How Coraline gave its director some long-overdue recognition

It’s fifteen years since we ventured into The Other World with Coraline, the 2009 stop motion animation that launched Laikas and became a beloved classic. The tale of a young girl named Coraline (voiced by Dakota Fanning) entering an alternate universe full of mirror versions of her life was a spooky, heart-felt journey into imagination for fans around the world. For the man behind the film, however, it was the moment of recognition he deserved.

Henry Selick’s directorial debut came sixteen years before Coraline but to this day it’s a film often associated with someone else. 1993’s The Nightmare Before Christmas is another stop-motion film with a devoted following that has only grown over the years. The film was advertised as "Tim Burton’s A Nightmare Before Christmas", to tie the film’s dark aesthetic to the popular filmmaker, but Burton was the film’s producer, and it was Selick in the director’s chair.

'No-one knew I directed The Nightmare Before Christmas'

"It seemed like no-one knew I directed that movie," Selick said to Yahoo Movies UK during an interview to celebrate Coraline’s anniversary. He does, however, hold no resentment and chuckled as he made the admission.

"Only twice in my life has it happened where I get total artistic support." He explained, "It was Nightmare with Tim Burton as the Godfather, and in (Coraline), directly to me. People believed in me."

Many of the film’s fans believed in him too, one of which was the author of the original Coraline book, Neil Gaiman. "I received pages from an unfinished manuscript from Gaiman, a short story he had been working on for years and years."

He recalled, "He was one of the few people who when he saw A Nightmare Before Christmas, saw that the director wasn't Tim Burton, and thought ‘I'll send thepages to Henry Selick’ That's how I first came to it, and I loved it."

Why it took forever to get 'scary' Coraline on the screen

The fight to get Coraline to the screen was a long one, as the themes stood out in an era defined by the Pixar revolution. "It took forever to find a studio that would support this scary movie for kids, but eventually did with Laika," he explained of the studio’s decision to make it their first film.

"They were brave. They didn't know any better, and yet, they're very proud of the result, and it sort of has grown in appreciation… I'm so proud that this was the first Laika film, that they embraced this type of story and put themselves on a map with something that wasn't like any of the other films made by DreamWorks, Disney, illumination or any of the other more Hollywood style filmmakers."

Watch the official Coraline 15th anniversary trailer below

During the making of the film, Selick had to give this adaptation its own identity which meant deviating from the source material. "There's 1,000 differences from the original story, not just to make it different, but to make it work as a film," he explained, using the character of Other Mother (Teri Hatcher) as an example.

"In the original pages, the Other Mother right away, instantly, there's something off about her. There's something off, something unpleasant. I decided it would make more sense to have her be more than pleasant, to be a much better version of a real mom, and that it would come out in stages.

"The first transformation is she grows taller. It almost looks like a fashion model. She doesn't become a monster. And maybe I'm trying to confuse people. What is she doing? What does that mean? Before the real, the hungry spider version of her is revealed."

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Fifteen years on, the rewards from all these risks are still evident. Coraline is the cornerstone of the Laika legacy that includes films like ParaNorman and Kubo and The Two Strings, stories that stand out in the animation genre for taking chances and finding their way into audiences’ hearts. It has brought new appreciation for Selick’s work, past and present. "I've met many of the original fans who saw (Coraline) when they were eight or nine or 10 years old, who were terrified," he said. "It was the most frightening thing they had ever seen, but it grew to become their favourite film."

As for having two films considered animated landmarks, Selick is humble about his legacy. "I never expected it, but you have your hopes," he said. "You hope that the things you work on for so long might not only find an initial audience, but grow that audience. Just make it the best we can. I want everyone to work on it to be very proud of their hard work. At the very least, let the people who sacrifice so much be proud of what we've done together."

A Coraline sequel?

Of course, a successful film usually comes with the question of a sequel but Coraline still remains a standalone classic. "Our opening weekend, our one Hollywood executive said, 'It's not too soon to talk about a sequel!'" he joked. But has he been tempted to return to The Other World? "Not so much, it's always going to be about what's the right story."

He added: "There have definitely been a few ideas with fairly good stories, but it wouldn't be up to me. Usually, sequels are a worse version of the same film. Prequels are even harder to make. Then there's the occasional one that is as good or better. It really comes down to, 'Is there a cousin in this story that you don't have to necessarily know and love the first film to want to see?'"

Watch Coraline out now in cinemas in the UK, US and Australia.