Wildwood

Laika as a film studio have never been more important to the world and filmmaking as a craft than right now, with the advent of AI-generated slop and forceful expulsion of creative artists in exchange for cheap, ineffective algorithms making the animation industry (which was already on a bit of shaky ground) even more of a landmine field. While not known for overperforming at the box office, their track record for creative, uniquely dark and unforgettable stop-motion features that cater to both children and adults is nothing short of magical, with films like Coraline, ParaNorman, The Box Trolls and Kubo and the Two Strings providing wonderfully mature stories that often had a dark twinge, charming characters, and glorious animation and imagery. Their latest and newest film, Wildwood, garnered a massive amount of hype when announced, to the point that its initial teaser trailer received 91 million views, setting it up to be one of the companies greatest and most explosive achievements and it couldn’t have come at a more appropriate time.

Prue McKeel (voiced by Peyton Elizabeth Lee) is an adolescent girl living in Portland, Oregon who defies her parents’ wishes to keep her infant brother Mac indoors by taking him on a cart ride around town. While at the park, Prue witnesses something unexplainable when Mac is kidnapped by a murder of crows and whisked into the Impassable Wilderness at the edge of town, which she was told to avoid as it’s apparently magical and extremely dangerous. Needing to save her brother, Prue ventures into the woods along with her nerdier classmate, Curtis (voiced by Jacob Tremblay) who got roped into the mix, and discovers a hidden world filled with talking animals who are shocked to see ‘’outsiders’’ in their realm and are currently facing an oncoming war. The one spearheading the conflict is Alexandra (voiced by Carey Mulligan), the dowager empress in command of a brigand of coyote soldiers who has gone mad with grief after losing her son and is planning to use Mac as a means of reclaiming what she lost. Being thrown into a crazy situation and learning that she and her brother may have more ties to this place than she realizes, Prue will need to accept the reality of this magical world and brave all kinds of peril in order to save her brother from a tragic fate.

Being a perfect summation of Laika’s strengths as a film studio while somehow exceeding that already high benchmark, Wildwood is already viewed as one of the great animated movies of the decade, sporting an outstanding 100% critical Rotten Tomato score and glorious audience reception, and it has earned every bit of that accolade. With a gripping story that bounces between enchantingly captivating and shockingly raw, entertaining characters backed by great vocal performances and designs, and absolutely awe-inspiring animation that truly shows the power of stop-motion, this movie is going to be one for the animation history books.

Based on a 2011 fantasy novel of the same name written by husband-and-wife duo, Colin Meloy and Carson Ellis, the story of Wildwood feels like a wonderful encapsulation of so many classic fantasy stories from authors like Lewis Carroll, J R. R. Tolkien, C.S. Lewis, Kenneth Graham, Beatrix Potter, and Carlo Collodi, as well as famous animators and storytellers like Don Bluth or Hayao Miyazaki, but it never fully feels like a rip-off of any of their work. Given the book was praised for its beautiful old-fashion illustrations and engrossing story, yet criticized for some of its redundant tropes and slight droopy pacing, Laika really made a great call not only optioning the novel for a film (literally a week after it was released) but letting the movie stew in production for over a decade, allowing the finished product to not only come out as close to flawless as possible, but also letting what could’ve been seen as tired retreads in 2011 now feel comfortingly nostalgic in 2026. So many sequences in this movie are indicative of past fantasy stories, but the way they’re used within this easily captivating and emotionally gripping narrative of a young girl traversing all kinds of mystical dangers to save her younger brother, flows so naturally that it never proves an issue and only sucks you more into its environment and genre.

Directed by Travis Knight, and written by Chris Butler, Wildwood is a lengthy watch at over two hours (becoming the longest-running stop-motion theatrical feature ever released), but because the pacing is so tight and efficient, the dialogue so colorful and rich, and the world so full of life and surprisingly well-balanced tonally, nothing is ever uninteresting or lacks in purpose. While the zippy pacing means there isn’t much time to reflect on what’s happening, the narrative is still very well organized, contains enough brevity and levity to not be a total downer, and it builds to an outstanding third act and climax that may take your breath away while watching. It’s creative, dark, mature in ways that even Laika hasn’t really tackled before (it’s nice to see a film actually earn a PG-13 rating), and while a little intense for really young kids, this will appeal to many young teens and adults.

