Damaging the text? Gender differences between Gaiman’s and Selick’s “Coraline”

There is a large number of novels which have been turned into films, and it’s obvious that for this purpose there are plenty of modifications that have to be made. I had never been really worried or even been aware of these alterations until, after reading Neil Gaiman’s novel, and having already seen the film several times, I noticed there are a lot of substantial differences between both stories. When I first saw the movie it was evident that Coraline was amazed by the wonders created by Beldam but, when reading the book, I noticed the girl didn’t feel the same, the novel’s Coraline found these wonders more bizarre than attractive, they were different from what she knew, but still not so amazing. “Neil Gaiman’s novel Coraline is a coming of age story; it’s participating in the tradition of stories in which a youth overcomes a trial to develop their identity. The book is about independence, identity, and development. The significant thing is that it is really very much concerned with having a girl as the protagonist, a girl who is fully rounded and develops on her own as a stable, coherent individual subject.Henry Selick’s adaptation is firmly not. In fact, in his film all of the interesting potentially-feminist freight of Gaiman’s novel disappears, edited away and replaced with a heterosexist couple-narrative. Selick drastically alters and lessens the narrative of female competency and independence contained in the original.” (Mandelo, 2013) This opinion goes into a deeper judgement than mine. Mandelo talks specifically about the main character and the “damage” she suffers when being adapted for the film. He states that Coraline in the book is an independent girl who is afraid of nothing, and doesn’t need anyone, besides the cat, to rescue her parents and defeat Beldam, while in the movie, Selick introduces Wybie, a boy who seems to downplay Coraline’s bravery and independence. This is a feminist view of the film and I think it is absolutely right. Coraline in the novel doesn’t need Wybie to save her from the mirror, take her downstairs and force her to go through the door without him. She is an independent, brave, young lady who can overcome all her problems, while Coraline in the movie is fragile and vulnerable, always needing Wybie’s help. This characteristic can be seen through the entire film. Wybie, at the beginning of the film, is the one who tells Coraline where the pitch is, Coraline cannot find it by herself, and at the end, it’s Wybie who saves her from Beldam´s hand, she has no clever plan to trick it as she does in the novel. Even if there’s a lot of people who claim that Selick’s film totally ruins the main character turning her from an independent, brave hero to a male-dependent, fearful co-protagonist, I definitely like the film a lot more than the novel, I loved the effects, the story, the characters, and I even loved Wybie. I am a Disney’s princesses fan and I really love stories where men, or in this case, boys, help women to achieve something or save them from danger. I think if we compare Disney’s fairytales to Coraline, we can see the enormous difference: Princesses are always rescued from extreme situations, they are totally vulnerable and dependent to their princes, while Coraline is just a girl who receives help from a new friend to overcome a difficult circumstance. And more than having the purpose of damaging the original idea of Coraline’s novel, Wybie’s introduction to the film script has the intention of turning it into a more suitable for children story, because since the main theme is children’s coming of age, identity and development, I think Selick wanted to show that for this maturation process, a friend’s help is always a good comfort in times of despair, or at least, it is what I can perceive.

Mandelo, B. (16 de Octubre de 2013). Tor.com. Obtenido de Tor.com: http://www.tor.com/2013/10/16/gender-in-neil-gaiman-henry-selick-coraline/