An in-depth study of a layered, complex tale that offers a powerhouse of design and storytelling elements!
It's not common for a movie to excel it's book counterpart, in my humble opinion. There is often too much that movies have to scrape our or change, making books far more fulfilling endeavors. But in the case of Laika Studio's adaptation of Coraline, I can safely say that their creative vision actually added to the tale! A rare feat indeed!
The movie continues to spellbind audiences with it's amazing visuals and ethereal color palettes. In particular, their vision of the "Beldam" slowly revealing her true form, scene by scene, until she evolves into the gruesome monster that she is, is particularly haunting! What's also amusing to me, is that the Coraline Jones presented by Laika (pictured above at right) almost seems to resemble her original form on the book cover (pictured at right).
One of my favorite things to do when looking at visuals, is to contrast them against one another. In this case, I love to see how artists approach book covers versus movie covers. In the case of Coraline, the book cover presents with a sense of creepy surrealism that matches the tale; a trait that I'd say is even more successful on the original book cover than the movie. The book cover is also simplified too, presenting just the abstract portrait of Coraline, and a surrounding silhouette of various shapes that I recognize from the book (clawing hands; a rat's muzzle; needle and thread).
The interesting thing to note here is that silhouette imagery actually features from later on in the novel, more notably in what would be the Bad Guys Close In Section, when the Beldam begins to reveal her true colors.
In contrast, the movie cover still shows Coraline, but it shows a brilliant juxtaposition of the Pink Palace existing in either of the worlds, with the Beldam's eerrie "Other World" appearing behind Coraline's right shoulder, whilst the normal and more mundane colored world exists behind her left. All in all, it's actually quite an effecient and creative cover design that paints the plot's dual world situation quite cleverly. But if I were to see this particular cover in a book store, I might assume it to be for a younger audience due to the saturation of colors (often bright colors are for younger kids). On the other hand, the de-saturated book cover has my attention even now as an adult.
However despite either of these covers, I would much rather pick up a book that resembled the movie's poster, of all things! (See below).
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