The Story
Coraline Jones moves into the Pink Palace Apartments in Ashland, Oregon from her comfortable life in Pontiac, Michigan with her loving but work-consumed parents. While exploring the nearby forest, Coraline encounters a stray black cat and an odd boy named Wybie Lovat who tends it. She also befriends long-retired actresses Miss Spink and Miss Forcible, and an acrobat named Mr. Bobinsky.
While exploring her apartment, Coraline finds a small door closed by bricks. Awakened that night by a button-eyed "jumping mouse", she follows it to discover a passage extending beyond the miniature door, which leads her to an alternate version of the house grounds called the "Other World". Upon arrival therein, Coraline meets button-eyed doppelgängers of her mother and father, who claim to be her Other Mother and Other Father. These figures guide her to a more luxurious and attractive version of the house and its surroundings. The Other Mother and Father celebrate her presence with delicious food, a beautiful, enchanted garden, and the affection Coraline feels she is missing in her own world.
Coraline continues visiting the Other World, where she is entertained by the "Other" versions of Wybie and the neighbors. The black cat, who can speak when in the Other World, informs Coraline that the Other Mother and her world are a trap set to entice children who believe themselves neglected. Coraline refuses to believe this until the Other Mother offers for her to stay in the Other World if she will sew buttons over her eyes. Coraline demands to return to her real parents, angering the Other Mother. She changes shape, assuming a tall, wretched form and traps Coraline in a small room behind a mirror as punishment. There she finds three ghost children who previously fell into the hands of the Other Mother and lost their eyes and souls to her.
With the help of the Other Wybie, Coraline escapes to her own world, only to find her real parents kidnapped by the Other Mother. Aided by the black cat and a seeing stone given to her by Spink and Forcible, Coraline returns to the Other World seeking to free her parents and the ghost children by challenging the Other Mother to a game. One by one, she finds the children's "eyes" (or rather their souls) and overcomes the monstrous, twisted inhabitants of the Other World guarding them. She also finds her parents and tricks the Other Mother into opening the door to her own world. She deliberately claims that they are hidden behind it and makes her escape, closing the door on and severing the Other Mother's hand.
Though her parents are safe (with no memory of the incident) and the ghost children have moved on to the afterlife, Coraline's task is not done. She realizes that the Other Mother will try to enter her world to reclaim her, and goes to drop the only key to the door connecting their worlds down a well on the premises. The Other Mother's severed hand enters Coraline's world and attacks her, attempting to retrieve the key. Fortunately, Wybie arrives to aid Coraline and, after a brief struggle, crushes it with a large rock. She and Wybie drop the shattered hand and the key into the well, ridding their world of the Other Mother's influence forever. The next day, Coraline has a garden party with her parents and neighbors, content with living in her new home. Zooming out, we see the garden is shaped as the Other Mother.
