THE MISSING ELEMENTS

Main factors are missing here, the tunnel, the doll, and the beloved character Wybie.

In the movie, the beldam makes dolls that resemble her prey. It’s how she watches their world and sees what would make them happy. The doll even moves around although we never see that (it is found in different spots than where it is left) side note, would’ve loved to see the doll implemented more but I digress. In the book, there is no doll! The house just magically resembles the real one.

In the movie, Coraline meets a character named Wybie (short for why born), who is the grandson of the owner of “the pink palace.” His grandmother used to live there as a kid and had a twin sister that went missing, spoiler alert, she was a victim of the beldam. But in the book, there is no Wybie, making Coraline even more alone (however there is still a cat).

The tunnel… In the movie there is this beautiful majestic purple and blue tunnel, that eventually turns gray and covered in cobwebs near the end. However, in the book she goes through the door.. and it’s just there. The other world is just right there.

• Extra detail: The painting of the blue boy eating ice cream is sad in the real world (according to the movie) but happy in the other world. In the book, the painting of the boy in the other world includes a sinister look on his face, essentially reversing the illusion in the movie. Very creepy=Very cool!