November 11, 2026
Teenager Prue McKeel (Peyton Elizabeth Lee) lived in Portland, Oregon with her parents (Jake Johnson and Maya Erskine) and baby brother Mac. One night, Prue disobeyed her parents and brought Mac out to the playground to play. While she was talking to her nerdy schoolmate Curtis (Jacob Tremblay) there, a murder of crows swooped down from the sky and carried Mac off into the Impassable Wilderness outside town. Prue took off on her bike, with Curtis in the wagon behind her, in hot pursuit.
In that enchanted forest, Prue and Curtis were separated while being chased by talking coyotes wearing red soldier uniforms, led by Maksim (Tom Waits). Curtis was brought to the castle of the dowager governess Alexandra (Carey Mulligan), who was mourning the death of her son Alexei. Meanwhile, Prue was picked up by Richard the Postmaster General (Len Cariou), who then drove her to Lars Svik (Mark Evan Jackson), the Governor-Regent, and his right-hand man Roger Swindon (Jemaine Clement).
"Wildwood" is the sixth film created by Laika, an American independent studio specializing in its distinctive style of stop-motion animation. Each individual character of its past five output -- "Coraline" (2009), "ParaNorman" (2012), "The Boxtrolls" (2014), "Kubo and the Two-Strings" (2016), and "Missing Link" (2019) -- were all so painstakingly handcrafted and animated. Compared to CG animated films, the frame-by-frame posing of figurines in stop-motion animation gives it a more languid, nostalgic charm that appeal to rather niche audiences.
While I was watching this film, it called to mind an animated series called "Trollhunters" (2016-2018), where a young person from normal town finds his way into a hidden, magical world practically right in their backyard. However, the reason of said young person to go into the new world was very different. For Prue, it was her desperate effort to rescue her abducted baby brother as a result of her recklessness. Later it would be revealed that the abduction of Mac would have taken place anyway, in a twist reveal no one will see coming.
Based on a book by Colin Meloy, this rated PG film is more for older kids and adults only, mainly because the violence can get quite harrowing, and character deaths could get bloody. There were political conflicts in Wildwood with many characters involved, so the who's who can get confusing at first, until you sort them all out. Despite the length of the film, it felt like that there was not enough backstory in the world building. It was not completely clear how and why certain animals and plants turned out to be the bad guys in those woods.
Anyhow, the main strength of this film is really the artwork. This new one expanded on everything the studio had done before in terms of craftsmanship, and definitely overtakes everything before it in terms of epic scope. 16 years in the making, 233 practical puppets were seamlessly integrated into 132 detailed sets with 2D-CGI, no generative AI. The big innovations were in the small details in each character -- the subtle changes in facial expressions or body movements, down the rise and fall of the chest when breathing, 8/10
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