Laika’s latest stop-motion animated feature, Wildwood, held its world premiere at the London Film Festival. Directed by Travis Knight, the film is slated to open AFI Fest later this month for its North American premiere in Hollywood before arriving in theaters on October 23 in the US and UK, and October 22 in Australia. Fathom Entertainment will handle the release.
Adapted by screenwriter Chris Butler from the 2011 novel by Colin Meloy and illustrations by Carson Ellis, the film is set in Knight’s hometown of Portland, Oregon. Meloy is the frontman for the indie rock band The Decemberists, and one of the group’s tour posters appears in the movie. The plot follows 12-year-old Prue McKeel (voiced by Peyton Elizabeth Lee), who enters a forbidden forest of talking animals and magical creatures to rescue her baby brother, Mac, after he is abducted by a murder of crows. Prue’s parents, voiced by Maya Erskine and Jake Johnson, are amiable hippies who believe in benign magic and natural forces.
Studio Utilizes Thousands of Face Models and Wire over Three Years
The project spent 16 years in gestation at the Oregon-based studio, with production beginning in 2021. To create the film, Laika utilized 1,155 days of production, 715 miles of brass wire, 728 hand-molded trees, and 142,000 3D-printed face models. The visual palette was developed by six-time Oscar nominee Caleb Deschanel, who worked on an animated film for the first time. The production also involved a collaboration with Wētā FX for computer trickery.
The film’s orchestral score was composed by Dario Marianelli, featuring a blend of modern guitar sounds and folk string arrangements. The final product has a runtime of 131 minutes.
Prue Enters Wilderness to Save Brother from Captive Captors
Once inside the “wildwood,” Prue and Curtis are separated. The “Impassable Wilderness” that Prue enters to save her brother is based on Portland’s Forest Park. Prue encounters figures such as the Great Eagle leader The General (voiced by Angela Bassett) and the bandit leader Brendan (voiced by Mahershala Ali). Other allies include the regal Iphigenia, voiced by Tantoo Cardinal. Curtis is captured by the Dowager Governess Alexandra (voiced by Carey Mulligan), a woman driven by the death of her son to pursue dark ambitions with an army of uniformed coyotes. Grant.
Critical Reception
Reviews of the film highlight its “jaw-dropping artistry” and “breathtaking” visuals, though some critics noted that the pacing drags during Curtis’s plot detours. Jacob Tremblay is praised for his comedic timing as Curtis follows a “zero to hero” arc. While described as a “good-natured” children’s tale, the film carries a PG-13 rating due to its “shockingly macabre” opening and the frequency of character deaths.
Studio Background
Laika specializes in stop-motion and has received Best Animated Feature Oscar nominations for its first four films: Kubo and the Two Strings, Missing Link, ParaNorman, and Coraline. Knight’s previous work at the studio, Kubo And The Two Strings, featured an 18-foot-tall Skeleton Demon, the largest stop-motion puppet ever built, but Wildwood’s scale surpasses all previous studio films.
Worth a look