THIS CAT’s dialogue sounding like the voice in
Coraline’s head. The others she just seems to hear normally. This cat seems special - like
it’s IN HER MIND. It’s beyond the other creations to me. I guess “We cats have far superior
senses to humans,” could mean mind melding? Now the cat’s BODY language is the same in both
worlds - Coraline just gets to have a back and forth verbal/mental conversion with them when
she’s in the Other world. I think she eventually understands how to communicate with the Cat in
the real world, and that’s something the movie and graphic novel show us really well! There’s
the time the cat wakes her with cold beans to show her the foggy mirror with her parents
in it, “Coraline could imagine its voice, dry as a dead fly on a windowsill in winter,
saying “well, where do you think they are?” This whole exchange is silent on the part of
the cat, but Coraline is becoming versed in cat body language. And the movie cat does seem
genuinely worried about Coraline going back into the Other World. Also, by the end of the
story, the cat tolerates belly rubs from her, which while I think it’s supposed to show trust
between the two, just makes my brain scream: WHAT KIND OF CAT ENCOURAGES BELLY RUBS FROM A NEW
ACQUAINTANCE! Surely this cat is an anomaly! haha. The cat’s familiar body language and
appearance is what also makes them disarming - just like the Other Mother herself -
where at first she looks like Coraline’s mother, but then as her power slips she becomes
more and more decrepit, or as in the movie: spiderlike, as the story goes on. Her
facade of pleasant and comforting slips… The Cat’s doesn't. The Cat is always the
Cat. Thinking back to that earlier quote: “No. I’m not the OTHER anything. I’m me. You
people are spread all over the place. Cats, on the other hand, keep ourselves together. If
you see what I mean.) This makes me think that they always have control of their power. Much like
the ancient and mighty CORRIDOR that scares the Other Mother so. The Cat retains their appearance
between worlds - everything in the Other World is twisted and has buttons for eyes - a sign
that they belong to the Other Mother or were created by her. The Cat does not have button
eyes. They do not belong to the Other Mother. But, now this could be kind of a twist on the
whole witch’s familiar trope, right? The Beldam, a witch of sorts, has her creations, specifically
the RATS, as her familiars we could say. She considers the cat “vermin.” Most people would
consider rats the vermin and CATS the familiars. Maybe everything is just backwards in the
Other world, but there’s a line the cat says that almost. ALMOST. Makes me think they could be
working FOR (or at least towards a similar PURPOSE as) the Other Mother too. That is “MM… there
are those who have suggested that the tendency of a cat to play with its prey is a merciful one.
Afterall, it permits the occasional funny little running snack to escape from time to time. How
often does your dinner get to escape?” … And then the cat picks up the rat in its mouth and carries
it off into the woods, behind a tree. So the cat’s dinner never gets to escape it seems. Cool. We
know better now, but at this point in the story, this would seem like foreshadowing
Coraline's fate with the Other Mother! AND Wouldn’t you know it, it’s the CAT who
encourages Coraline to play a game with the Other Mother… maybe Coraline will be a prey that
actually escapes. “Challenge her. There’s no guarantee she’ll play fair, but her kind of thing
loves games and challenges.” And we know that the Other Mother, like the cat, will NEVER permit her
prey snack to escape, even if they’ve won. Hmm. Additionally, it feels like the cat is ENCOURAGING
Coraline to play a bit into the Other Mother’s hand. For context: book Coraline has just decided
that she is uncomfortable sleeping in the Other Mother’s house (as she should be - when she wakes
up the next morning the Other Mother looks more full of energy… like she sucked it out of Coraline
yikes!) So, then the cat’s advice is for Coraline to “Get some sleep. You have a long day ahead of
you.” Knowing it will invigorate the Other Mother and also make Coraline even more uncomfortable, it
feels like the cat is cajoling her into this trap. But, of course, there’s more working against
this theory than for it: for one, the cat says that it “doesn't like rats
at the best of times,” which, sure, not getting along with your coworkers
isn’t unusual, but ahh EATING them sure is! Now, of course the cat travels between and
within worlds via the portals. Exactly how many worlds and portals there are is unknown - I
know there is at least one other to the Fae realm, as one of the children victims was a fairy.
