Selick's stop-motion film follows Gaiman's novella closely: the flat, the small door, the other mother, the button eyes, the three ghost children, the hand. The principal addition is Wybie, invented to give Coraline somebody to speak to, since a book can stay inside a head and a film cannot. Gaiman has said he suggested it himself. Made at Laika over three years, and the reason the button eyes are a recognisable image rather than a line in a book.