The Door, the Girl, and the Button Eyes In an old house on a hill somewhere in Oregon, there is a little door in the wall. During the day and to the casual observer, this door leads to nowhere. But at night, if the right person opens it, the door leads to another world. A world where everything appears perfect. A world where mothers make dinner every night, where fathers create spectacular gardens and spend time with their daughters, where there are gravy trains and talking toys, and where jumping mice perform tricks and stunts for children. A world with button eyes. This is the world created in 2009 by director Henry Selick in the 3-D, clay animation film Coraline. Based off the children’s novel written by Neil Gaiman, this intricately created …show more content…
Where most children’s movies start with a narrated backstory, like in Beauty and the Beast, or a tragedy like in Frozen, this film begins with the creation of a doll. The doll is not ordinary, nor are the hands that build it, as they are almost mechanical in origin. The doll created by these strange hands is revealed to be an exact replica of the film’s protagonist, Coraline, who has recently moved into an old house inhabited by rather strange neighbors. Feeling neglected by her busy parents, who are barely able to tear themselves away from their computers long enough to pay attention to her, Coraline explores her new home. After a short time, she discovers a small, hidden door that seemingly leads to nowhere. That night, the door magically opens. She crawls through into a surreal, parallel world whose occupants mirror those in her own world except for one small detail; they have buttons for eyes. Her “other parents” are the exact opposite of her real ones, as they listen to Coraline and care about her opinions. Their attention keeps drawing Coraline from the real world to the parallel one. She is offered a place in this “perfect” world, but she must become like the other inhabitants. She must replace her eyes with buttons. Horrified by the Other Mother’s offer, Coraline does all she can to escape the parallel world and return to her true home, dull as it may …show more content…
Though it is simple to follow, with little in the way of twists, the film is still very enjoyable. What the movie lacks in complexity is made up for in quality, as the story line intrigues the viewer from the start. The creation of the doll in the opening sequence sets the tone for the movie and creates a connection between the viewers and the characters. It holds the viewer’s attention by creating a sense of unease surrounding the different character’s motives and choices, leaving the audience with numerous questions. Though most are answered by the end of the movie, these questions help the viewer remain invested in the plot. The only complaint that the plot of the film may obtain is the pacing of the conclusion, which progresses almost too quickly to be
Her call was a hand made doll made by “the other mother” that was able to spy on her life through its eyes and see she was unhappy. “The other mother” then lured her in with a jumping mouse, something that was new and vibrant in Coraline's life. At first Coraline refuses the call to adventure by telling herself that the other world is just a dream, which is understandable considering that it is nearly an inconceivable thought to even dream up, a whole other world that is the exact same only better in every way, plus she only visits there at night. But she then accepts her call to adventure once she realizes her parents have been stolen and the other world is
Jeannette Wales, author of The Glass Castle, recalls in her memoir the most important parts of her life growing up as a child that got her where she is now. Her story begins in Arizona in a small house with her parents and three siblings. Her parents worked and didn’t do much as parents so she had to become very independent. Her parents and siblings were the highlights to most of her memory growing up. She is able to recall memories that most small children wouldn’t be able to recall with as much detail.
In the films Paradise Bent, Muxes–Authentic, Intrepid Seekers of Danger and the Gender and Sexuality section of Explorations in Cultural Anthropology explore the identification of gender and sexuality (Croall and Altmann 2000)(Islas 2006)(Boyd and Lassiter 2011). The introduction to gender and sexuaity in the book Explorations in Cultural Anthropology, Boyd and Lassiter (2011) discuss how once a baby is born, they are being socialized “into one of the two ‘appropriate’ roles- male or female” (Boyd and Lassiter 2011: 218). The baby is expected to meet the expectations he/she is born into (Boyd and Lassiter 2011). For example, in the films, it is greatly commented by the muxes and fa’afafines that they didn’t follow the gender ideologies, the
The girl's mother is associated with comfort and nurturing, embodied in a "honeyed edge of light." As she puts her daughter to bed, she doesn't shut the door, she "close[s] the door to." There are no harsh sounds, compared to the "buzz-saw whine" of the father, as the mother is portrayed in a gentle, positive figure in whom the girl finds solace. However, this "honeyed edge of li...
