The film is about a young girl, Coraline (Dakota Fanning), who unlocks a mysterious door in her new home and enters into a parallel reality, a fantastical and thrilling imitation of her own dull life. In this world, Coraline finds a new version of her real mother (Teri Hatcher) and father (John Hodgman), her off-kilter neighbors, Miss Forcible (Dawn French), Miss Spink (Jennifer Saunders) and Mr Bobinsky (Ian MacShane), and the Cat (Keith David). However, this other world soon begins to unravel and she becomes a prisoner to her Other Mother and must count on her resourcefulness, determination, and bravery to get back home.

Laika Entertainment House (formerly Vinton Studios) has funded the film with around $50 to $70 million. Coraline is the first stop-motion animation to be shot stereoscopically with a dual digital camera rig for digital 3-D exhibition. New tools are being developed which will give the stop-motion creators the same flexibility as CGI animators, making it possible to push objects forward and back in post-production. The characters' hands were made to be interchangeable, so more than 1000 different pairs of hands were made. Dakota Fanning will star as the voice of Coraline. Teri Hatcher will lend her voice to the roles of both Coraline's Mother and her Other Mother. Ian McShane will voice Mr. Bobo, a beet-eating Russian giant who lives upstairs from Coraline in her alternate reality.

At one point, the team tried to use stop motion on Coraline's real world, and CGI on the other world, similar to the transition from black and white to color in The Wizard of Oz, but according to Selick; "when we put them side by side, it felt like we were going to this cold place. The life she was trying to escape, which was boring and flat, was more appealing." Neither did it work to do it the other way around.

On December 22, 2007, Neil Gaiman put up a sneak preview of some early but not quite final footage of the movie.

On May 22, 2008, in an interview with Bloomberg.com, producer Bill Mechanic said, "It's a long process, but it's almost finished."

On August 11, 2008, a featurette was released containing unfinished clips of the film, interviews, and behind the scenes look at the production. A new featurette had been released on IGN every day of that week.

In October, a week before Halloween, LAIKA showed 30 minutes of finished footage at a small Hollywood reception and will be in post production phase that will take 3 to 4 weeks until they will be completely finished with the project and ready to show in theaters after 1 and a half years in production.

Originally, alternative rock group They Might Be Giants was recruited to create the music for the film including the score, but only two songs ended up being used. However, they stated that the unused songs would later be included on future albums, for example, "Careful What You Pack" from The Else.

• Official Movie Web Site

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