


Art direction and storyboarding came first, as storyboard supervisor Chris Butler oversaw storyboard illustrators in visualizing every scene and character.Īs crucial as this might be for live-action movies, for animated features it is doubly so. With a new draft of the script approved, Coraline entered pre-production in 2005. trip, the two could continue collaborating on designs long-distance. Uesugi would then remain in close contact with Breton from thousands of miles away having established his brush-strokes and palette of colors with Breton during the U.S. to meet with Selick and illustrator Michel Breton.

Uesugi worked on the concept art in Japan for over a year, and then traveled to the U.S. Selick offers, “We’re going for both a classic storybook look and a strong graphic look, and Tadahiro is inspired by American illustrators of the late 1950s and early 1960s.”
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Once Selick decided that he would take the look of the movie into a different realm than Dave McKean’s artwork for the book, he brought revered Japanese illustrator and designer Tadahiro Uesugi on board as concept artist. You want to honor the important parts of a book in adapting it, but you also have to invent and change as well.” “Neil was there with help and advice right from the start, yet was not overly precious with his book and would step away when I needed to focus. Selick feels that “this was an ideal opportunity to take all I know about storytelling through animation, bringing those tools to bear on a story with a strong lead character. By sheer force of never giving up, Henry has gotten the movie made.” Producer Bill Mechanic – with whom he had worked before – bought the movie rights, and Henry started work on the script immediately.

Gaiman says, “Within a week, Henry said he wanted to do it. The director adds, “Neil invites the reader in to participate in Coraline’s adventure, and I wanted to do the same for the moviegoer.” When Coraline – an ordinary girl – faces real evil and triumphs, it really means something, as Neil has said.” I loved that her ‘grass is always greener’ scenario turns out to be scary. She’s brave and imaginative and has got an overwhelming curiosity if she sees something interesting, then she has to know about it. “Coraline is very appealing to me, and I hope that she will be very appealing to children seeing the movie for a variety of reasons. He splits open ordinary existence and finds magic. Like Stephen King, Neil sets fantasy in modern times, in our own lives. This is something that everyone can relate to. Selick reflects, “When I first read the manuscript, I was struck by the juxtaposition of worlds the one we all live in, and the one where the grass is always greener. This was about 18 months before the book was published.” I would talk to my agent and he would say, ‘There’s this guy Henry Selick you two would like each other.’ So when I finished the Coraline manuscript, I gave it to my agent and asked him to send it to Henry. He remembers, “Henry was on my radar as a remarkable creative force. He had gone to see The Nightmare Before Christmas (1993) the first week it was released, and then saw James and the Giant Peach (1996) as well. During the years of writing Coraline, Neil Gaiman followed with interest the feature film work of director and animator Henry Selick.
