Focus Features
Starring: Dakota Fanning, Teri Hatcher, Keith David
Directed by: Henry Selick

Cat Out of the Bag Alert!  This review contains some spoilers for this film!

Synopsis: Coraline Jones (voiced by Dakota Fanning) is a young girl who has moved to a new home with her writer parents who are always too busy for her.  Her life seems gray and drab until she discovers a hidden door in their new house which leads to a fantastic world that mirrors her life only more colorful and fun.  But Coraline soon discovers that not everything is as it seems in this enticing new world.

Featured Feline: One of the major characters in this story is the black cat (voiced by Keith David) which is cared for by Wyborne (voiced by Robert Bailey Jr.), the young boy Coraline meets in an early scene.

The cat seems particularly interested in Coraline’s excursions to the other world and Coraline is surprised when the cat actually shows up there.  Not only that, but the cat speaks to her in that world, often to give her cryptic warnings about the place.

The cat eventually plays a pivotal part in helping Coraline when she returns to the other world to rescue her parents and the souls of the children captured by the “other mother.”  Coraline actually throws the cat at “other mother”, which the cat is not expecting, but the action works well since the cat is able to scratch off the evil entity’s button eyes, rendering her blind.

It’s great to see black cats cast in hero roles and this film is a terrific example of dispelling the myth of black cats being evil or unlucky.  That notion isn’t even remotely hinted at in this movie.

Final Mewsings: I have a cat and I’m not afraid to use him!

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