{"id":639595,"date":"2026-10-24T02:22:21","date_gmt":"2026-10-24T02:22:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/639595\/"},"modified":"2026-10-24T02:22:21","modified_gmt":"2026-10-24T02:22:21","slug":"wildwood-review-a-stunning-new-chapter-for-laika-animation","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/639595\/","title":{"rendered":"Wildwood Review: A Stunning New Chapter for Laika Animation"},"content":{"rendered":"

I remember when I first saw Laika Studios<\/a>\u2019 debut film, Coraline. Sure, I thought it looked cool, but I wasn\u2019t sure I\u2019d see it in theatres because my parents brainwashed me into believing, at the time, that animation was just for kids. It wasn\u2019t until one of my close friends (also named Matt) said he \u201creally underestimated how creepy\u201d the film was that I finally dragged myself to a theatre.<\/p>\n

And, of course, my friend was right. It\u2019s an incredibly creepy film in the best of ways, hauntingly memorable and memorably haunting. And, of course, my parents and I were wrong. That film, and animation in general, is not just for kids. <\/p>\n

Fast forward 17 years, and Laika has finally completed their sixth animated feature, Wildwood. According to director Travis Knight (Masters of the Universe<\/a>), the film took 16 of those years and hundreds of puppets to make. For the artisanship and novelty of stop-motion animation alone, a technique which has been largely abandoned by most other animators except Aardman, any movie by Laika is worthy of seeing in a theatre.<\/p>\n

\"\"Prue voiced by Peyton Elizabeth Lee and Mac voiced by Arthur Knight in Wildwood. (Photo courtesy of Laika Studios)<\/p>\n

So, yeah, Wildwood is a 5-star movie. 10\/10. No notes. <\/p>\n

Why are you still reading this instead of going to the theatre?<\/p>\n

Go on, get!<\/p>\n

Still here?<\/p>\n

Okay, fine. I\u2019ll tell you my thoughts. But you have to promise you\u2019ll see the movie when you\u2019re done reading this. Pinky swear. Scout\u2019s honour. Cross your heart.<\/p>\n

Prue (Peyton Elizabeth Lee) lives in Portland, Oregon, with her parents (Maya Erskine and Jake Johnson) and brother Mac (voiced by Travis Knight\u2019s then-one-year-old son Arthur, whom the director chased around with his iPhone to record). While playing at a park one day, Mac is kidnapped by a murder of crows, forcing Prue and a local boy, Curtis (Jacob Tremblay), to enter the Impassible Woods to get him back. Prue and Curtis discover a hidden world of warring factions, talking animals and dangerous magic.<\/p>\n

\"\"Prue voiced by Peyton Elizabeth Lee and Curtis voiced by Jacob Tremblay in Wildwood. (Photo courtesy of Laika Studios)<\/p>\n

I reiterate, Wildwood is not a kids\u2019 movie. It\u2019s a movie that happens to be animated. It has elements of stories traditionally aimed at children, such as \u201cRumpelstiltskin\u201d and The Lion, The Witch, and the Wardrobe. However, it delivers its own even darker twist to those stories. Whether kids might like to tag along with the adults in their lives when buying movie tickets, and whether they might also definitely enjoy the film, is a separate matter entirely.<\/p>\n

Knight wastes no time in establishing Wildwood\u2019s tone. It is dark. It is scary. It is brutal. It is painful. It is haunting. It pulls no punches and forces you to confront its mature concepts and complex emotions. It is a world and story built on war and death and suicide and grief. It\u2019s so easy to be lulled into complacency by the gorgeous sets and puppets and the compelling story that the message, meaning and emotion of it all gets lost. But Knight refuses to commit one of animation\u2019s cardinal sins: talking down to his audience. You can feel the respect Knight holds for the story, his artisans and his audience. Death and violence are front and center, neither glorious nor exaggerated, but also not diminished. Everyone loses a little bit of themselves in the quest for what they want, be it peace or the return of a loved one.<\/p>\n

Perhaps the one bit of respite is the breakneck pace at which the story progresses. There is so much ground to cover and not a lot of time to do it, so the film pushes as fast as it can to introduce its lore and myriad of characters without diluting itself. As a result, Knight allows just enough time for the audience to be exposed to the heavier topics and contemplate them without lingering in dread and despair.<\/p>\n

