Art made by human hands is irreplaceable. Wildwood is an astonishing example of this, something AI could never create. This stop-motion fantastical epic will break hearts and mend them. A project that was 16 years in the making shows that the best art takes time, and it’s well worth the wait. From its moving voice acting and impressively done action sequences to its daring sense of wanderlust, Wildwood is a life-affirming experience.
LAIKA is no stranger to crafting compelling films, from classics like Coraline to Kubo and the Two Strings, and its focus on the smallest details doesn’t go unnoticed. Their newest film, directed by Travis Knight, Wildwood, brings author Colin Meloy’s novel of the same name to the screen. Like the novel, the film follows willful young teen Prue (Peyton Elizabeth Lee) as she lives in Portland, Oregon, with her baby brother and her parents, Mom (Maya Erskine) and Dad (Jake Johnson). Their lives are simple, filled with joy at the breakfast table, but the surrounding forests harbor secrets and magic.
As the film opens, despair hits hard as Alexandra (Carey Mulligan), the Dowager Governess, tries to stop a tragedy from tearing her family apart. Unsuccessful in her attempts, the loss of her precious son forever changes her family; the ripples of this can be felt even in the outside world, where Prue resides. Their paths quickly cross when Prue defies her parents’ wishes, as any teenage girl will, and takes her brother to the land her parents forbade her from entering. This sets off a dark fantasy adventure in which Prue must rely on her own cunning and self-determination to save her baby brother from magic’s grieving grasp.
Wildwood latches onto a powerful need to break free immediately. Prue and the other kids her age, like the ultra-nerdy Curtis (Jacob Tremblay), undoubtedly live ideal lives. Loving communities and lively shops surround their Oregon homes. But Prue wants to experience life beyond her home and the shops, and taking her baby brother outside to play has major consequences. This plot line runs throughout the film, and with each obstacle Prue faces, she breaks through. Her character is incredibly well written, and the love for her family is intense.
Prue’s arc pairs with Alexandra’s: two female characters with deep family ties, doing what they must to protect them. Although Prue takes the more heroic route, battling through a forest of unknown foes with even more unknown allies, Alexandra chooses to use dark magic. She concocts ways to lie and lure Prue and her friend Curtis away from her hidden plans. The moments in Wildwood that focus on the Dowager Governess are among the most moving in the film. At one point, she has a sequence that resembles Dr. Frankenstein reanimating life, adding to the film’s already dark premise. Though the film could benefit from exploring the similarities between Prue and Alexandra a bit more, their connection goes much deeper than meets the eye. With their desires to keep their families together as a common thread between them, their motivations keep them connected to their humanity even during their darkest moments.
Brendan (Mahershala Ali) and Prue (Peyton Elizabeth Lee) in Wildwood © LAIKA
The film has one glaring issue that keeps it from being essentially perfect: the humor shifts from a chuckle here and there to me getting annoyed by a quip before it’s even finished. One early moment is when a character asks how Prue always has a snarky answer for everything, but quickly answers before Prue can respond and says, “Don’t answer that!” This type of humor plagues much of the film’s first 2 acts. Understandably, this film targets a younger audience that may enjoy this kind of humor, but paired with the dark story elements, it’s harder to get lost in.
Narratively, Wildwood is easy to follow, teetering on almost too easy. Knight is so busy establishing all these different factions within this forbidden frontier that only a few get proper exploration. One is the bandits led by Brendan (Mahershala Ali), the king of the bandits. An ally to Prue, he and his people get bits of screen time, usually in service of Prue’s mission to save her brother. Though they have a big training montage that echoes the spirit of Seven Samurai, there’s so much left on the table to discover about the many overshadowed side characters in Wildwood.
Prue (Peyton Elizabeth Lee) in Wildwood © LAIKA
Visually, Wildwood is the year’s most creatively crafted film. I found myself getting lost in each frame, examining the costumes, facial structures, and the models’ fur. Prue, her mother, and, to a certain extent, Alexandra all have visible eye bags, a detail that stood out each time they appeared on screen. An incredibly talented team at LAIKA has hand-made entire wooded wonderlands, dreary castles, and bloody battle sequences. From each slight movement to every perfectly decorated room and stray floating hair, no detail goes unnoticed. In a sea of AI clips flooding our timelines, and with big-name creatives backing AI for human work, Wildwood stands as a wonderful example of the art humans can make.
Knight is the perfect director for Wildwood, with a clear passion for stop motion and experience on previous LAIKA films. It cannot be easy to spend so much time developing a film at this scale, but Knight balances the film’s many challenges with ease. Even when Wildwood begins to feel like other films in their arsenal, Knight’s attention to detail sets this apart from the studio’s previous work. It helps that he’s also the studio’s CEO, but his ardent stance against AI shows he knows what moves people in a film: unflinching humanity.
With its narrative lapses and overuse of humor aside, Wildwood takes audiences on an enchanted roller coaster ride, perfect for the spooky season. With a strong story about adventure-seeking and the importance of family, it’s one of the year’s most endearing offerings for those seeking freedom.