Maybe that’s through the Mushroom Circle around the well? (Hold on to this fairy notion for a bit
later in the video.) No other being can do this. Coraline has to walk through the
corridor to get to the other realm, but the cat just walks “like this: It walked
behind a tree, but didn’t come out the other side. Coraline went over to the tree and looked
behind it. The cat was gone. She walked back toward the house. There was another polite
noise from behind her. It was the cat.” So essentially the cat’s showing off their trick,
which potentially enables them to escape danger in ANY given world by portaling out of it
to another, or around the danger within it. AND, of course, there is ANOTHER cat that seems
elusive in this same way, also from a Henry Selick film: The Nightmare Before Christmas. These
two stop motion cats do appear similar - the NBC cat especially looks like how the Book
Coraline cat is “supposed” to with green eyes etc. This Nightmare stray one kinda feels
like it could be Sally's feline familiar. AND, in the new Nightmare Before Christmas book,
“Long Live the Pumpkin Queen,” when the main danger in that novel engulfs literally the Whole
World and all the holiday towns, it’s ONLY Sally, zero, AND THIS STRAY BLACK CAT who are safe in
Halloween Town. Sally’s immune to the danger because of BIG SPOILER, but the cat?, hmmmm…
MAYBE they are safe because THEY PORTALED AWAY FROM THE THREAT?! Is this the same cat
in both stories? That’d be wild! Or is it a family group of cats that has this portal
power, and keeps showing up in creepy fantasy? The cat is doubtful when told the Other
Mother is trying to block its means of travel: “She may TRY. There are ways in and out even
SHE doesn’t know about.” And, in the movie, the cat gives a speech that they have
“been coming here for a while” (what, like eons? hmm) and the other mother have
a “game” where the cat sneaks in and she tries to block them. This sounds like
they’re BOTH playing with their food, doesn't it? But the cat comes and goes as they
please. (Also, bye the bye, The movie cat says a LOT more about the Other Mother than they do
in the books, and the movie gives her powers to close portals and build worlds that she DOES NOT
APPEAR to have in the originals to that degree) The time the Cat is truly scared is when all the
portals to the other realms are closed. The Cat no longer has a means of escape. Their power
is lost. They freak out and rely on Coraline to save them as well as herself. The cat’s
fur was on end, and its tail was bristling like a chimney sweep’s brush. “What’s wrong?’
asked Coraline. “They've gone,” said the cat. “They aren’t there anymore. The ways in and out of
this place. They just went flat.” The cat growls, lowers its tail, and Coraline “could feel how
hard its heart was beating. It was trembling like a dead leaf in a storm.” … “but the cat
stayed where it was, looking miserable and, oddly, much smaller.” Interesting. With
their ability to traverse gone, did they also diminish in size? DID THEY LOSE POWER?
When the Other Mother’s power is weak, her creations melt. Is something similar
going on with the cat, or are they just scared?! Coraline picks the cat up: “The
cat was heavy but not too heavy to carry.” So the cat seems smaller… this is interesting, especially when we put it next to some
other incidents of… shapeshifting?! Coraline has entered the Other Flat (where she
encounters the doughy other Father), “in the tub was a dead spider the size of a small cat.” Now,
yes gross, but what does it mean? Just a gnarly oversized spider, or perhaps, now hang on, if
could be another shapeshifting cat. Or this cat, or not, but what I want to point out is the
potential shapeshiftitng and scaling of things. Because this isn’t the only time the cat
seems out of proportion. When Coraline is in the white emptiness, “She thought it might
be some kind of Lion, at first, some distance away from her. And then she knew what it was.
Its fur stood straight out from its body and its eyes were wide, while its tail was down and
between its legs. It did not look a happy cat.” SHAPESHIFTING?! Or literary tension? (Hold this
shapeshifting notion next to the fairy notion). Here too is another thing I want to talk about:
There are a few other places where the cat is absolutely uncomfortable and not in their power:
one is the empty space. “Bad place,” said the cat. “If you want to call it a place, which I don’t.
Nothing to find here. This is just the outside, the part of the place SHE hasn’t bothered to
create” (referring to the Other Mother) I should note that in the movie, the cat is cocky as all
get out during this scene, not so in the books, where they’re on edge and scared. To me this
empty space is the pre-Other Mother space. A space and place more ancient than she. Like the
Corridor, which ALSO happens to terrify the cat: At first the cat seems fine, well, confidently
aloof as they and Coraline stroll down it. But as they get further along in the corridor, the cat
gets noticeably scared “its fur was bristling, and its brush of a tail stuck up in the air.”
… “when the candle went out as suddenly as if it had been snuffed by someone’s hand.”
