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Avg. Critic Score: 80 out of 100 Universal acclaim Metascore® based on all critic reviews
Information for Parents:
9 OK for kids 9+
Read Common Sense Media review

Critic scores range from 0 to 100, with higher scores indicating more favorable reviews.

  • 100
    San Francisco Chronicle | Mick LaSalle

    What a shrewd achievement for writer-director Henry Selick ("The Nightmare Before Christmas"), to have made a movie that everyone will acclaim as beautiful, when perhaps the most beautiful thing about it is the sheer ugliness of it all. Read full review

  • 100
    Entertainment Weekly | Lisa Schwarzbaum

    This thrilling stop-motion animated adventure is a high point in Selick's career of creating handcrafted wonderlands of beauty blended with deep, disconcerting creepiness. Read full review

  • 100
    Los Angeles Times | Kenneth Turan

    A remarkable feat of imagination, a magical tale with a genuinely sinister edge. Read full review

  • 90
    The Hollywood Reporter | Kirk Honeycutt

    This is a marvelous family story, tapping into all sorts of childhood dreams and nightmares involving Mommy, monsters and heroic youngsters. Selick's imaginative sets and puppets are in perfect pitch with Gaiman's fantasy. Read full review

  • 90
    The New York Times | A.O. Scott

    Coraline lingers in an atmosphere that is creepy, wonderfully strange and full of feeling. Read full review

  • 80
    Variety | Justin Chang

    This eccentric and deliriously inventive fantasy finds stop-motion auteur Henry Selick scaling new heights of ghoulish whimsy, buoyed by a haunting score that works its own macabre magic. Read full review

  • 75
    Rolling Stone | Peter Travers

    OK, sensitive tykes may be scared shitless. But those who tough it out with this twisted, trippy adventure in impure imagination will only be the better for it. Read full review

  • 75
    Chicago Sun-Times | Roger Ebert

    This is a gloomy film with weird characters doing nasty things. I've heard of eating chocolate-covered insects, but not when they're alive. Read full review

  • 63
    USA Today | Claudia Puig

    Coraline is a plucky heroine, and director Selig's imagination is indisputable. But the story falters in parts, and its dark tone could be off-putting for children. Read full review

  • 60
    Washington Post | Desson Thomson

    For all its visual delights, however, Coraline remains more an engaging spectacle than a connective drama. That is chiefly because of the writing. Director-writer Henry Selick doesn't reach for the kind of universality that would enrich the movie. Read full review

View more reviews for Coraline on Metacritic

Information for Parents
Common Sense Media says OK for kids 9+ Cool but creepy animated fantasy too scary for young kids.
What Parents Need to Know Parents need to know that this movie will scare young kids. Slightly less creepy than the book on which it was based, the movie is still quite dark, and the "other" world that Coraline discovers turns into a frightening, dangerous place where she could very well die (and other ghost children already have). Your young kids may be interested in seeing the movie thanks to the massive marketing campaign, but this isn't an age-appropriate pick for them. This movie deals with mature themes -- being careful what you wish for, thinking the grass is always greener, and being disappointed in your parents -- that are best suited for tweens and up. Language is mostly insults (like "jerkwad" and "idiot"), and sexuality is limited to two scantily dressed elderly actresses in one memorable scene.
  • Families can talk about the story's theme of wishing for a different, "better" life. Kids: Do you ever feel like Coraline? What about her parents made her initially prefer the Other Mother and Father? 
  • How do both Coraline and her parents change over the course of the movie? 
  • Do you think this movie is meant for little kids, or is it too scary?
The good stuff
  • message true3 Positive messages: Coraline ultimately learns that sometimes imperfect, messy lives aren't as bad as they seem. She realizes that her imperfect real parents are better than perfect-seeming fake ones, and her parents realize that they don't spend enough time with their daughter.
  • rolemodels true1 Positive role models: Coraline's parents start out being impatient with and dismissive of her (and generally don't seem to enjoy having her around), but their perspective and behavior changes by the end of the movie. Coraline herself is spunky, brave, and resourceful, though she, too, has important lessons to learn about appreciating family. The Other Mother wants Coraline to behave a certain way and pursues her goals at any cost. Multi-generational friendships are formed.
What to watch for
  • violence false3 Violence: The movie has a dark, creepy tone overall, and the Other Mother becomes witch-like and frightening. It's implied that she has more or less killed three other children. Some of her minions try to "get" Coraline and the Cat, but they don't succeed.
  • sex false2 Sex: Nothing directly sexual, but the two very buxom elderly actresses wear barely-there costumes for their performance (one in a reference to Botticelli's famous Birth of Venus painting).
  • language false2 Language: Infrequent use of words like "crap" and "oh my God" and insults including "jerkwad," "idiot," "evil witch," and "stupid."
  • consumerism false0 Consumerism: Not an issue
  • drugsalcoholtobacco false0 Drinking, drugs and smoking: None, even though Coraline's mother thinks Mr. Bobinksy is a drunk.
An independent nonprofit dedicated to providing families the information they need to help kids thrive in a world of media and technology. © Common Sense Media Inc. 2010. All rights reserved.

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