WILDWOOD:
LAIKA DOES LABYRINTH!
By Nico Beland
Movie Review: PERFECT 5!
FATHOM ENTERTAINMENT
Prue McKeel, Mac, and Alexandra in Wildwood
A young girl enters a magic fantasy land in search of her missing brother in Wildwood, the much-anticipated sixth film from stop-motion animation studio Laika and their first feature film since 2019’s Missing Link. This was right up there with The Odyssey and Project Hail Mary as one of my most anticipated movies of the year. I’ve been a fan of Laika ever since I saw Coraline back in 2009 and have not missed a single film from them.
Sure, I think some are better than others (I personally consider The Boxtrolls and Missing Link to be their weakest films), but the already-mentioned Coraline, ParaNorman, and Kubo and the Two Strings are superb movies that stand among the absolute best stop-motion animated films of all time. But even when a film of theirs isn’t stellar, Laika’s projects are always very high quality in terms of the craftsmanship, ingenuity, and, of course, creativity.
Now we have Wildwood, which reportedly took sixteen years to make shortly after the publication of Colin Meloy and Carson Ellis’ 2011 novel of the same name, with 2016’s Kubo and the Two Strings director, Travis Knight (Bumblebee, Masters of the Universe (2026)) helming it. Is Wildwood worth all the hype and does it stand among Laika’s best work? F*ck yeah!
This movie is magnificent on both a technical and storytelling level; I was captivated, moved, and mesmerized from beginning to end with virtually zero low points for me. In an age where computer animation dominates the big screen, leave it to Laika to show audiences the magic of stop-motion animation and crafting films practically.
The film is set in Portland, Oregon, and follows Prue McKeel (voiced by Peyton Elizabeth Lee-Andi Mack, Secret Society of Second-Born Royals, Pizza Movie), a young girl who’s tasked with taking care of her little brother, Mac. But when Mac is suddenly taken away by a murder of crows, Prue and her friend, Curtis (voiced by Jacob Tremblay-Room, Luca, The Toxic Avenger (2023)), find themselves in an extraordinary world where animals talk, people communicate with nature, and a corrupt former governess-turned-exiled witch known as Alexandra (voiced by Carey Mulligan-Drive, Inside Llewyn Davis, Maestro) has big plans for Mac unless Prue can rescue him in time.
The film also features the voices of Mahershala Ali (Moonlight, Green Book, Spider-Verse franchise) as Brendan, Awkwafina (Crazy Rich Asians, The Farewell, Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings) as Septima, Amandla Stenberg (The Hate U Give, Bodies Bodies Bodies, The Acolyte) as Niamh, Angela Bassett (Boyz n the Hood, Black Panther 1 and 2, Mission: Impossible franchise) as the General, Richard E. Grant (Corpse Bride, The Iron Lady, Logan) as Owl Rex, Tom Waits (Seven Psychopaths, Licorice Pizza, Wild Horse Nine) as Maxim, Charlie Day (It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia, The Lego Movie 1 and 2, The Super Mario Bros. Movie franchise) as Dmitri, Blythe Danner (The X-Files, Meet the Parents, Paul) as The Seer, Jake Johnson (Safety Not Guaranteed, Jurassic World, Spider-Verse franchise) as Mr. McKeel, and Maya Erskine (PEN15, Scoob!, DC League of Super-Pets) as Mrs. McKeel.
Overall, Wildwood is a magical, intense, and touching adventure that stands among the best work from Laika, with an engaging story, lovable characters, and absolutely gorgeous animation. Laika’s stop-motion has always been amazing, but damn, Wildwood has some of their best ever and looks incredible on the big screen.
I was relishing in what I was looking at from the sets to the epic battle scenes; it’s easily Laika’s most epic production and the fact that they were able to stage a Lord of the Rings-style battle with stop-motion deserves my respect and appreciation because that must have been a nightmare to make frame-by-frame. Whether it’s an action scene or Prue riding on a giant bird through the sky, the animation is top-tier and a marvel to look at.
The praise doesn’t just stop at the animation; the story is also very engaging which, sure, does have some parallels between Jim Henson’s Labyrinth, The Wizard of Oz, and even The Chronicles of Narnia, but Laika adds their own unique flair to these types of stories and delivers a lot of fascinating lore about the film’s world. When I wasn’t invested in Prue’s journey to rescue her brother, I was fascinated by how this enchanted world works and what kinds of bizarre characters and situations will appear next.
The characters are endearing and really make you care for just about every one of them, Prue, the film’s protagonist, isn’t like a super complex character; she’s just the outsider who’s hellbent on saving her brother, but she’s a great audience surrogate into this crazy world and much of fun is seeing her interact with the world and other characters. Her geeky friend, Curtis, I thought was going to get on my nerves, but not only is he funny, but he also goes through this great arc during a subplot where he befriends a group of bandits.
Even the film’s villain, Alexandra, could have been just a one-note, destroy everything because I’m evil character, but they make her really interesting with an incredibly tragic backstory where you genuinely sympathize with her at times. I guess my only nitpick with the characters is that the film tries to juggle a bunch of characters in its 2-hour-and-11-minute runtime (The longest stop-motion film ever made as of now), and even with that length, a lot of the side characters are just kind of there with a specific quirk to benefit the plot.
Wildwood is pure movie magic at its finest with breathtaking animation, captivating characters, and a deeply moving story. It’s a film that goes far beyond your average stop-motion animated feature and becomes a total game-changer in the medium on several levels.
Please go see this in the theater; Travis Knight and the crew at Laika did incredible work here. It’s so great that it made me raise my blog rating score, and that’s no small feat.
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