By John Corrado
Since their debut film Coraline in 2009, the Oregon-based animation studio LAIKA has not only been keeping stop-motion alive as an art form, but also pushing it forward in exciting ways.
Across their subsequent films (ParaNorman, The Boxtrolls, Kubo and the Two Strings, Missing Link), LAIKA has been pioneering new techniques, building bigger sets, adding more characters, and showing what is possible when the right care and attention is put into the stop-motion medium.
Now comes Wildwood, an ambitious adaptation of the fantasy novel by Colin Meloy, that in many ways feels like what the studio has been building towards all along. Directed by Travis Knight, this hand-crafted, sixteen years in the making epic tells a surprisingly mature fantasy story through stunning stop-motion animation, the scope of which has to be seen to be believed. It’s a tremendous technical achievement on every single level.
The story centres around Prue (voiced by Peyton Elizabeth Lee), a teen girl in Portland, Oregon. Prue’s parents (Maya Erskine and Jake Johnson) have raised her with constant warnings to never venture into the Impassable Wilderness, with her dad regaling her and now her baby brother of the dangers lurking in the woods near their home.
When her infant brother is kidnapped by a murder of crows while he is under her watch, Prue must venture into the forest with her nerdy classmate Curtis (Jacob Tremblay) to rescue him. It’s here that they discover a fantastical place where coyotes stand on two feet and wear uniforms, acting as royal guards for Alexandra (Carey Mulligan), the dowager governess turned evil villainess who rules over one side of the enchanted forest’s warring factions.
Those who loved the anthropomorphism of the Zootopia films will be delighted by some of the designs of the animal characters here. Alongside Mulligan’s textured turn as the dowager governess, the all-star cast is rounded out by a variety of familiar voices. Among the highlights are Mahershala Ali as a bandit king, Angela Bassett as an eagle general, Tom Waits as the vicious leader of the coyote guards and Charlie Day as a misfit member of his pack, as well as Richard E. Grant as a wise owl, and Awkwafina as a comic-relief rat.
There are visual delights packed into every frame of Wildwood, from the production design to the insanely detailed costuming of the 3D-printed puppets. The film is constantly introducing new worlds and characters, and the fluidity of the movements is breathtaking to watch. Both human and animal characters move through these tactile lands in an incredibly lifelike way. The camera flies through the hand-crafted sets, with Caleb Deschanel serving as the film’s cinematographer.
A single-take chase through the streets of Portland, meticulously recreated in miniature with all of the city’s little eccentricities intact, serves as an early example of the gobsmacking set-pieces that the animators have pulled off here. It all builds to a massive battle sequence involving tons of characters that pays homage to Lord of the Rings, and constantly leaves us in awe of how they pulled it off in stop-motion.
The PG-13 rating is also warranted. This extensive battle sequence alone justifies the rating, and there is even some bloodshed throughout. The film feels like a throwback to the 1980s kids fantasy movies that weren’t afraid to go dark, not just in terms of violence, but also in the heavier themes about grief and sacrifice. The more mature tone is on display right from the heartbreaking and almost startlingly tragic opening scene.
At 131 minutes, Wildwood is also the longest stop-motion film ever made, a running time that allows us to get lost in these worlds and marvel at the amount of work that went into it. It’s long, sure, but it’s also understandable why Knight wouldn’t want to cut a moment of the footage that his team spent days and years crafting by hand.
The craftsmanship on display throughout Wildwood is truly incredible, and alone makes it worthy of being seen on the big screen. Animation fans and older kids who go see this one are in for a treat.
