Coraline: The Monster You Missed

There’s a monster in Coraline that everyone missed. This being is powerful, sneaky, and once it traps you, good luck finding your way out. It’s not the Other Mother. It’s not a creepy doll. It’s not even the Pink Palace! (although that's getting closer) It IS ancient and similar to the living corridor between realms, but it’s one of the earliest characters we see in the movie and books… but everyone missed it. Quite literally. So I looked through EVERY WINDOW in the Coraline Movie to track this being. And reread Neil Gaiman's Coraline book and the Coraline graphic novel too, just to be extra sure! Yes, it's a lot. Yes, it broke me. Yes, I'd do it again! So, let's dive right in to this Coraline mist theory!

Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 License

Editing: Kristen 🔮

Book - "Coraline," 2002, Written by Neil Gaiman, Illustrations by Dave McKean
Graphic Novel - "Coraline," 2008, Adapted and Illustrated by P. Craig Russel
"The Morrigan," 2019, by Courtney Weber

#coraline #coralinetheory #coralinemist #abitfrank #coralinejones #animation #coraline

[maigyorek]

I love how coraline can stay relevant even after many years. Its so cool.

[hoarsebard]

Always love seeing people talk about Irish folklore like faerie fog. Personally, I think the Other Mother is some kind of fae that preys on fickle children's affection. She needs it, which is why she turns aggressive and scary the moment Coraline withdraws her affection for the other world.

[katskouros]

Something I didn't see you mention was that in the movie, during the slug hunting scene, wibey says that the cat doesn't like the mist because "he doesn't like to get his feet wet", but given all we know about the cat I think a safe assumption is that the cat knows that the mist is dangerous or evil which further supports the idea

[zombiesalmon]

The fact that we now have like 3 ancient eldritch creatures all going after this one girl is kinda funny. Brilliant as always 💙

[Chrysopoeia_]

"Whatever that corridor was was older by far than the other mother. It was deep, and slow, and it knew that she was there…" says the book

[clumsyrobot]

I think it's so funny how there's more and more terrible monsters that you can find in Coraline. Like next time maybe the cutlery will be revealed to be evil too idk

[fmor]

Considering that mist is often associated with fairies, getting lost, decieve and madness it's understandable considering that one can loose sight of the path, fall into a cliff or find a dangerous creature that could kill anyone.
Once again, folklore mixes with life lessons that come from people of the past. And the symbolism here is exquisite. Kinda like how the kappa legends comes in hand with the warning of not playing too close to rivers to avoid falling and drown.

[spyro]

Idk if this was the plan all along but something a very interesting piece of trivia I have to offer is that the greek translation of the book is quite literally called "The house in the Mist"

[coreyfro]

I dated the woman who animated the HAIR in Coraline!

Some of the dolls had thin thread... Others had ropes as thick as 5 INCHES!!! (Closeups) and they needed one person to handle all that with continuity!

[CeaselessEntertainment]

do you realize how many creepy stories that Coraline would be able to tell her classmates if she goes back to school, she could like win oscars for horrifying stories which are technically true

[PdPiper-wnnb]

The YouTube channel Imaginago made this theory about Beldam's influence on the adults in Coraline. Since Coraline has a strong personality we could assume that if her parents were always distant and cold towards her she would not even bother to try to get their attention. So what if Beldam made them act like that so Coraline would want to stay on the Other World? In the final scenes the neighbors feel more sane and the parents are nicer towards Coraline

[aaroncunningham]

It feels like the Other Mother and The Mist are fighting for space in the other world. As the Other Mother grew in power it forced out the Mist, which in turn pushed Coraline out of her world and into the other. When the Other Mother lost the last bit of her influence, the Mist receded.

[okami-chan]

I remember watching a lot of fan theories about Coraline and I'm surprised nobody has talked about the fog/mist until I saw your video. Most of the theories I've heard was about the cat being two cats (one good and the other being evil) or the cat being the boy in blue in the portraits while having connections to the Beldam.

[Rscapeextreme]

I never even considered the mist! But that’s so amazing that in the movie the animators were able to capture it so perfectly. I love animation a lot

[gloriahowe]

counter, the mist is tied to the cat. If the cat is a fairy, and the mist is a tool for fairies it is something to think about. The cat the whole time is against the other mother, shows up with the mist, and disappears with the mist. The mist greatens as the other mother falls, the cat was instrumental in her defeat. The mist was brought by the cat so it could hide in it as we do see it do. (I might be wrong do correct me, it has been awhile since i have read or seen coraline.)

[Kat-srrw]

"what lurked in the corridor as something older than the other mother, deep, slow, and aware of her presence" i saw this for a very long time but its the first time i see someone associating this entity with the mist and its creepy how much sense it makes

[rainbow_gazelle]

My local theater recently did a showing of Coraline, with extra never seen before behind the scenes bits at the beginning and end. My partner and I went to see it. It also had remastered visuals and sound. We wore glow in the dark skeleton pajamas to look like Wybie. It was magical:)

[nyancat]

I have a theory that this video helps. why the mist overwhelms even the other mother’s realm and the inclusion of fairies. I think that the othermother/the belle dame was once human but stumbled into the fairy realm (through the mist/stepping into a fairy ring) and ended up making a deal with a fey for immortality/power and got her pocket dimension but with a caveat of “you will only have these gifts so long as you can keep us at bay”, meaning the mist and thus the fey, would generally be working against the othermother; not to the benefit of the children or victims of those circumstances however. but the downside is that she needs the souls of children to use magic strong enough to do so. So while she may use some magic to entice the children, the bulk of her magic goes to keeping the fog away as well. And as she kept doing so, she became less human and more fey like as she eventually resorted to doing the same fey tactics and managing to even get the soul of a fey child (which could have been out of ego or simply boosted her ego against the fey, that she managed to trick one of their own), but then had the either hubris or the näivette to think she was cunning or clever enough to be of equal and grant a similar deal-game to coralline would showed to mist an opportunity of weakness that it actively used since the othermother’s attentions and energy would go to keeping track of coraline than keeping the fog at bay. And the more power coraline took, the more the mist took. Until eventually the othermother lost everything. And nothing good usually happens to the person who doesn’t keep up their end with a fey, even if the circumstances were exceedingly unfair.

[abakedpumpkin]

5:49 I just noticed how the dad looks like the other father in the computer screen, that’s so scary!

[afluffymugcake]

on one hand the mist and the grayness when reading could be seen as just metaphors and silly description that doesn't do much but stimulate the mind, but on the other hand, this is coraline we're talking about. wonderful video!