Clearly not smug and powerful anymore. Like it’s a sneaky lesser god, or trickster
trying to escape notice of more ancient and creepier things and beings, but being
caught. And honestly I’d be freaking out about the corridor too - to me that’s the
single most terrifying entity in Coraline! AND, I think the time that the cat is the MOST
TERRIFIED is when the portals are closed. Now here's the thing: in the book it's UNCLEAR who
or WHAT closed the portals - “They've gone,” said the cat. “They aren’t there anymore. The
ways in and out of this place. They just went flat.” In the movie the cat says "SHE" closed
the exits, leading us to believe it's the Other Mother. Because the book doesn't distinguish
this, and it also hints at the corridor and door itself being some sort of ancient entity
that “watches Coraline,” I think that THIS could be one of the cat’s true fears. Rightly
so, right? They are scared in the corridor, and they are scared when whatever is in control
of the ways in and out decides to trap the cat AND CORALINE in the other realm. Leaving their
only exit THROUGH THE CORRIDOR. That corridor needs to eat, too! And this fits with the cat
not so much being SCARED of the Other Mother, but more they like to antagonize her, and
play games with her. They are her equal in some sense. But both the Other Mother and the cat
are afraid of this gatekeeper entity! If there were a power hierarchy, this ancient power
is above both the cat and the Other Mother. But back to the fairy portals,
potential shapeshifting, and… MIST. You know, the eerie mist that settles around the
Pink Palace? In the book, the MIST that surrounds the house starts the day after Coraline follows
the Rats to the Other Door, (so within the first few pages) but before we meet the cat. Mr. Bobo
warns her that the mice also do not like the mist. You know what else mice don’t like? Cats. Perhaps
it’s possible that the CAT is responsible for the mist? Now, in the Graphic Novel, we officially
meet the black cat riiight BEFORE the mist, before the corridor, the day Coraline finds the
well. I mean the timing on that is just… pretty suspicious. Coraline also seems to think that the
cat comes from the mist. After thanking for it’s help with the rat she says “so you go off into the
mist or wherever you go…” To her, the cat seems tied to the mist in some way. THIS IS DIFFERENT
in the movie, where the mist happens a lot later, and we’ve got Wybie (who’s not in the book) to
break it up commedically with slugs. I love him. Now there is a literary reason for the mist,
that could also be translated into the visuals of the Graphic Novel and Movie - mist often means
“disorientation, confusion, dreaming, NEAR DEATH, blurring of reality with fantasy”... all of which
seem to apply to Coraline’s current situation, right? There’s also Celtic Folklore.
Specifically the magical cloaking mist that hides the ancient Tuatha De Danann (the
people of the goddess Dana) from human sight. Supernatural powers. They have gone into
hiding from mortals (hence the mist) and in their place are now the Sidth, or fairies
of sorts, who can emerge from said mist. Which, of course, leads me to the Cat Sith, which
is a witch that can switch from her human form to a cat form 9 times, and on that 9th time, she
remains a cat for the rest of time. Our mysterious black cat could be a 9-transformation cat sith!
This is a soul-stealing fae creature from celtic folklore, which, coupled with the portals to the
real world, other world, and likely FAE REALM, the knowledge of this Other world that seems
like it’s been gained over many lifetimes (perhaps 9? heh?), the maybe-shapeshifting and
telepathy, and the MIST which hides the Tuatha de Danna (fae creatures), really makes sense. The
soul-stealing bit and trickster nature also seem to align with how it ALMOST seemed that the cat
had a similar goal to the Other Mother - her’s would be to drain their essence, the cat cat
sith’s would be to steal their soul. However, cat siths usually have a mark of white on their
chest, which our cat appears not to have. Also, as mentioned before, the Book cat’s voice
is stated to be male, and the movie’s cat follows that. That’s not to say that a
cat sith couldn’t be fluid I guess though! Maybe the cat is so creepy because they are
SO elusive and undefinable. And they are very different between the books and movie. When I
started this, I fully expected to be in love with the cat even more by the end, being
the obsessive cat lady that I am. However, the proof is in the pudding, well in
this case the book, graphic novel, and movie. I’m so intrigued. So, just WHAT is
the cat? An inter-world freeloader? An ancient cosmic portal hopper? A fairy creature
that gets a kick out of deadly tricks? A deceptive beldam familiar? Or just a regular
mischievous cat? The fact that they are in the “Coraline” cinema logo has to mean SOMETHING,
right? Let me know in the comments below! Thank you, friends and fiends, for
overanalyzing more Coraline lore with me! Do subscribe so you won’t miss the
next video and I’ll see you soooon! Good bye!
