Coraline lunch boxes, messenger bags, and journals on sale at Amazon.
I know Wybie was supposedly added to the story to give Coraline someone to talk to. But her scenes with him really didn't do much to advance or reveal the plot. They mostly just added an extraneous detail to the story - - one of the ghosts was his grandmother's sister. However, he would be a great source of merchandise. I look forward to seeing a Wybie night vision welding mask.
*Buy Coraline toys at the Big Bad Toy Store.
I disagree on Wybie.
ReplyDeleteThrough Wybie we learn that Coraline is coming from a big city to the country. We learn a lot about the pink palace being haunted and how they aren't supposed to rent to kids. We learn about the history of the doll, and even silent Wybie gives Coraline someone to talk to, which illuminates her feelings and gives her someone to care for in the otherworld. I believe it is her sympathy for the fate of Other Wybie that causes her to turn the corner emotionally into understanding that the otherworld isn't nice. And that's done with a peer, not a parent figure and not a cat. In Wybie, she's seeing what the Other Mother does.
Continued:
ReplyDeleteThere may have been other ways to get that information across to the audience. But few ways are as economical and organic on the movie screen as giving her another character to talk to.
See - - I'd say we didn't need him for any of those things. The moving truck and photo of her friends tells us she's new to the home.
ReplyDeleteThe opening scene with the creating of the Coraline doll tells us there's a monster.
And as far as I can tell, she decides to leave because she doesn't want button eyes and the Other Mother locks her away. Not because she feels bad for Other Wybie.
Wybie's helmet is very cool, but otherwise, he just slows down the plot and messes up the ending.
But the truck doesn't tell us it was from a city to the country. Which I think is important to setting up why she's bored. Also sets up the Well, the Pink Palace, the backstory of the Palace, the missing other children, etc. That's a hell of a lot of backstory that gets communicated very efficiently in a medium where every minute of screen time costs hundreds of thousands of dollars.
ReplyDeleteFeeling bad for Other Wybie gets the movie away from mere self-preservation and interjects sympathy on the part of Coraline. It establishes that the Other Wybie (and soon after Other Father) are not the adversaries. It gives Coraline someone to care about outside of herself, which up until that point in the film *she hadn't done*.
It warms up the chilly movie a bit. It makes moral choices necessary within the Other World, and sets the Other World as a world with consequences that extend beyond Coraline. Again, a positive thing, a warming thing, something that allows us to see Coraline as brave and selfless, rather than self-centered and self-preserving, or only looking out for her family, or indeed only looking out for "real" beings.
If she has sympathy for Other Wybie, then we see her as someone who has sympathy for the less-than-real characters in the otherworld. Not just her real parents, not just real Wybie. But even the fake Wybie. That's a moral choice that I find to be strong and noble. OtherWybie isn't a plaything to her... which clearly makes her a better being than OtherMother, who treats everything like her little dolls.
It also establishes the Otherworld as an equally real world with regard to moral choices. Moral choices made there have consequences for beings that even though they aren't real, we still owe common decency for.
Fair enough.
ReplyDeletebut without wybie.. there's no SLUGZILLA!!!
ReplyDeleteLIVE ON SLUGZILLA!!!!!!!!!
ReplyDeleteWybie is the best! He's too adorkabe to NOT think he's necessary!!!
ReplyDelete*glomps wybie*
I really hope they do get some Wybie merchandise! i've already contacted NECA 9in charcge of Coraline movie merchandise like the bendy dolls) and i haven't gotten a response. I mentioned they profit they'd make, but what I really want is a Wybie doll to follow the scale f the Coraline bendy doll..... hopefully they'll make him someday.
ReplyDeletethey should realy make a wybie doll that would be sooo awesome. Also i love his helmet
ReplyDeleteHey, I'm looking for an Angus dog toy (with the wing shirt)from Coraline for my granddaughter. That's the toy she wanted after seeing the movie! Anyone seen one of those? Thanks!
ReplyDeleteTess
I would LOVE a Wybie doll! I just got finished watching the movie (again) and he's still my favorite character.
ReplyDeleteI know he wasn't in the book (I read it) but The Other Wybie turned out to be my favorite character. Wybie merch= <3
omg if they made a wybie doll they would get like millions of dollers for it, and thats just from me ^^
ReplyDeleteI have to agree with comment #8.
ReplyDeleteA lot of things to say:
ReplyDelete1. I have that journal! And I have that purple lunch box!
2. Think about this: Do you think that Coraline would still be alive if Wybie hadn't saved her? No. If he wasn't there, she'd be DEAD.
3. Wybie has so many fans anyway, so he can't be taken out of the film. [Most of the fans are girls... like me.]
and,
4. I want that tote bag...