Coraline was directed by Henry Selick, so why do people often mistake it for a Tim Burton movie? Here's the confusion surrounding the film explained.
It’s gothic in tone and stop-motion in style, but is Coraline a Tim Burton movie? Based on the children’s novella of the same name by Neil Gaiman, Coraline is a stop-motion animated horror movie released to critical acclaim back in 2009. It tells the tale of its titular character Coraline Jones – an 11-year-old girl who has recently moved into a ramshackle apartment building with her workaholic parents. Feeling bored and neglected, Coraline discovers a portal to a seemingly perfect parallel world and decides to take refuge in there - but she soon learns that it hides a sinister secret.
Since Coraline’s release, the movie has been mistakenly associated with Ed Wood director Tim Burton. It’s true that Coraline shares a lot of things in common with many Tim Burton movies; it’s a kid-friendly horror film, it’s stop-motion animated and it’s got the gothic vibe present in so many of his most popular works. Despite those similarities, Tim Burton actually had nothing whatsoever to do with Coraline's production, which was in fact directed by Henry Selick. The misconception persists today, however, so why do many people think Coraline is a Tim Burton movie?
The issue appears to trace back to fellow stop-motion animation The Nightmare Before Christmas. The classic spook-fest was released in 1993 and based on an idea by Burton who also co-produced the animated adventure. Like Coraline, many people mistakenly think Tim Burton directed Nightmare Before Christmas when it was Henry Selick’s feature filmmaking debut. So, when posters for Coraline bore a tagline proclaiming that the movie was “from the director of The Nightmare Before Christmas”, people jumped to the assumption it was a Tim Burton-directed film.
It must be frustrating for Selick to have his movies attributed to Burton so frequently. The Nightmare Before Christmas and Coraline aren’t the only films of his plagued by that misconception either. When Selick released his second feature James And The Giant Peach in 1996, it too was mistakenly assumed to be a Burton-helmed movie even though the Edward Scissorhands director’s only involvement with the Roald Dahl adaptation was as a producer.
This year Netflix will release Selick’s first feature film since Coraline. Titled Wendell And Wild, it’s a dark fantasy film featuring Selick’s trademark stop-motion animation and the voices of Keegan-Michael Key and Jordan Peele as its eponymous characters – a pair of scheming demon brothers who must face off against a demon-hunting nun when they escape from hell. It already sounds like it has a lot in common with The Nightmare Before Christmas and Coraline, but hopefully, the movie bucks the trend of being mistakenly credited to Tim Burton.
Next: Why Netflix's Henry Selick Movie Is Better Than Nightmare Before Christmas 2
