IMAGO

Cat, in Coraline, by Henry Selick, 2009, Laika productions

‘There are those who have suggested that the tendency of a cat to play with its prey is a merciful one – after all, it permits the occasional funny little running snack to escape, from time to time. How often does your dinner get to escape?’

Laika studios describes their animated movie as follows: ‘Wandering her rambling old house in her boring new town, Coraline discovers a hidden door to a fantasy version of her life. In order to stay in the fantasy, she must make a frighteningly real sacrifice.’ The movie is based on Neil Gaman’s book (2002), which is categorised as a ‘dark fantasy children’s novella’. Rather quiet, and nameless, the cat in Coraline is still central. Indeed, if he might sound a bit proud and sarcastic at first, adding a touch of humour to the story, Cat also plays a mysterious, guiding role. Cat is the only other creature beside Coraline who can travel between the two worlds (the real one and the fantasy). As much as he therefore confirms to the spectator that Coraline is not just dreaming, he also is secretly mighty as we observe him disappearing and re-appearing. Cat seems to have been for years a silent observer of the mystery taking place around the territory he ‘felinely’ chose, knowing by heart all the details of the Other world. His knowledge comes as very precious for Coraline, and it culminates when it enables Cat to actively help her when she needs it most.

In a way, Cat is only a dark, fantasy take on what our cats are in reality. Cats are quite mystical: they do wander around as they please, come and go; they sometimes freeze suddenly and fixate the void of a room, as if they could see things that we cannot see for ourselves; there is a peacefulness in cats which mimics the comfort of knowledge and wisdom.

As Halloween is at our door-steps, I vividly recommend watching or re-watching Coraline. The story is captivating, revolving around the principle of ‘be careful what you wish for’: it is full of meaning. It is spooky, even for adults. And most importantly, the images are beautiful and this is a now-rare instance of stop-motion animation technique. Completing the movie involved more than 500 people over four years. Principal photography alone took 18 months! 35 animators worked on the film, each of them completing on average between 2.22 and 6.52 seconds of footage per week. Working with small-sized puppets, a total of 15,000 replacement faces were created for all the characters in the film, each one of which had to be hand-sanded and hand-painted (Laika Studios)…It really is a masterpiece!

Annibale Carracci, Two Children Teasing a Cat, c.1588, oil on canvas A unique tension is created in this painting: we are waiting for the obviously annoyed cat to express their frustration. The cat’s facial expression and bodily position is so strongly depicted that we can almost hear them growl. The girl’s hand is delicately put on the table, facing the cat. The hand is attracting our gaze and enhancing the tension, creating suspense: we are precisely waiting for the cat to scratch the girl’s hand in a mad, fair tantrum. The painting, in fact, invites us to imagine an outcome. As for the choice of scorpions, it could be symbolical. Scorpions represent danger and therefore quite literally, the children are playing with danger…Their little game will have bad, hurtful consequences. As the Met says about this artwork, it has, in one image, the power of common sayings such as ‘Let sleeping dogs lie’ or ‘Don’t go poking around vipers’. By Déborah Lazreug