What WAS the Other Mother? + other questions *spoilers*

I don't have all the answers, this is just my interpretation of it.

1. I think the Other Mother was real. When Coraline returned to the real world and the hand tried to grab the key, Coraline managed to destroy it together with Wybie. So, no. It wasn't just her imagination.

The other mother is a Beldam a different word for 'hag' or 'witch.'I think of her as a parasitic witch. Having to eat children's souls to stay alive, hence why she is so evil.

2. Maybe the house was abadoned for a long time. That explains why the ghost children are from different time periods. It is never explained in the movie, so you have to make up your own story about it.

3. I think the cat went to the other world to check up upon the other mother. Maybe to see if she was truely defeated. I believe the other mother can't destroy the 'other' living room because that is the center of the world? Once again, make up your own story here.

4. Perhaps she was fed up with being nice to Coraline? She was so close to taking the prize, that she had trouble hiding her real feelings. Thus acting more agressive towards Coraline.

5. I don't think Wybie's grandmother knew exactely what was wrong with the house. But she definitely knew that something wasn't right. Perhaps taking precaution to never let it happen again?

That's my vision. Maybe other people have different answers for your questions.

reply share

add reply

formatting help

1. What /was/ the Other Mother really? Was she a figment of Coraline's imagination? How did she come about, and who created her? Why is she so evil?

Best I can say is, I simply don't know. Of course, that's part of the fun for me. The movie doesn't give answers to all the questions, leaving a lot of things to the imagination. I enjoy movies like that, and this happens to be one of my new favorites as well. I guess I would have to agree with cinedragon. The fact that Wybie was able to save Coraline definitely shows that at least something was real.

2. Did other children escape her before Coraline? I'm sure more than 3 other kids had lived there in the past years before her coming along.

Again, I simply don't know. But my guess is that no one made it out alive up to the moment Coraline came. That's just the dark and sinister truth to me. The Other Mother is clearly not someone to mess around with. And if anyone else did escape, she could've easily forced them to come back (Like she did when she kidnapped Coraline's parents). Again, the movie doesn't give answers to every question, and all we're left with is to guess the backstory.

3. The post scene with the cat at the end. I don't understand this because didn't the Other World crumble at the end, when all that was left was that one room in the house and everything else was pure white? Why would he want to go back there?

I've always liked to imagine Coraline as having one of those "Or is it?" endings, much like the spinning top moment at the end of Inception. It's pretty much there to leave us asking questions and thinking about the movie long after watching it.

4. Why did the Other Mother get cruel with Coraline once she figured out what was going on? Wouldn't she have been even sweeter to her to try and entice her to stay over in the Other World?

I think Coraline said it best about the Other Mother when she said that she "had a really funny way of showing" love. For me, Other Mother's views are just really, really twisted. And with a messed up mind like hers, Other Mother thought getting cruel with Coraline was the right thing to do. Don't ask me why.

5. Did Wybie's grandmother know about the Other Mother? Is that why she was so cautious to have kids in the house? Does she know what happened to her sister, and has she possibly met/had to escape the Other Mother?

Again, the movie doesn't give answers to all the questions. About the closest we get to an answer is at the end when Coraline invites Wybie's grandmother to the garden. Coraline comments that she and grandma have so much to talk about, and then the movie comes to a close. At the end of the day, it's up to us to decide if she knows anything.

How dare you attack the son of Odin!

reply share

add reply

formatting help

1: Why is the witch from Hans and Gretel evil? Was she real? Where did she come from? Its a fairy tale, there are no answers.

2: See 5.

3: To laugh at her, while she slowly starved to death.

4: Sticks and carrots. She had already tried the carrot, when that didn't work she turned to the stick. We don't know why she needed Coraline's consent to sow the buttons, or why she wanted to sow buttons at all. But I feel convinced the movie would have been less scary if it had been explained. Some things are better left to imaginations.

5: When Coraline finds the door it is locked, but it must have been unlocked when the grandmothers sister passed trough it, and the only person who could have locked it was the grandmother. So yes, she must have known. She probably went there with her sister, but managed to escape. But the adults would just have thought she had gone crazy from grief, when she tried to explain what had happened.

reply share

add reply

formatting help

1. We never know. I think it's scarier that way. All we know is that shes a spider like creature using entrapment and manipulation to survive.

2. After Wybie's grandmother's sister disappeared, no other children lived in the house. Wybie says at one point in the film that his grandmother owns the Pink Palace Apartments and expresses surprise that Coraline lives there as his grandmother never rents the apartments to people with children. He even says that he's never even been inside because she forbids him from ever entering.

3. It is never stated that the cat disappeared into the other world. We have seen in the movie that he can disappear behind something and reappear a few feet away. The scene was mostly used to demonstrate that there's still magic in Coraline's world. Even though the Other world is gone.

