After the film's rerelease in theaters, many fans have been left wondering if Coraline is based on a true story, or is at least influenced by true events.
First released in 2009, Coraline follows a young girl of the same name who discovers a secret passageway that essentially acts as a gateway to a different dimension where everyone has buttons instead of eyes.
In that new dimension, Coraline discovers that it seems to be everything she could ever want. However, in reality, she is faced with a monster who disguises itself as her mother and wants to steal her soul.
[ Coraline 2: Will It Ever Release? ]
Is Coraline Based on a True Story?
The animated movie Coraline is based on a 2002 children's novella written by Neil Gaiman, a horror and dark fantasy author who most notably created The Sandman comic series which was recently adapted into a Netflix series.
Gaiman's novella is also named Coraline, and it served as the full inspiration for the film, as the movie was a faithful adaptation.
The book was not directly based on a true story, but Gaiman has revealed in the past that he was influenced in many different ways when writing the story.
In a 2002 interview with the American Library Association's Booklist Magazine, Gaiman specifically credited an 1882 short story named The New Mother as one of his major influences for Coraline.
Written by Lucy Clifford, The New Mother is, according to Gaiman, "about these children who are evil." The children's mother threatens that if they misbehave, she will have to leave and will be replaced by a "new mother:"
"The most forgotten is a lady named Lucy Clifford. . . . One [of her stories], 'The New Mother,' [is] about these children who are evil. They behave badly because they want something another kid has, this pear drop. Their mother keeps saying, 'Please, please, please, don’t misbehave, or I’ll have to go away, and your new mother will have to come.'"
In the story, that is exactly what happens. The children "do misbehave," which causes them to find their mother gone, and instead find a new mother with glass eyes and a "wooden tail:"
"And they do misbehave, and when they go home, their mother’s not there. But they look down at the end of the road, in the dark, where they see coming toward them the flames of their new mother’s eyes and hear the swish, swish, swishing of her wooden tail."
Gaiman stated that that story "definitely stuck with [him]," particularly due to its "really disturbing and primal" nature:
"That definitely stuck with me. Here was somebody writing children’s fiction, at the same time 'Alice [in Wonderland]' was written, who was willing to go all the way, into something really disturbing and primal."
One of the major similarities between Coraline and The New Mother is the title of the latter. In Gaiman's book and in the film, Coraline's evil mother is referred to as "The Other Mother," which is clearly inspired by the title of Lucy Clifford's book.
The eyes of the other mother are also a big similarity between Coraline and The New Mother. In Coraline, the Other Mother has black buttons in place of her eyes, which is similar to the glass eyes that the Other Mother has in The New Mother.
In another interview with CBC, Gaiman also revealed that Coraline was largely influenced by stories that his daughter, Holly, told him when she was young.
Specifically, Gaiman stated that his daughter would come up with stories "about little girls being kidnapped by evil witches" who were most often "disguise themselves as her mother:"
"She would make me write down her stories, which were always about little girls being kidnapped by evil women, witches normally, who would disguise themselves as her mother. They were the kind of stories that would have given Edward Gorey nightmares."
Seeing how much his daughter was interested in those types of stories, Gaiman thought that he should find tales and read them to Holly, but there was one major problem. According to Gaiman, "there wasn't anything like that on the shelves." So, instead of just giving up, "[he] started to write one," which was Coraline:
"They were wonderful. I initially thought I should go and find some of these things and read them to her because she'd like it. Then I realized there wasn't anything like that on the shelves. So I started to write one."
So, although Coraline isn't directly based on a true story, the original version of it was influenced by previous stories as well as the ideas of his own daughter.
Coraline is currently available to watch in select theaters and is streaming on the Roku channel.
