EAT • SLEEP • REVIEW • REPEAT
WILDWOOD
Director: Travis Knight
Writer: Chris Butler
Cast: Peyton Elizabeth Lee, Jacob Tremblay, Carey Mulligan, Mahershala Ali, Angela Bassett, Awkwafina, Jake Johnson, Charlie Day, Amandla Stenberg
Laika’s epic stop-motion stunner is an instant classic.
Twenty-one years and five films into their existence now, and while Laika’s release record has been a mightily impressive one, they’ve yet to truly nail it. Granted, with the likes of Coraline, Kubo and the Two Strings, and ParaNorman in their back pocket, they’ve come extremely close, however, as one of the world’s premium purveyors of stop-motion animation, they’ve yet to produce something that truly lives up to the studio’s huge potential.
This is an animation studio with deep, Nike-lined pockets and an unwavering commitment to their stop-motion craft, so it only really felt like a matter of time before the Travis Knight-fronted studio came up with something truly special. And, while you can never really know about these things ahead of time, there’s been a distinct feel since the very first moment we laid eyes on it that Laika had something truly special on their hands with Wildwood.
When Prue’s (Peyton Elizabeth Lee) baby brother is snatched in a playground by a sinister murder of crows, the trail leads beyond Portland's city limits into the Impassable Wilderness – a hidden forest most people don't know exists. With her loyal but hapless classmate Curtis (Jacob Tremblay) in tow, Prue follows the birds into a world of talking animals, bandits, mystics, and rival factions, all locked in a struggle for Wildwood's future. What starts as a rescue mission soon becomes a much bigger fight, as Prue must risk everything to save her brother and protect the forest's fragile future.
In their two decades of existence, Laika have built up quite the reputation for impeccable animated craftsmanship, one that’s had many eager to put them on the same level as animation behemoths like Pixar and Studio Ghibli, yet, despite some damn fine offerings so far, they’ve yet to have their Toy Story or Spirited Away moment – a film that will go on to define them as a company.
Until now that is, as Wildwood looks like it may very well be that definitive moment.
Coraline and Kubo have both come very close to being that magical defining moment, however, for all their undoubted qualities, neither film quite managed to hit perfection status. Taking everything that made those two films so wonderful and then shooting it to the moon, Wildwood possesses everything required for animated greatness.
With a faultless and fearless dedication to their craft, Laika have poured everything into what is by far their biggest ever swing to deliver precisely the kind of bold risk taking that Pixar and Ghibli built their iconic reputations on. As such, and while there’s always a risk that Wildwood may struggle to land an audience, there’s a huge opportunity here for this to be the moment Laika receive both the plaudits and the ROI they’ve long since deserved.
With every frame stuffed with eye-popping wonder and some of the most perplexing stop-motion you’ll ever witness (complimentary), Wildwood is epic in every sense of the word and on a scale that’s usually beyond the scope of animation. Built upon a solid fantasy foundation, the film takes what could’ve been a very by-the-numbers novel adaptation and adds layer upon painstakingly animated layer to it to produce something positively dripping in heart, soul, imagination, and unbound creativity.
Set in a fully realised magical world just beyond Portland that doesn’t feel chucked together by a computer but lovingly pieced together by an actual human (imagine that), the screen pops with love, enchantment, stop-motion wizardry, and the kind of living, breathing creativity that’s such a rare commodity in modern mainstream animation. Whether you’re after talking animals, magic-wielding mystics, or the spellbound forest surrounding it all, Wildwood has you covered in a way that doesn’t just throw it all at you at random but coaxes you in gently before whisking you away on a wonderful adventure like a particularly alluring folktale.
Like the best animations, it uses the medium not merely to pump loud, colourful things into your eyes and ears, but to immerse you in its world and to make it feel as real as anything you’ll see in live-action, perhaps even more so. Not only does Wildwood allow its painstakingly hand-crafted imagination to do the talking, it uses everything at its disposal to increase its scale and scope in a way that you so rarely see in animated form.
In this day and age where we’ve pretty much seen it all, it’s rare that you watch anything on the big screen that has you genuinely baffled, however, the sheer scale and complexity of the stop-motion on display with Wildwood will almost certainly be such a moment. There are fights, brutal (and I mean BRUTAL) battles, and enormous action scenes with so many moving parts and mind-bending intricacies to them that it will leave you dazed and confused in the best way possible.
This isn’t merely art for art’s sake. This isn’t a showy technical flex from Laika. This is all done in tandem with the characters and the script and the world building to offer a thoroughly satisfying fantasy spectacle that deserves to be seen by all and seen on the biggest screen you can find.
It also helps that the film’s story is just as affecting as the visuals. Brought to life by an absolutely stacked voice cast, fronted by a spectacular turn from a beguiling Carey Mulligan, Wildwood’s script contains a surprising and entirely welcome level of nuance, warmth, humour, and emotional heft that will have you locked in from start to finish.
Sure, there are elements to it that you’ll recognise from the likes of Alice in Wonderland, Narnia, and The Lord of the Rings, however, it’s to the immense credit of Travis Knight, writer Chris Butler, and the entire Laika creative team that Wildwood feels as original and unique as it does. As Prue fights to save her brother from Alexandra and the dark magic of the Impassable Wilderness, so many more layers and subtle nuances are added to the story that make it far more powerful and emotionally resonant than it has any right to be.
Taking everything that made the likes of Coraline and Kubo and the Two Strings great and shooting it all to the moon, Wildwood is the moment Laika truly entered the animation legends conversation. Impeccable craftsmanship, mind-blowing stop-motion, unbelievable scope, enchanting imagination, brutal action, and a deeply affecting story combine for a bona fide animated masterpiece and by far Laika’s finest effort to date.
