Wildwood, 2026.
Directed by Travis Knight.
Featuring the voice talents of Peyton Elizabeth Lee, Jacob Tremblay, Carey Mulligan, Mahershala Ali, Angela Bassett, Awkwafina, Jake Johnson, Charlie Day, Amandla Stenberg, Jemaine Clement, Maya Erskine, Tantoo Cardinal, Tom Waits, Richard E. Grant, Arthur Knight, Ólafur Darri Ólafsson, Blythe Danner, Rob Delaney, Marc Evan Jackson, and Len Cariou.
SYNOPSIS:
Prue and her classmate Curtis are drawn into a magical forest filled with enchanted creatures, loyal allies, and formidable adversaries as they embark on a desperate quest to rescue Prue’s abducted baby brother from a murder of crows led by a mysterious woman named Alexandra.
At the center of Laika Studio and Travis Knight’s latest stop-motion marvel, Wildwood, are two children: a girl who doesn’t believe in magic despite the constant, wondrous storybook readings her father gives her infant brother, and a dorky boy obsessed with Dungeons & Dragons. Once the titular high fantasy forest reveals itself to these characters, swallowing them up in a perilous adventure, there is a notable subversion in that, while it is everything Curtis (voice of Jacob Tremblay) expected it would be, fear and trepidation take hold, as if nothing in those tabletop RPG games could have possibly prepared him for the hero he most likely makes himself out to be while wishing he could be in real life. As for Prue McKeel (voice of Peyton Elizabeth Lee), it’s either deny what is in front of her eyes or accept it, as there is no other choice but to push forward and save her baby brother Mac (voice of Arthur Knight), taken by a murder of crows into that forest for mysterious reasons.
Here is a similar scenario: put a Laika film in front of someone who doesn’t believe in magic. They will have no choice but to rethink their stance.
Nevertheless, both children are capable of heroics, but it comes with challenges beyond accepting a hidden magical forest. This is a stunning extravaganza with heart, just as much about grief as it is about bringing out heroism. Its full-on astonishing third-act climactic war sequence – one of the most bluntly put insane visual feasts for the eyes ever put on screen, regardless of whether some of it is CGI rather than thousands of vividly colorful handcrafted claymation models in one image- is matched by emotional propulsion throughout from determined characters and a sweeping score by Dario Marianelli that consistently puts into perspective the epic scale (there is also a beautifully vocalized call to arms some by and unfairly judged group of noble bandits).
This isn’t merely a forest, but an entire world Travis Knight and screenwriter Chris Butler (based on the book by Carson Ellis and Colin Meloy) have envisioned and painstakingly built intent on exploring every corner and creature, from the redshirt soldier coyotes to the self absorbed weasel of a mayor to a society of anthropomorphic talking animals that would make Zootopia blush to vermin and runts serving as a source of courage despite their small stature (a symbol of what these heroes, particularly Curtis can be if they embrace the situation and let go of fear) to mystical elders seeking wisdom from ancient trees to a grief-stricken governess utilizing that army of aforementioned coyotes for something nefarious while the bandits prepare a resistance.
Voiced by an array of recognizable talent, including Carey Mulligan, Mahershala Ali, Richard E. Grant, Jake Johnson, Charlie Day, Awkwafina, and more, the story comes to life as Mac is almost surely taken prisoner for something dastardly. And while this is PG-13 with the occasional character who might please or make a child laugh, it also has no issue with putting the sadness, edginess, darkness, and brutality front and center without warning. On both sides, heroes and villains, it’s about an undying love and a willingness to do anything to save one’s family, loaded with emotional devastation.
As such, there is so much here that, at times, it becomes a bit rushed or exposition-heavy, with choppy storytelling here and there (it never brings the narrative to a halt, but it could have been a bit more fluid and less reliant on not one but two significant flashbacks), but such criticisms feel minor when weighed against the grand scope and ambition of the project, which is the longest stop-motion animated film ever made, and again, visually remarkable.
There are several inventive chase sequences and set pieces here (whether it be a manor escape or platforming involving swinging cages suspended high in the air) that, while breathtaking in their own right, are also an appetizer for the full-course meal finale that is undeniably unforgettable; it’s a war sequence that can rival most live-action counterparts. The villain’s cruel motives feel a bit one-note, but Carey Mulligan finds the pained humanity in them, along with the overall character arc and story, to lift it into something poetically moving, even as the deeds are born from an empathetic place.
Minor narrative and tonal reservations aside, Wildwood feels like a brilliant magnum opus. Magic is real; Laika, Travis Knight, and Wildwood are proof of that. However, the first bit of text that should be plastered across the screen after the film ends is a flex that no generative AI was used. AI could never accomplish or even come close to capturing a fragment of awe as grand and resonant as this.
Flickering Myth Rating – Film: ★ ★ ★ ★ / Movie: ★ ★ ★ ★
Robert Kojder
