The Controversy of Coraline

 

Coraline made in 2009 is a film by Laika Studios, in this movie a young girl going through the change of a big move discovers a hidden world where an alternate dimension exists that mimics her own life but eerily perfect. Many parents see the content of this movie as too disturbing for kids to consume, which led to various controversies I will cover today. 

The film carries us from a dreary, rainy world that young Coraline lives in– to a wondrous colorful ‘other world’ with alternate yet identical parents who claim to have the permanent ability to provide Coraline with the life she desires. But nothing that good comes without a price, does it? No. Unfortunately for Coraline, what her other parents want is to sew buttons into her eyes in return for her to live a life with them.

Some of the biggest worry for parents is the scenes of either in-your-face violence such as a scene where Coraline throws a cat onto the ‘other mother’s’ face only for the cat to then rip out her button eyes. There is also plenty of violence that the movie leads you to assume happened, several characters throughout the movie talk about the other mother punishing children by locking them up, or sewing mouths shut, etc. And while the parents have a right to be concerned, this movie doesn’t outrightly say anything– and in the eyes of a child subtleness is too unclear for their comprehension. 

“They take everything that makes a kid feel safe and make it unsafe.” Says parent Lori Z. on commonsensemedia.org. Continuing on about the many ghostly moments in the movie; things reaching through walls, dead children, trapped parents, and more even make herself frightened to be alone in her room. 

But it could all very much be dependent on the person, as other parents from the same website claim they loved it– and their children were quite fond of it as well. 

Sources: ranker.com, commonsensemedia.org