 While this film was based on the Brian Aldiss (qv) short story  "Supertoys Last All Summer Long," that short story has less  influence on the movie than the famous poem by  William Butler Yeats (qv), "The Stolen Child." The text of the  poem appears in the movie in two places, and certain stanzas take on  literal meaning as well (e.g. "Till the moon has taken flight")