WILDWOOD (2026)

Wildwood makes its mark as a technically brilliant display of stop-motion animation yet lacks the charm and emotional stakes to make it a memorable one.

Stop-motion animation is a labour-intensive process that is only for the passionate at heart. Filmmaker and Laika Studios CEO Travis Knight (Masters of the Universe) exemplifies that passion with his latest stop-motion film Wildwood a 16-year journey from page to screen that features the most stunning visuals displayed yet in a stop-motion film, not to mention the longest with a 130-minute runtime. Yet for all the technical brilliance Wildwood has in spades, there is an alarming lack of feeling in this stop-motion machine.

It’s not for a lack of trying. Based on the 2011 novel of the same name, Wildwood tells the story of young teen Pru McKeel (Peyton Elizabth Lee) who lives in the ultra-liberal confines of Portland, Oregon. After she is warned by her progressive parents (Jake Johnson and Maya Erskine) not to allow her 5-year-old brother Mac out of the house, the rebellious teen does so anyway, only to watch a murder-of-crows whisk poor Mac away into the “Impassable Forest”. When Pru gives chase she finds herself in a land of magic, divided tribes, and a grief-stricken witch named Alexandra (Carey Mulligan) who has Mac in her clutches.

Much in the way of adventure and coming-of-age chronicles follows, yet Wildwood is so enamoured in its own spectacle that the stakes at play are paper-thin in depth. From its setting to its characters, Knight presents a post-modern fairytale with a strong humanist bent that replaces any feeling of magic or spirit, even though these Wildwood open species of these things.

The characters of Wildwood are particularly vacant. Pru has an unlikeable teenage streak in her that is hard to ignore, with her rescue of younger sibling failing to deliver any sort of redemptive quality or heroes’ journey that the character needed yet was (presumably) too traditional a story convention to be allowed.

The perpetually sour Alexandra is yet another example of the annoying modern trait to provide villainous characters with a sympathetic backstory (because even a child murderer has a heart). Then there are the parents of Pru and Mac; a pitiful representation of parental figures whose inaction over the abduction of their child is as egregious as their selfish decision to allow their children to be burdened by evil.

The most likeable and interesting character in Wildwood is Curtis (Jacob Tremblay), the nerdy hanger-on who showcases true bravery and ingenuity throughout the film yet is cast aside as a supporting character.

There are a lot of themes is Wildwood. A lot of messages about the burden’s adults place on children and how the divided must come together to fight a fearsome, powerful foe. Yet there is no heart, no personality to this wonderfully looking stop-motion extravaganza. That spirit needed to make Wildwood truly work is lost somewhere in the wild.