Cert – 12, Run-time – 2 hours 11 minutes, Director – Travis Knight
When her baby brother is taken by a murder of crows, Prue (Peyton Elizabeth Lee) ventures into the mystical Wildwood to find him, uncovering long-gestating secrets along the way.
Laika’s ambition has to be commended. After their last films failed to make their money back – including 2019’s underrated Missing Link tanking at the box office – they return with one of the longest, most expensive stop-motion animated films of all time. An adaptation 16-years in the works and with scale to show for it.
In both the recreated streets of Portland, Oregon, where the studio is based, and enchanted wilderness of Wildwood there’s a grandness in the look and feel of the animation. It’s smoother and more naturalistic than some of their previous features, but most importantly it’s alive. Like the early days of Aardman where a lot of the charm comes from the fact you can see the fingerprints, Wildwood creates wonder from the fact you can see it was made by hand, the tiniest details have been paid great attention to (if you get the chance to check out the Wildwood Exhibition at London’s Design Museum before it closes in January it’s well worth a wonderous trip).
We explore these worlds alongside teenager Prue (Peyton Elizabeth Lee), the studio’s bravest and most engaging hero yet; she’s a brilliant character. Venturing into the impassable wilderness when her baby brother, is taken there by a kidnapping murder of crows, a land of giant talking animals and magic opens up. However, there are secrets and dark forces at play, and they may link back to Carey Mulligan’s Dowager Governess.
Mulligan’s character has a real darkness to her, and the film as a whole holds a threat and violence – holding a justified 12 rating from the BBFC. It doesn’t talk down or try to tame itself, it tells its story as it wants to be told, truly embracing animation as a medium rather than, as some continue to mistake it, a genre exclusive for younger viewers.
The aforementioned scale is captured in these darker sequences where multiple puppets are clashing at once, engaging in cleanly-brought-together battle. A chase scene around halfway through has a tense rush all by itself, but becomes something astonishing when you start to wonder how on earth it was pulled off by the animation team.
From early on Wildwood shows itself as a true fantasy epic, both visually and narratively. Details in the dialogue and movement of the plot help to further expand the world beyond what we’re being shown, and hold us in place as Prue learns to tackle the ways of Wildwood and use the magic she once stopped believing in to the advantage of those around her.
Laika have truly placed themselves in her shoes. Brave and ambitious, engaging and full of wonder, she’s a strong protagonist to see this journey through the eyes of and a huge part of why the final product has the push and spectacle it does. Sweeping us into both the wilderness and wings of a giant eagle (voiced by Angela Bassett) each step (or individually animated swoop) of the way.
A fantasy epic full of spectacular detail, Laika’s animation is truly alive and witnessed through the eyes of their strongest lead character to date who forges ahead with equal ambition and wonder to the film.
