Laika Studios has set the bar for what can be achieved in stop-motion animation. Films like 2009’s Coraline and 2016’s Kubo and the Two Strings, to name a few, transported audiences into visually stunning worlds without ever relinquishing the engaging, and at times dark, narrative beats. Travis Knight’s, who also directed Kubo, latest film Wildwood continues this trend while simultaneously reminding audiences that heroism often comes through sacrifice.
In Wildwood the cost of bravery is the loss of the one thing that can never be replaced, a young person’s innocence. Adapting the Colin Meloy novel of the same name, which was illustrated by Carson Ellis, Knight’s film is a fantasy adventure that primarily takes place within a mystical land know as the Impassable Woods. A realm that feels fantastical and foreign while carrying the familiar divineness of our current times.
The epic tale is set in motion when Portland teenager Prue McKeel (Peyton Elizabeth Lee), disobeys her parent’s instructions by taking her baby brother Mac (Arthur Knight) outside. While touring around their city, a murder of crows abducts Mac and take him into the Impassible Woods, a place where no average human has been able to breach. Unaware that magic is in her blood, Prue and her annoying classmate Curtis (Jacob Tremblay) find themselves inside this strange society were humans and talking animals coexist.
Despite their young age, it does not take Prue and Curtis long to realize that the region is a deeply divided. A ruthless governess, Alexandra (Carey Mulligan), is at war with bandits, led by King Brendan (Mahershala Ali), over their ancestral home. Grieving the loss of her son, Alexandra plans to use the bandit’s magical land to both control all of the Impassible Woods and bring back that which she longs for the most.
Using the sense of loss, both via abduction and death, as the catalyst for the drama, Wildwood constructs a surprisingly adult epic that becomes more engaging as each page of its story unfolds. Playing closer to The Chronicles of Narnia, but with the battle scenes of The Lord of the Rings injected into its veins, Knight’s film exist in a vibrant world where politics, grief, and the quest for power are a dangerous mix.
Filled with plenty of “how did they film that?” visual sequences, it is ultimately the story and not the breathtaking animation that sticks with the viewer. One feels the emotional unease and confusion that comes with Prue and Curtis discovering that their once wholesome view of the world is rapidly dissipating.
The loss of innocence is especially captivating in Curtis’ arc as his moral stance regarding hurting others is tested multiple times, including one key sequence where he has no choice but to make a decision that will change him forever. Unlike her friend, who is changed primarily by those he encounters in the woods, Prue’s journey towards self-discovery comes with the realization that one’s parents are complex individuals who have plenty of secrets and desires that can unintentional impact the path life takes you down.
As the brick of reality shatters the teens perfect picture of the world, Wildwood manages to fill its colourful frames with hope and resilience. The film may highlight how grief can put a person in a destructive and isolating dark place, however, it also reminds viewers that one always has the choice to step back in the light. Sometimes one needs to put their own selfish desires aside so that the greater good can build a bridge, one that benefits all, over what divide us.
A thrilling epic that reaches the creative and darkly rich emotional heights Laika is known for, Wildwood ranks amongst the year’s best works.
