Passes the Bechdel test

Coraline

Name: Coraline
Released: 2009

2009. Directed by Henry Selick, written by Henry Selick and Neil Gaiman.

The Bechdel test

Bechdel score

3 / 3

Passes

Yes 1. At least two women
5 women characters. 8 of them speak.
Yes 2. Who talk to each other
In 19 scenes out of 124.
Yes 3. About something besides a man
In those scenes, our script parser found no man named. See the scene.

Second opinion

Agree bechdeltest.com readers give it 3 out of 3.

The film

When Coraline moves to an old house, she feels bored and neglected by her parents. She finds a hidden door with a bricked up passage. During the night, she crosses the passage and finds a parallel world where everybody has buttons instead of eyes, with caring parents and all her dreams coming true. When the Other Mother invites Coraline to stay in her world forever, the girl refuses and finds that the alternate reality where she is trapped is only a trick to lure her.

Released: 06 Feb 2009
Genres: Animation, Drama, Family
Rated: PG
IMDb: 7.8 / 10
Metascore: 80 / 100
Awards: Nominated for 1 Oscar. 8 wins & 46 nominations total
Elsewhere: View on IMDb

Starring, by lines spoken

Women
Men
Not in the cast list
Bigger name, more lines

Coraline 339 lines, woman
Wybie 53 lines, man
Other Mother 50 lines, woman
Mel 46 lines, woman
Miss Spink 35 lines, woman
Other Father 32 lines, man
Charlie 29 lines, man
Cat 23 lines, man
Miss Forcible 20 lines, woman
Mr. Bobinsky 18 lines, man

Full cast, 20 people

Dakota Fanning as Coraline Jones (voice)
Teri Hatcher as Mel Jones / Other Mother (voice)
Jennifer Saunders as Miss April Spink / Other Spink (voice)
Dawn French as Miss Miriam Forcible / Other Forcible (voice)
Keith David as The Cat (voice)
John Hodgman as Charlie Jones / Other Father (voice)
Robert Bailey Jr. as Wyborne 'Wybie' Lovat (voice)
Ian McShane as Mr. Sergei Alexander Bobinsky / Other Bobinsky (voice)
Aankha Neal as Sweet Ghost Girl (voice)
George Selick as Ghost Boy (voice)
Hannah Kaiser as Tall Ghost Girl (voice)
Harry Selick as Photo Friend (voice)
Marina Budovsky as Photo Friend (voice)
Emerson Tenney as Magic Dragonfly (voice)
Jerome Ranft as Mover (voice)
Christopher Murrie as Toy (voice)
Jeremy Ryder as Toy (voice)
Carolyn Crawford as Wybie's Grandmother (voice)
Yona Prost as Shakespeare Rascal (voice)
John Linnell as Other Father (singing voice) (uncredited)

Who talks, scene by scene

Lines of dialogue in every 3 scenes, start to finish. Women above the line, men below. 2% of lines come from characters we couldn't match to the cast list and aren't shown.

Women

Men

Scene 1 Scene 124

Hover, tap or tab to a bar to see those scenes: where they happen and who's talking.

Show the numbers

Scenes	Women's lines	Men's lines
1 to 3	0	4
4 to 6	37	20
7 to 9	7	8
10 to 12	4	1
13 to 15	5	0
16 to 18	8	0
19 to 21	7	4
22 to 24	1	0
25 to 27	9	0
28 to 30	29	9
31 to 33	14	4
34 to 36	14	14
37 to 39	40	0
40 to 42	17	13
43 to 45	11	0
46 to 48	16	8
49 to 51	10	5
52 to 54	1	0
55 to 57	17	2
58 to 60	11	0
61 to 63	36	11
64 to 66	21	5
67 to 69	11	3
70 to 72	10	11
73 to 75	14	0
76 to 78	25	5
79 to 81	3	0
82 to 84	8	3
85 to 87	9	8
88 to 90	6	3
91 to 93	24	0
94 to 96	6	0
97 to 99	15	4
100 to 102	28	4
103 to 105	6	6
106 to 108	3	3
109 to 111	7	2
112 to 114	39	3
115 to 117	17	4
118 to 120	2	0
121 to 123	9	8
124 to 124	18	6

The evidence

Straight from the script
Counted from the script and the credits

Tap an exhibit to open it.

Exhibit A: the passing scenes

The scene our parser counted as passing, word for word.

CORALINE: Where does this door go? MEL: I'm really, really busy!

CORALINE: Pleeeeeeeeease! MEL: Uhhh...

CORALINE: Bricks? I don't get it. MEL: They must have closed this off when they divided up the house. CORALINE: You're kidding? And why is the door so small? MEL: We made a deal. ZIP IT!

CORALINE: Mmmm, this chicken is good. OTHER MOTHER: Hungry, aren't you. CORALINE: D'you have any gravy? OTHER MOTHER: Well, here comes the gravy train! Choo- choo!

CORALINE: I didn't know I had an Other Mother. OTHER MOTHER: Of course you do. Everyone does. CORALINE: Really? OTHER MOTHER: Uh huh, and soon as you're through eating, I thought we'd play a game.

Exhibit B: every 100 lines

Out of every 100 lines with a known speaker, 76 are women's.

575 lines from women, 181 from men.

Women
Men

Exhibit C: who's in it

5 women and 7 men in the cast. 8 women and 8 men from it get lines.

Characters

With lines

Women
Men

Exhibit D: who gets heard

The first woman speaks at line 5 of 770. The longest stretch with no woman speaking runs 5 lines.

Every line of dialogue, first to last

First line by a woman
Longest stretch with no woman speaking

Words spoken

Women speak 71% of the words (3,747), men 29% (1,562). Women have 76% of the lines, so their lines run shorter than men's.

Exhibit E: the test the other way

Two named men talk to each other about something besides a woman. It passes the reverse test.

Conversations between two named characters

Two women

Two men

Exhibit F: behind the camera

2 of the 14 people in these jobs are women. Across the whole crew, 17% of the people whose gender is listed are women.

Directed by: Henry Selick (man)
Written by: Henry Selick (man)
Produced by: Claire Jennings (woman), Harry Linden (gender not listed), Bill Mechanic (man), Mary Sandell (gender not listed), Henry Selick (man)
Shot by: Pete Kozachik (man)
Edited by: Christopher Murrie (man), Ronald Sanders (man)
Music by: Bruno Coulais (man)
Costumes by: Margaret Meyer (gender not listed)
Cast by: Cathy Kalmenson (gender not listed), Linda Lamontagne (woman)