I have written some more - click here - about my Coraline thoughts. Feel free to surf over there and read them!
Discussion Questions for the movie Coraline:
1 – What one word best describes the “other world”?
2 – What is Coraline’s opinion of her real life at the beginning of the movie? How does that opinion change by the end?
3 – The marketing of the movie included the tag line, “Be careful what you wish for.” What is the significance of this line?
4 – What do the button eyes in the other world symbolize?
5 – Coraline tells Wybie, “The other mother, she’s got this whole world where everything’s better, the food, the garden, the neighbors. But it’s all a trap.” How might this observation apply to our real “real” world?
6 – Compare and contrast this movie with Alice in Wonderland.
…The Wizard of Oz.
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ReplyDeleteHer real life is a little drab. She's somewhat of a product of her current living conditions, but she's also a kid who doesn't quite yet grasp the workings of the "real world" enough to get what's up with her parents. By the end, I feel she has developed an understanding of what it means to color her own world, and has begun to grasp that her parents aren't trying to stop her from doing that!
Be careful what you wish for... I think the phrase continues to say "you might end up with exactly that." Right? Something like that? Well, she kind of does. The whole movie, perhaps, is meant as a warning. :-) My thoughts were that what we want is not always what's best for us. There have been many times I've wished and wanted many different things, but in the end, it was all about God's timing and God's plans... I am shortsighted, like Coraline... I can't really see what's best for me, only what I can judge to be good in the moment. Sometimes, I think we're supposed to make that call. Other times, I don't think we understand enough to even try.
The buttons... mmm... I think they could symbolize a few things. Blindness, perhaps. Or lifelessness, one-sided love. Like a doll, which they do say over and over again. "You're our little doll" That's kind of what we do with dolls, isn't it? Love them, even though they can't really love us back? We can say that they do because we are able to manipulate them, or because they don't resist our love, but do they really love us back? When someone in the other world submits to having buttons sewn in their eyes, they are really submitting to becoming a "doll" or "puppet" in that world, surrendering their eyes for the real world, and giving up their ability to "see for themselves."
What's the expression? "The grass is always greener on the other side." But it's really not, is it? I mean, sometimes. Like, maybe in Ireland or New Zealand. Nevertheless, you know, it's the same application!
What is this, Freshman English? J/K. Maybe later. :-)D