Travis Knight, CEO of Laika. Photo / Getty Images
In the age of artificial intelligence, Knight extols the virtues of stop-motion, an animation technique in which the movements of tiny physical objects are captured one frame at a time to create the effect of fluid motion when played back.
“It is a celebration of humanity because what you’re seeing in this film is human creativity, human artistry, human effort on a grand scale,” he said.
“Computers can try to emulate things that we’ve gone through, but a computer has never felt loss. It’s never felt joy. It hasn’t fallen in love. It hasn’t had its heart broken.”
‘Universal’
Wildwood is the story of Prue McKeel (Peyton Elizabeth Lee) and her quest to rescue her brother, who has been taken by the crows into the Impassable Wilderness – or the forests outside Portland, Oregon, which are hidden from mere mortals.
With her friend Curtis (Jacob Tremblay), Prue discovers a fantastic world, but one in which ambition and grief are fuelling discord that could erupt in conflict.
“It is a big sweeping fantasy story,” Knight said. “But it also is an exploration of mature themes and profound emotional things that everyone goes through at various times in their lives.”
Prue McKeel heads into the forest in Laika’s new stop-motion movie, Wildwood. Photo / IMDb
Lee told AFP that Prue’s journey resonated for her, and recalled some of her own challenges in adolescence.
“I didn’t go into a magical forest,” Lee joked, but said she did understand “that idea of being a young person that feels so mature and so grown up, and feels like they have a really firm grasp on the world and reality, and then it’s sort of all put into question.
“And all of a sudden, you have to rethink everything,” she added.
Tremblay also said he could identify with Curtis, who tries to emulate the courage he sees in his favourite comic book and game characters.
The actors whose voices are featured in the film also helped shape how their characters move. Their gestures were filmed as they recorded their lines, so that animators could incorporate those mannerisms into the movie.
Angela Bassett, Carey Mulligan, Mahershala Ali and Awkwafina are all part of the cast.
For its technical team, Wildwood marks a milestone in terms of the expressions created, and the menagerie of animals featured.
“Every film we’ve done has been R and D [research and development] for the next one,” said animation supervisor Brad Schiff, who explained that the subtleties in facial movement achieved were impossible just a few years ago.
The film, inspired by Colin Meloy’s book of the same name, is an ode to Portland, where Laika is based.
“It is a very specific place,” said Knight, who lives in the Pacific Northwest city.
“The more specific, the more intimate you make something, ultimately the more universal it becomes.”
– AFP