Valentines Day has come and gone. The Russinger family spent the day eating Italian, escaping at the Apple Store, letting daddy feed his addiction at Borders, and then ending the day wearing 3D glasses watching the imaginative world of Coraline.
Coraline is a colorful creation of family disconnection, belonging, childhood friendship, loneliness, dispare, fantasy, spirituality, all with a restorative theme woven through (this just my take). I applaud the artistry found in the detail, drawing the viewer into both screen and story. You enjoy the honest personality coming from Coraline as relocation unsettles her existence and shoves her into explorative playfulness. It is her experiential nature, the mice in the night, and her parental dissatisfaction that takes her into the ‘other’ families wonderland. Though pseudo, Coraline finds enjoyment in her new ‘other’ families world and for 3 nights she wakes and crawls into the alluring kalidscope of ‘what if’. She begins to feel the pull of make believe, her soul is touched and tempted, producing the universal question, DO we entertain ‘the real’ OR the world we want to be real?
I came away with many avenues to explore, maybe for another time. But, i will share just one reflection. I found it interesting and telling that this ‘other’ world could be yours if you allow buttons (all different colors available) to be sewn onto your eyes. Give up your sight, give up your soul. For Coraline the more time she spent in this ‘other’ world she began to ’see’ its inconsistencies and lies. This illumination births a fight, a battle for her ‘real’ life, her real family, her soul and the souls of those who were previously lost to perverted beauty.
We may know the testing of Coraline, i know i have. When dissatisfaction and temptation waken the ‘other’ worlds around you you can either hold to truthful sight or welcome beautiful blindness.
Buttons anyone?