The film The Searchers directed by John Ford, featured actor John Wayne. The setting of the film takes place in 1868 in the frontier of Texas. The main character, Ethan Edwards was an ex-confederate soldier, who had return home from the war. The question of “Was John Wayne’s character, Ethan, an Indian hater?” can be answered through the use of examples found throughout the movie. Ethan can be depicted as an Indian hater because of the dislike of his 1/8 Cherokee nephew Martin and other natives, his view of captured women by the Natives and his urge for the killing of the Comanche natives. During 1868 you have an expansion of the western frontier. People are going out west, to make a better future for themselves. The western frontier was a
How accurate do you think the film is in portraying the ancient Spartans and their peculiar society and culture? Based on the reading on the ancient writing in the Plutarch on Sparta book and reviewing the 300 film, I don’t believe the film is very precise in portraying the Spartans and their peculiar society and culture. Growing up in Sparta was very harsh given its corresponding customs. However, this does not go to stay that the movie had absolutely nothing in common with the information presented in the readings. On the other hand, there were numerous aspects brought up in the readings that were absent in the movie. For instance one thing was during the discussion of the examination of newborn males. It was mentioned “that is why women
In the not-so-far future the polar ice caps have melted and the resulting rise of ocean waters has drowned all the coastal cities of the world. Withdrawn to the interior of the continents, the human race keeps advancing, reaching to the point of creating realistic robots-called mechas-to serve them. An ambitious Professor succeeds in building David, an artificial kid, the first of its kind programmed to provide endless love for its adopter. David is adopted by Monica as a substitute for her real son, but an unfortunate sequence of events leads Monica to abandon David. Believing that Monica will love him only if he becomes a real boy, David sets off to find the Blue Fairy (from the fairy tale Pinocchio), whom he earnestly believes is the only one with the power to grant him his wish.
Often when we think about the Titanic the first thought that comes to the mind is the film “Titanic” which was produced in 1997, 85 years after the disaster struck. It starred Kate Winslett (Rose DeWitt Bukater), Leonardo DiCaprio (Jack Dawson) And Billy Zane (Cal Hokley) as the main characters. The film is about a love triangle between the three main characters. This movie was produced by James Cameron who put enormous amount of research about the shipwreck of the titanic in order to depict the turn of events in his film. Amongst the purposes of his research he wanted to accurately depict the ship wreck itself from the very instant the ship hit the iceberg to the very last part of the ship that was subdued into the water. Another very significant part of Cameron’s research was to understand the socio-economic status of the passengers which will be discussed in detail later. Although historians have criticized certain aspects Cameron’s film the accuracy in which he depicts certain aspects such as the socio-economics of the passengers can’t be ignored.
Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland is a story that has been loved and read by different age groups. Lewis Carroll wrote the book in such a way that the reader, young or old, could be trapped into Alice’s world of adventure. The illustrations by John Tenniel help portray the story beautifully. Tenniel put pictures to Carroll’s thoughts exactly. When a student reads Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland for the first time, it is always great if he or she could be introduced to his illustrations. However, it is a good idea for teachers to bring in different portals of Alice to help show how other people may view this little girl’s world. In addition, it will show that even though Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland has been written many years ago, people are still relating to Alice’s character. Overall, it is amazing to see how many different illustrators have portrayed Alice in a totally new and modern way, such Greg Hildebrandt. I decided to use Greg Hildebrandt’s illustrations to assist me in teaching about Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland because he portrays Alice as a much older looking girl. I believe this will help students understand how Alice’s character seemed older than seven years of age. He also depicts some of the characters as more humanlike than cartoon. I believe this will help students picture themselves into Alice’s world. In addition, Hildebrandt helps portray the bizarre story line that many people have come to love.
...r, this movie is lack of depth of storyline. The audiences can even predict what will happen in the next scenes. Moreover, the ending of this movie is too cheesy and irrational according to me. If only they change the ending to become more interesting and rational, I will give a four or five stars out of five. In spite of a lame twist ending, this movie is a perfect example to show that managers should be able to motivate and challenge their employee. It is important to remember that a happy employee means a productive employee.
Movie starts with a mother carrying and feeding her child. And ends with the child and mother walking together. This time gap is demonstrated with periodic evolution of examples and daily schedule of a mother. Interestingly the movie ends with maze and mercury trying to get to the center of it. With several debatable analyses that can be made about this movie a conclusion is not easy to pull out. However this movie tries to express female voice, but in symbolic manner rather then being straightforward and making female characters of the movie dominate to male character. In addition, the symbolic part is difficult to understand and needs several serious discussions to prove a point. A mother in this story representing female voice tries to be dominant throughout the movie which. Her motherhood is the main target and freedom is secondary goal.
Ibsen, Henrik. The Project Gutenberg EBook of a Doll's House. [EBook #2542]. The Project Gutenberg, 13 Dec. 2008. Web. 14 Mar. 2011. .
Kennedy, X. J., and Dana Gioia. "A Doll’s House." Backpack Literature: An Introduction to Fiction, Poetry, Drama, and Writing. 4th ed. New York, N.Y. Longman/Pearson, 2008. 881-939. Print
This film really focuses on the characters. Their thoughts, anger, distress, and mistakes become part of your mistakes. This deals with a father’s s priority and how he will achieve that priority by using unethical ways like torturing an innocent man. Bringing up child abduction and torture are
...movie that I fell in love with. But most of all I love how the story line is a great overlap into the cinematically engaging movie. There is a great use of camera, timing, shots and story line that are portrayed in this movie without being too overwhelming. This allows the audience to relax during the movie and just take in the scenes as a story from reality. To this day, and even still doing this paper I still come to find different aspects of the movie that I missed the previous times I have watched it.