\"\"Alexandra voiced by Carey Mulligan in Wildwood. (Photo courtesy of Laika Studios)<\/p>\n

It\u2019s not all doom and gloom, though it\u2019s not exactly sunshine and rainbows either. There is still plenty of joy, wonder and whimsy in the world of Wildwood. So much beauty exists in a world full of horror. I felt a rush of excitement seeing the vast, pristine forests and rustic settlements, laughed whenever characters made jokes or the talking animals did something silly, and was thrilled by the chase scenes. Amid all the heaviness, the film takes time to remind us that there is always a reason to hope and always a better tomorrow on the horizon. It\u2019s also just plain fun to escape into a quaint world where magic spells and talking animals exist alongside cars and automatons.<\/p>\n

The writing and acting of the film\u2019s three main characters is exceptionally powerful.<\/p>\n

Carey Mulligan plays the film\u2019s primary villain, the Dowager Governess Alexandra. She\u2019s a tragic and complex character, driven to madness and desperation by grief at the death of her child. We can recognize that her loss is unimaginable and her pain understandable, though her response is inexcusable. Alexandra\u2019s broken mental health is tactfully explored on screen, unambiguously showing that she is not in her right mind but never demonizing her for it. Mulligan\u2019s voice acting displays an incredible range and nuance. She\u2019s tender when she\u2019s trying to persuade Prue or Curtis, soothing Mac or hallucinating a conversation with her son. She\u2019s bitter, hard and bloodthirsty when she\u2019s leading her army of coyotes. Alexandra is a powerful character and Mulligan aces it.<\/p>\n

\"\"Mac voiced by Arthur Knight in Wildwood. (Photo courtesy of Laika Studios)<\/p>\n

Though I was prepared to be annoyed by the character, Curtis quickly became my favourite. This timid, nebbish and nerdy young boy undergoes the most impactful, satisfying and tragic character arc I\u2019ve seen in a long time. Curtis clearly wants to be liked and respected, especially by Prue. He\u2019s a boy who\u2019s grown up playing hero in games and in his head, and when it comes time to take action, he displays courage without hesitation. In a scene that stuck with me long after the credits rolled, he also discovers the sacrifice and heartbreaking loss of innocence that comes with heroism. (In both screenings I attended, there were smatterings of misguided cheers and applause during the scene I\u2019m referring to, despite Knight saying that this scene is meant to be horrifying rather than triumphant.) Tremblay deftly conveys Curtis\u2019 emotional journey through his acting. Curtis starts weak and squeaky, and though he\u2019s still squeaky throughout the film (he\u2019s a child, after all), he develops strength and toughness by the middle of the story, and a hollowness that only deep emotional scarring, like the horrors of war, can bring by the end.<\/p>\n

Wildwood is Prue\u2019s story, though. Her emotional journey is the inverse of Curtis\u2019s. While his time in the woods among soldiers and bandits toughens him up, Prue\u2019s fight to get her brother back and encounters with magic soften her. Curtis witnesses much of the suffering and darkness that plagues the land while Prue is forced to accept its wonder and majesty. That\u2019s not to say she doesn\u2019t witness her fair share of death and hardship. She begins the story as an adolescent young girl trying to be tough for her brother and distancing herself from childish things like magic, only to realize that being a grownup doesn\u2019t mean you have all the right answers. She learns it\u2019s okay to ask for help and to show vulnerability. Alexandrea\u2019s refusal to let go of a lost loved one may have sent her down a villainous path, but Prue\u2019s reason for clinging to love is pure and heroic. Her adventure forced her to grow up, but not in the way she wanted. Her character arc and plot line are more direct than Curtis\u2019, but her emotional growth is more subtle. Lee handles both sides of Prue excellently: the bratty, dismissive teen she starts as and the wiser, more mature young adult she becomes. From the desperation she feels when Mac is kidnapped to the pure gratitude she shows Curtis at the end, Lee provides a wonderful and believable performance.<\/p>\n

