Coraline: A Closer Look at Studio LAIKA’s Stop-Motion Witchcraft

Description

This book is available as open access through the Bloomsbury Open Access programme and is available on www.bloomsburycollections.com Coraline (Henry Selick, 2009) is stop-motion studio LAIKA’s feature-length debut based on the popular children’s novel by British author Neil Gaiman. Heralding a revival in global interest in stop-motion animation, the film is both an international cultural phenomenon and a breakthrough moment in the technological evolution of the craft. This collection brings together an international group of practitioners and scholars to examine Coraline’s place in animation history and culture, dissect its politics, and unpack its role in the technological and aesthetic development of its medium. More broadly, it celebrates stop motion as a unique and enduring artform while embracing its capacity to evolve in response to cultural, political, and technological changes, as well as shifting critical and audience demands. Divided into three sections, this volume’s chapters situate Coraline within an interconnected network of historical, industrial, discursive, theoretical, and cultural contexts. They place the film in conversation with the medium’s aesthetic and technological history, broader global intellectual and political traditions, and questions of animation reception and spectatorship. In doing so, they invite recognition - and appreciation - of the fact that Coraline occupies many liminal spaces at once. It straddles the boundary between children’s entertainment and traditional ‘adult’ genres, such as horror and thriller. It complicates a seemingly straight(forward) depiction of normative family life with gestures of queer resistance. Finally, it marks a pivotal point in stop-motion animation’s digital turn. Following the film’s recent tenth anniversary, the time is right to revisit its production history, evaluate its cultural and industry impact, and celebrate its legacy as contemporary stop-motion cinema’s gifted child. As the first book-length academic study of this contemporary animation classic, this volume serves as an authoritative introduction and a primary reference on the film for scholars, students, practitioners, and animation fans. Cover Half Title Series Title Copyright Dedication Contents Figures Acknowledgements Coraline: A twitchy, witchy girl in stop-motion land Part One Historical contexts and perspectives 1 Drawing Coraline: Illustration, adaptation and visuality (Malcolm Cook) 2 Mixing it up: Coraline and LAIKA’s hybrid world (Miriam Harris) 3 Armatures in the closet: Coraline and the history of stop motion (Mihaela Mihailova) 4 The surprising migrations of 2½ D: The background to Coraline (Norman M. Klein) Part Two Stop-motion technology, process and spectatorship 5 Replacing Coraline (Dan Torre) 6 Coraline’s ‘Other World’: The animated camera in stop-motion feature films (Jane Shadbolt) 7 A world within reach: A neuroanimatic perspective on themes of threat in the miniature world of Coraline (Ann Owen) 8 Darkness and delight: The reception of Coraline in the United States and the UK (Rayna Denison) Part Three Puppet politics: Ideology, identity, representation 9 The Other Maiden, Mother, Crone(s): Witchcraft, queer identity and political resistance in LAIKA’s Coraline (Kodi Maier 10 Becoming-puppet: Failed interpellation and the uncanny subjection in Coraline (Eric Herhuth) 11 The wandering child and the family in crisis in Henry Selick’s Coraline (Jane Batkin) 12 Fa(r)ther figures: Locating the Author Father in Coraline (Nicholas Andrew Miller) A guide to further research Notes on contributors Bibliography Filmography Index