With a roster of characters that mixes traditional human characters with anthropomorphic animals that carry that mystical yet grounded quality, Wildwood exists in that nice middle ground where the world feels fantastical and bizarre but still harbors an underlying darkness that lends well into more realistic and even disturbing territories, and the characters support this very well. Prue is a simple but very effective lead, with Peyton Elizabeth Lee’s emotional performance doing a good job making the audience easily identify with her struggle. Curtis is also surprisingly good, adopting a familiar anxious nerdy archetype who evolves into something more reliable as he’s forced to witness the truly terrible stuff this world is suffering through, and Jacob Tremblay as expected does a wonderful job voicing him.

People like Mahershala Ali, Amandla Stenberg, Jake Johnson and Maya Erskine do a great job bringing a believable weight and heaviness to this plot and environment, while people like Angela Bassett, Richard E. Grant, Awkwafina and Tantoo Cardinal evoke that enchanting yet composed manner of delivery that really brings a sense of authentic magic to this set-up Alexandra is such a fantastic villain, with a tragic backstory that really explains her demented motivations, and an intimidation factor that’s propelled thanks to her exhausted yet driven character design, extreme gruesome actions, and chilling mental state portrayed beautifully by Carey Mulligan’s voice acting, she’s easily one of the best characters in the movie. Some don’t leave as strong an impression like Charlie Day as a turn-coat coyote soldier, or Jemaine Clement and Marc Evan Jackson as one note power-hungry government officials, but for the most part, this is a top-notch cast.

It’s almost pointless to credit how amazing the animation is as Laika have always stunned with their stop-motion features and how they’ve managed to push the envelope with every passing movie, but even with that in mind, Wildwood still feels special and even staggering in how good it looks. Taking a total of seventeen years to complete with a budget of $100 million, Laika clearly wanted this movie to be important, and they made sure to pull out all the stops, even going beyond what was expected of them already (which is no small feat). Featuring 136 sets, 231 practical puppets, and so many 3D printed assets, Wildwood is a physical achievement for the animation industry, with every location, character model, and environmental layout being so full of life and character that it becomes hard to fathom that most if not all of it was molded, placed and moved by hand.

While VFX were used to touch-up things, it never overshadows the personable aspect of this feature, and everything from the heavy atmosphere, grim direction the story goes in (there is a pretty hefty body count in this movie including some children), and willingness to not pander to expected animation tropes or guidelines, proves this is a movie built by a studio that love the craft and want to experiment as much as possible. Whether it’s the magnificent shots handled by cinematographer Caleb Deschanel that showcases every character and location in a clear yet creative fashion, the detailed production and costume design by Nelson Lowry and Deborah Cook which really brings a lot of life to both the fantasy world and real world (Oregon is shown off wonderfully in this film, which feels extra sweet given it’s where Laika Studios calls home), the ambient yet epic musical score by Dario Marianelli that really dials up the intensity in the right moments, or the many talented artists who put so much effort into the movement of the characters, the feasibility yet creativity of the environments, and the scale of the set pieces (the final battle is something right out of Narnia or Lord of the Rings and it’s something to behold), everybody involved should be so proud of what they’ve brought into the world.

In an age where AI-slop is being forced-fed to people who don’t want it and animation has never been more at risk, Wildwood is a battle cry against these kind of practices and stands as an example of what can happen when human hands create a human project, and with how phenomenally this movie is being received, it’s fairly clear who the good guys and bad guys are in this battle. With a captivating story that somehow manages to be darker than past Laika films in an entirely new fashion, likeable characters backed by great designs and voice work, and jaw-dropping visuals that offer things that arguably have never been seen from stop-motion on such a grand scale, it may be Laika’s magnum opus and has earned every little bit of praise thrown at it. There are a few nitpicks to find, but they are nothing more than broken branches in a glorious timberland that everybody needs to help preserve.