Speaking of Mac, Arthur Knight\u2019s babbles were fantastic\u2014the most believable member of the cast.<\/p>\n

Along for the ride were a list of A-listers like Erskine, Johnson, Mahershala Ali, Awkwafina and Charlie Day, to name a few. Ali, Tom Waits and Tantoo Cardinal were particular standouts of the supporting cast as Brendan the Bandit King, Maksim the coyote commander and Iphigenia the mystic, respectively. I enjoyed how the writing and voice acting for members of different factions clearly distinguished the cultures of each group and helped create a believable sense of authenticity. Brendan had a brusque but comforting charm. Maksim was unrepentantly bloodthirsty. Iphigenia spoke with a slow and certain wisdom. If I have one complaint, it\u2019s that for all the talk building up the meeting with the mystics and their sacred tree, they really felt powerless and relatively pointless. Iphegenia is the only mystic with any speaking lines, and aside from a few pep talks, I didn\u2019t feel like her character had much impact on the plot. This could be a difference between Colin Meloy\u2019s original book and this screen adaptation, but I would have liked to see the mystics do something other than pray at a tree and convince a bunch of farmers to go off to war.<\/p>\n

\"\"Brendan voiced by Mahershala Ali and Prue voiced by Peyton Elizabeth Lee in Wildwood. (Photo courtesy of Laika Studios)<\/p>\n

But of course the real draw and the most impressive aspect of Wildwood is its masterful stop-motion animation. Utilizing several hundred puppets combined with computer animation (but thankfully no AI<\/a>), Wildwood is the most ambitious project Laika has ever undertaken. It\u2019s clear why it took the studio over a decade and a half to create the film, and the investment is absolutely worth it. Whether it\u2019s the exquisite amount of detail in the puppets and sets, the stunningly mobile camerawork by cinematographer Caleb Deschanel, the thrilling score by Dario Marianelli, or the impeccably intricate work by the sound design team, watching Wildwood is to see art come alive.<\/p>\n

The puppetry in Wildwood is so seamlessly smooth, and the movements are so natural and crisp, it\u2019s almost impossible to believe it was done painstakingly by hand, with individual pictures taken after incrementally small movements. The large sweeping shots of armies and the intense climactic battle are obviously impressive, but it\u2019s also the smaller, more innocuous movements that help sell the world. Characters adjusting their clothing, walking up the stairs in the background of a shot, or subtly shifting their facial expressions breathe life into every second. The character design is also so whimsically wonderful. You\u2019ve got animals in coats but no pants, coyotes with bayonetted rifles and a gang of tough-looking bandits. Everywhere you look, there is something for the eye to appreciate. Even if you don\u2019t appreciate nuanced explorations of grief or cautionary tales of war, see this movie for the exquisite puppetry. Do it for the puppets!<\/p>\n

Much like the magical ivy that threatens the residents of the woods, AI is creeping its way through the entertainment industry, strangling everything it touches. Wildwood is proof yet again that as visually impressive as some people might think the emerging technology is, it could never do what Laika does. Sure, some self-indulgent tech bro could vibe code his way to replicating<\/a> Laika\u2019s visual style with AI, but it could never capture the heart of what the studio is doing.<\/p>\n

\"\"Prue voiced by Peyton Elizabeth Lee and the General voiced by Angela Bassett in Wildwood. (Photo courtesy of Laika Studios)<\/p>\n

As Travis Knight recently said, \u201cart leaves fingerprints<\/a>.\u201d AI will never leave fingerprints; it\u2019s cold and dispassionate. The fingerprints are the point. With Wildwood, Knight and the artists at Laika have painstakingly handcrafted a deeply emotional and sophisticated tale that challenges its audience to look beyond its world-class animation and contend with deeper themes than are typically explored in an animated medium.<\/p>\n

President John F. Kennedy once said, \u201cWe choose to go to the Moon in this decade and do the other things, not because they are easy, but because they are hard.\u201d The Laika brand continues to stand for quality, refusing to take shortcuts. They choose to craft their films the hard way because that is what the art demands. In a world of Groks and Claudes, be a Laika.<\/p>\n

Now, go buy a ticket to the movie, damnit!<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Wildwood is taking root in theatres now!<\/p>\n