Table of Contents

List of Illustrations Acknowledgments Coraline: A Twitchy, Witchy Girl in Stop-Motion Land Mihaela Mihailova (University of Michigan, USA) Part 1: Historical Contexts and Perspectives Chapter 1: Drawing Coraline: Illustration, Adaptation, and Visuality Malcolm Cook (University of Southampton, UK) Chapter 2: Mixing it Up: Coraline and LAIKA's Hybrid World Miriam Harris (Auckland University of Technology, New Zealand) Chapter 3: Armatures in the Closet: Coraline and the History of Stop Motion Mihaela Mihailova (University of Michigan, USA) Chapter 4: The Surprising Migrations of 2 1/2 D: The Background to Coraline Norman M. Klein (California Institute of the Arts, USA) Part 2: Stop-Motion Technology, Process, and Spectatorship Chapter 5: Replacing Coraline Dan Torre (RMIT University, Australia) Chapter 6: Coraline's 'Other World': The Animated Camera in Stop-Motion Feature Films Jane Shadbolt (The University of Newcastle, Australia) Chapter 7: A World within Reach: A Neuroanimatic Perspective on Themes of Threat in the Miniature World of Coraline Ann Owen (Falmouth University, UK) Chapter 8: Darkness and Delight: The Reception of Coraline in the USA and UK Rayna Denison (University of East Anglia, UK) Part 3: Puppet Politics: Ideology, Identity, Representation Chapter 9: The Other Maiden, Mother, Crone(s): Witchcraft, Queer Identity, and Political Resistance in LAIKA's Coraline Mx. Kodi Maier (University of Hull, UK) Chapter 10: Becoming-Puppet: Failed Interpellation and the Uncanny Subjection in Coraline Eric Herhuth (Tulane University, USA) Chapter 11: The Wandering Child and the Family in Crisis in Henry Selick's Coraline Jane Batkin (University of Lincoln, UK) Chapter 12: Fa(r)ther Figures: Locating the Author Father in Coraline Nicholas Andrew Miller (Loyola University Maryland, USA) Index

Promotional Information

Explores Coraline's technological and aesthetic approaches, its narrative and visual roots, and its impact on contemporary stop-motion filmmaking and children's media.

About the Author

Mihaela Mihailova is Assistant Professor in the School of Cinema at San Francisco State University. She has published in Journal of Cinema and Media Studies, [in]Transition,Convergence: The International Journal of Research into New Media Technologies, Feminist Media Studies, animation: an interdisciplinary journal, Studies in Russian and Soviet Cinema, Flow, and Kino Kultura. She has also contributed chapters to Animating Film Theory (with John MacKay), Animated Landscapes: History, Form, and Function, The Animation Studies Reader, and Drawn from Life: Issues and Themes in Animated Documentary Cinema. Dr. Mihailova is the co-editor of Animation Studies and currently serves as Secretary of the Society for Animation Studies

Reviews

Coraline: A Closer Look at Studio LAIKA's Stop-Motion Witchcraft is an exciting collection and a much welcome contribution to animation studies. The essays address Coraline from a range of perspectives, collectively positioning it as a key LAIKA feature and a landmark in stop-motion history. A great read for all animation enthusiasts. * Filipa Antunes, Lecturer in Humanities, University of East Anglia, UK *
Henry Seleck's masterpiece Coraline endures as a haunted and haunting exploration of the adolescent trauma of coping with emerging competing identities. It is also vastly entertaining and technically brilliant. Mihailova leads her band of witchery-finders on a quest to expose the alchemy behind the film. They explore the sophisticated stop-motion technology of the LAIKA studio (state-of-the-art, yet harking back to the earliest days of cinema), the labyrinthine passages of meaning and interpretations honeycombed within the narrative, and its myriad cultural references and resonances. Throughout, the book echoes Mihailova's thesis that Coraline succeeds not only as one of the best stop-motion films ever, but also, reflexively, as a rich work that self-challenges its own animated creation. * Donald Crafton, Joseph and Elizabeth Robbie Professor Emeritus of Film, Television, and Theater, University of Notre Dame, USA *