The Coraline Bug Theory

what’s your favorite bug?

The praying mantis could also be about how the other mother created the other father, and eventually destroys him when he gets in her way. Female mantises bite the head off of their sexual partners once they reproduce

This theory is fascinating! One thing that I found interesting is the fact that the other father is forced to violence by the praying mantis controlled by the other mother similar to how the mating of praying mantises ends with the death of the father by the mother. Even decaptated the male mantis will complete the mating process, anything to obtain offspring

Fun fact: the book almost wasn’t published. His editor said it was going to traumatize kids , so he asked her to read it to her daughter and see if it was too scary. The girl said she was enjoying it every night , and they got through the whole book and she said it wasn’t scary so the book was published. Many years later , Neil got to talk to her about the book and she said she was absolutely terrified The whole time but wanted to know what was next , so she lied because she was worried that they’d stop reading the book if she said it was terrifying. The book got published because a kid lied about how scary it was.

Can we just talk about how much of a hero the other dad is? His first appearance he sings a song basically telling her to gtfo and never return. Then in the button eyes scene he tells her about how sharp the needle to try and scare her from the buttons and after Coraline rejects the buttons he has a massive grin. Even when he was horrifically mutated into a pumpkin with no free will he resists the other mothers control to give Coraline the eye all while apologizing. There are probably even more times where he was trying to help Coraline get out.

Humanity: dreams of spiders Sigmund Freud: "Oh ho ho, someone has mummy issues again don't they?"

In a deleted scene, Coraline finds a spider near the sink and accidentally throws it into her mother’s coffee.

2:22 The mantis wasn’t used BY the dad to attack Coraline, it was USING the dad to attack Coraline. You can see that he clearly tried to help her from saying “sorry, mother made me, I don’t wanna hurt you” to shaking his hand off of the metal and giving her the ghost eye. He’s genuinely on her side.

I think coraline is treated like a pest a lot by her parents, too. So that ties into the bugs and also the circus mice. It’s like, in the other world, the pests are pretty cool and celebrated. But then when the other mother eats the beetle in front of her, it kinda takes you out of the fantasy. The other mother is now a threat and not someone who is accepting. The bugs are her food and furniture , not something she cares about.

“They’re cocoa beatles from ZANZABAAAAAAR” 7 year old me: This woman is real crazy.

This dude's highschool english teachers prolly loved him.

3:40 the spiders representing feminine power thing is really interesting, when you consider the fact that Coraline is a movie that revolves around 3 women: the mother, the other mother, and Coraline. Throughout the story, the men are mostly just there to assist the women. The father listens to the mother and follows her lead, the other father and other Wybie are literal puppets for the other mother, and Wybie basically acts as Coraline's sidekick. It makes me wonder if it was a coincidencide or not.

another thing to point out is how bugs often live and hide in plants, the way that the other mother’s world was floral and decorated but hid her true intentions

Bugs can also indicate decay, and the other mothers world is dying without a child to feed off.

7:32: something to be used rather than loved.  In the book, it reads: “And, despite herself, Coraline nodded. It was true: the other mother loved her. But she loved Coraline as a miser loves money, or a dragon loves its gold. In the other mother’s button eyes, Coraline knew that she was a possession, nothing more. A tolerated pet, whose behavior was no longer amusing.”

i love the fact that neil's explanation for coraline is that he wrote it to answer to his daughter where cats go when they disappear

7:38 There is a subplot/backstory in the book about the rats and the crawl space behind the little door. The crawl space is definitely alive in some way, and the rats have been there a very long time: “…We were here before you rose, we will be here when you fall.” A word the other mother uses in the movie to describe the cat in my opinion sums up the viewer’s perspective of the rats and bugs: vermin.

Other father actually couldn’t control the praying mantis toward the end. He never wanted to hurt coraline. He even says “I’m sorry/so sorry Mother’s making me.” He rips one of the lost children’s eyes off of the mantis contraption before meeting his demise.

I’m obsessed with Coraline. I’ve read the book over 8 times and watched the movie at least 12 times. And I’ve noticed something from the book - (at least the one I’ve had my hands on), when you add up all the page numbers of the mice poems, you’ll get a page number. And on that page, the mice are thanking Coraline for freeing them.

I find it a little odd that you didn’t mention the popular image of female praying mantises eating the heads off of their mates. This isn’t a truly accurate behavior, but imo it’s ubiquitous with praying mantises way more than wisdom or reliability. And it fits thematically with how the garden mantis used by other father eventually came to control HIM, physically tying him down and forcing him to chase coraline. It further highlights the control other mother has over all her pawns and the lack of care she has towards them, even towards her “husband”