Laika Studios holds a fond spot in my heart. Specifically, both ParaNorman and Kubo and the Two Strings hit me at the exact right time I needed them, as I was impressed with both the artistic craft on display, and also the more emotional themes of those outings. Coraline might still be their defining movie, and while I can’t say all of their offerings have resonated with me, I always commend what their movies are trying to do. Their latest movie, Wildwood, feels like it should have hit me on a number of levels; the movie takes place in Portland (where I live) and was made just outside of Portland (where I live…did I mention that?). The movie is nothing short of staggering, as the artistry on display is baffling. The narrative, though, failed to leave much of an impact on me, as its fantastical premise is engaging, yet it failed to feel as inventive as their other efforts.
One afternoon, teenager Prue (Peyton Elizabeth Lee) takes her baby brother out into the city, only for him to get captured by a flock of birds and taken into the woods. Prue quickly pursues, along with classmate Curtis (Jacob Tremblay), and they find themselves in the Impassable Wilderness. They meet talking animals, witches, and all sorts of other magical elements on their quest to rescue the infant from Alexandra (Carey Mulligan).
Wildwood is based on the novel of the same name by author Colin Meloy and illustrator Carson Ellis. Meloy is known for his band The Decemberists, who are based in Portland. To say the movie oozes the spirit of the city would be an understatement. While I won’t regale you with how magical the city is, its geography in relation to seemingly untamed natural wonder, courtesy of nearby waterfalls, mountains, and forests, does make it feel like this is a story that could genuinely only take place here. Even though there are elements of the premise that will likely sound familiar, there’s something special about a story written, set within, and adapted for the screen all in the same place.
Speaking to the familiar elements of the premise, the narrative itself feels like a blend of Labyrinth, Zootopia, and The Lord of the Rings. If you like all of those movies, then you’re sure to like Wildwood! Having not read the source material, I can’t say for sure if the book feels quite as familiar to its predecessors, but in the translation of the adventure into the stop-motion experience, which condenses everything down, there are quite a few beats that feel redundant and derivative. However, in all honesty, hearing the premise isn’t what sold me on the movie; it was my confidence in Laika’s artistic ambition, and on that front, it did not disappoint.
Director Travis Knight and his team of what I assume is a few thousand animators have crafted a jaw-dropping fantastical epic. From one sequence to the next, it’s still hard to even wrap your head around the artistry and time-consuming nature of the film’s stop-motion animation, ranging from bikerides through Portland to taking flight on giant eagles to large-scale combat between humans and anthropomorphic coyotes, bears, and rabbits. It’s no surprise that this movie took five years to bring to life, and even that timeline feels rushed for what each scene pulled off. What’s most impressive is that, as you watch these sequences unfold, you’re not thinking, “This looks great for stop-motion animation,” you just think, “This looks great.” Even with Laika’s reputation, Wildwood‘s cinematic achievements are mind-boggling.
In addition to their legacy of delivering spectacular animations, Laika also has a reputation for pushing boundaries in the realm of “kid-friendly” narratives. Coraline and ParaNorman have disturbed plenty of young viewers, while still maintaining lighthearted elements. In the first five minutes of Wildwood, a young character strips naked, rips out their mechanical insides, and jumps to their death. Right off the bat, it was clear Wildwood wouldn’t hold back and fully earn its PG-13 rating. It’s not abrasive or grim just for the sake of it, as every scene of violence and every fatal injury feels fully earned. In fact, every time the movie feels like it’s veering into saccharine territory, it shocks with something intense and unpredictable, reminding you that this isn’t a Pixar movie.
The voice cast is tremendous; Lee feels like an authentically annoyed, frustrated, and confused teen in her subtle performance, Tremblay embraces the seemingly dorky character who is a lot more than his timid demeanor, and Mulligan manages to be intimidating and chilling while also demonstrating requisite vulnerability. Awkwafina, Angela Bassett, Jake Johnson, Charlie Day, Maya Erskine, and Tom Waits all also turn in nuanced performances. Bassett’s giant eagle, Awkwafina’s rat Septima, and Johnson’s father to Prue are responsible for the film’s most touching moments.
Even with the film’s emotionally effective scenes between characters, they’re more narratively driven than anything else. If you care about these characters, these moments will hit you, and the narrative itself successfully gets you to care about these characters. What prevents me from being fully enthralled by the movie is that my emotional investment begins and ends at the characters themselves. At one point, Prue expresses her frustrations about being thrown into this world by saying, “There’s magic and witches and talking animals,” highlighting how familiar the world of Wildwood is. Another character then alerts Prue, “You think you outgrew magic, but magic didn’t outgrow you.” This exchange is about the closest the movie gets to having any subtext or metaphors about what audiences of all ages could be taking away from the experience, but everything else is so literal that I stopped thinking about the movie as soon as it was over. Characters suffered traumas and earned victories, but it didn’t feel like it said as much regarding the human condition as previous Laika movies; or, if it does, those themes were too ambiguous.
Wildwood and Laika deserve heaps of praise for what they’ve pulled off; in a world where every studio and many filmmakers are trying to cut corners to save some money, the studio has spent a reported $100 million on a hand-crafted epic fantasy. Few things are as creatively bankrupt as AI (it’s literally telling a robot to come up with something people might want to look at), and as we keep hearing updates about creatives or studios trying to find effective ways to implement these resources, Laika went the complete opposite direction. Wildwood is undeniably one of the most artistically impressive films of the year, of any medium, I just wish its themes stuck with me after the credits rolled.
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