Wildwood
review by Bobby Blakey
LAIKA has delivered some of the best and most beautiful animated films in years including Coraline, The Boxtrolls, Paranorman, Kubo and the Two Strings and Missing Link. Now Kubo director Travis Knight is returning to the LAIKA world fresh off his underrated Master of the Universe feature with Wildwood. Could this yet be another great film from this iconic studio or will it get lost in the woods?
Wildwood follows the adventures of Prue McKeel as she sets off to the forests outside Portland to find her kidnapped brother. The film features a great voice cast including Peyton Elizabeth Lee, Jacob Tremblay, Carey Mulligan, Jake Johnson, Richard E. Grant, Charlie Day, Tom Waits, Angela Bassett, Awkwafina, Mahershala Ali, Jemaine Clement, Maya Erskine and Tantoo Cardinal.
I love stop motion animation and have loved every single film from LAIKA. For some reason I was just never fully sold on this one from the trailers, but my love of their work wouldn’t let me pass it by. I am so glad that I didn’t skip it, because this film is outstanding on every level. I didn’t pay attention going in to see that this is the first film LAIKA has made, that is PG-13 and they go all in with it. This is not the usual family affair most of their films are and caught me off guard in the best way possible.
The story leans into the fantastical while grounded in a theme of loss and heartbreak. I love it when the villains have a true reason for their chaos and here, they do just that that leads to full understanding of their choices despite them being horrible and evil. There is a great twist to the legend of it all that changes the whole perspective leading to even more understanding and discussion about who is doing the right thing overall.
I have always loved the unique visual styles of LAIKA films, and this one is no different. They are going with a more normal look for the humans but with just a hint of strangeness to them to stand out. The anamorphic characters are all fantastic and used in some great ways. It comes as no surprise that the attention to detail is beautifully brilliant as usual, but this is the most ambitious and amazing film in their filmography and in the world of stop-motion. Of course there are some CGI enhancements, but the things they do here and scope of it are insane and perfection.
The usual scenery and attention to detail is fantastic and beautiful, but when they delve deeper into the world of Wildwood it just keeps getting better. There is a fully one war in the final act that rivals live action films doing similar sequences. It is violent, action packed, intense and amazingly executed to perfection. As I was watching it I could not imagine the level of work that went into making this work and cannot wait to get to see some of the behind-the-scenes footage to see how they made it work.
I went in to see the latest LAIKA film and came out with it being one of my favorites. It is pure cinema and hope that it gets the attention that it deserves. If you love stop motion and LAIKA then this is a must see. If you aren’t a big fan, this is still a must see film so do yourself a justice and check it out in theaters now.