4. Coraline was dinner to her. And her dinner was smart mouthing her. Even a manipulative creature like her can loose her temper. Plus the other mother is stronger than Coraline. While in the end, staying there may have had to be Coraline's choice, it wouldn't hurt to scare her into thinking it wasn't.

5. It's possible her sister may have told her about the other mother and she may have even seen her. But there's a reason she didn't die with her sister. She obviously knew there was something and didn't want to risk whatever it was (see number 2.)

reply share

add reply

formatting help

One of the things with great myth is that often the victim needs to choose to be a victim through something they did that was stupid on their part, then get out of it using their own mind and cleverness.

There's more as well. The cat is an interesting choice. In myth, cats have power. The egyptians used to worship them. I've seen people dismiss cats as stupid but they are anything but stupid. They are, in fact, extremely intelligent. I always say that if my cat had thumbs, we would be in big trouble. In myth, cats are wise, intelligent, clever, and sneaky.

To answer your questions..

1. Most myth is based on truth. How much truth is really the question. It would be the same with this movie. Yes, she was real. The only question is how much about her was real. Remember, everything involved with her had some basis in reality. It's possible that Coralines own mind created the way the story fit together. She is a child after all and, when you're a child, anything seems possible.

2. Maybe. Its hard to know. But likely other children have come across this same story, and maybe lost themselves to it. Again, it's just a matter of how much of it is true.

3. It is said that cats are otherworldly creatures. It's possible that he (and other cats) exists naturally in both worlds at the same time. At least according to the story.

4. Because the other mother is a fool and has something mentally wrong with her. Sometimes there are just bad people out there that do things that don't make sense.

5. Its possible that Wybies grandmother created the original story. Or any of a hundred other things.

reply share

add reply

formatting help

1. What /was/ the Other Mother really?

A fairy. In the original sense of the word. As in, life-force draining, soul-ensnaring, child-stealing otherworldly being. "Coraline" is a fairy tale, but its fairies are old school. She is referred to as the Beldam a few times; check out Keats's "La Belle Dame Sans Merci" for the reference. Also, read some Terry Pratchett.

Was she a figment of Coraline's imagination?

Possibly, though it is quite clear that *something* bad has been going on at the Pink Palace Apartments for a long time.


How did she come about, and who created her?

Who created us?

Why is she so evil?

She isn't human; there is no reason for us to assume that she should have human desires or human emotions.

2. Did other children escape her before Coraline? I'm sure more than 3 other kids had lived there in the past years before her coming along.

Possibly; there's no way to know. Maybe the Other Mother has only been around for a certain time, or, maybe the souls of those she took before have been utterly consumed.

3. The post scene with the cat at the end. I don't understand this because didn't the Other World crumble at the end, when all that was left was that one room in the house and everything else was pure white? Why would he want to go back there?

As the cat says, he goes where he pleases. Presumably there are other places for him to go besides the Other Mother's pocket plane.

4. Why did the Other Mother get cruel with Coraline once she figured out what was going on? Wouldn't she have been even sweeter to her to try and entice her to stay over in the Other World?

I think the reason is that the Other Mother, being a non-human entity, doesn't really have any actual feelings of love or attachment to anything. She can copy those emotions, but she can't feel them. All she feels is her own hunger, and when there is a chance of her hunger not being fed, she throws off her veil and becomes the predator she is.

5. Did Wybie's grandmother know about the Other Mother? Is that why she was so cautious to have kids in the house? Does she know what happened to her sister, and has she possibly met/had to escape the Other Mother?

We never find out, because the movie ends before she can tell us :)

Never say "Worst movie ever" to someone who's seen Highlander 2

reply share

add reply

formatting help

1. I don't think the other mother is a figment of her imagination. I think it's some dark spirit world. Wybie's grandmother didn't allow children in the house so obviously she knew something happened there. I think without saying so much the story Wybie tells gives a lot of information. He doesn't really know but that doesn't mean the grandmother doesn't.

2. I think Wybie explains this by being surprise Coraline lived in the house since he said 'my grandmother doesn't allow children to live here'... Therefore if her sister was the last child to live there....

3. Well, her world didn't crumble.... The world was the OM's creation to attract coraline. She really a spider whom 'eats souls'. So it's probably just some sort of spirit/demon side..... The cat can travel freely..... Between the 'spirit world' and real world.

4. The OM got upset because she likes games and her 'game' was unraveling. Remember the ghost children explained that the OM promised them more and they wanted more and therefore allowed her to sew buttons, where coraline would not.

5. See my answer to number 2. But also, the OM sent her 'mice' in to manipulate the situation with Coraline, which could have happened with Wybie's grandmothers sister. We don't really know for sure biut I feel the movie lets on the Wybie's grandmother knows SOMETHING. Think: if her sister had just 'disappeared' like Wybie explains, then why would she not let children live there? Someone could have kidnapped her from the real world, hence why I think the movie leads you to deduce more than it states.

reply share

add reply

formatting help

She's a metaphor for bad mothers.

reply share

add reply

formatting help