Review of Wildwood
Wildwood (2026) Dir. Travis Knight
In the latest stop motion animation film from Legendary studio Laika, an impassable wilderness lays at the edge of a town, filled with mythical stories and magical warnings. A teenage lapse of judgment leads to Prue adventuring into the woods to correct her mistakes.
In my opinion, the Laika animation studio achieved cult status a long time ago. Films like Coraline and ParaNorman are popular, but I would say they never entered the mainstream consciousness. Which has caused one of the most interesting animation studios in the industry to be underrepresented and underestimated. I hope their latest film Wildwood, allows more people to see how incredible this studio really is. Especially seeing as they just made a film that blows a lot of modern animated films out the water. Putting Pixar and illumination to shame.
Wildwood made me feel things at the cinema that I haven't experienced in a very long time. This film is nothing short of breath taking and utterly transcendent. The sheer ambitiousness of this film is something that should be shouted about. This is the longest stop motion animated film ever made, clocking in at 2 hours and 12 minutes. But let me tell you, with long films I often find myself checking the clock or wondering how much time I've got left. But in contrast, I never wanted this film to end. This movie truly makes you feel like you are adventuring into this magical fantasy woodland with the main protagonist. At times I felt myself on the edge with my heart beating through my chest, not only because of the amount of awesomeness I'm seeing, but because of the absolute artistry I'm being shown on screen.
As a dark fantasy film enthusiast, I can see how much love this film has for the genre. This film riffs on the best fantasy media around. There are bits of Lord of the rings, Narnia, even Spirited Away. But this film also carves out its own visual language and identity. Making a world that looks and feels unique.
You can tell that so much love and care was put into making this film. In particular, I loved the design of so many of these characters. From Owls, to Coyotes, to rats, all their little mannerisms and quirks made these characters feel so real and tactile. There are so many scenes in this film where I was continuously wondering, how on earth they managed to do it. I often forgot that this film was made by taking thousands upon thousands of pictures. For instance, there is an epic fantasy battle scene near the end of the film that was utterly jaw dropping and probably the best fantasy battle I've seen since Helms Deep. It must have taken many hours to pull of just a few seconds of it. No wonder this film took 5 years of active production to make.
But other than the animation itself, there is plenty of other elements to chew on. This film is written so well. It has a sense of brutality to it, it isn't afraid to pull its punches at all. Thankfully this film was age rated at a 12A, which works in this films favour. There are certain moments of this film that are really shocking. They have some creative choices in this film that studios like Pixar or even Sony animations wouldn't dare do because they are making "films for children". There is death, dark themes, and complex character work that absolutely makes this film more mature than the average children's film. This brutality makes the stakes of this film feel real, like the characters on screen actually have risk and danger that can actually affect them.
Furthermore, I love the way main character Prue is represented. She is the epitome of a great role model for young girls. She is brave, fearless, and has great moral lessons attached to it. But it does all of that without pandering to young kids or coming across as preachy. Prue simply lives in the moment and deals with the dangers of the world she's flung herself into. Peyton Elizabeth Lee gives a commanding voice to the character, filling her with a lot of emotion and determination.
This film is groundbreaking, and with rumours that this could be the first non-Disney film to be nominated for best picture at the Oscars, this film is the real deal. If you care about animation, or indeed care about cinema. Run don't walk to the nearest cinema and spread the word that this film is utterly superb. I loved every single second.
★★★★★
5/5
Jacob Holmes
