Pixar, Disney & Illumination’s films all have a look that’s makes their output distinctly theirs. Added to that list of animation studios is Laika who are far less prolific but their stop motion films have given us a number of memorable features most notably ‘Coraline’. Their latest us Wildwood a child centred adventure set in Portland, Oregon where the Laika studios are also based. Adapted from the novel by Carson Ellis & Colin Meloy its also set in that city specifically the hipster area where coffee shops are called Dripster and everyone knits their own muesli. And on the edge of the city is a huge forest, the Wildwood of the title, that’s tagged the impassable wilderness by the locals.
In the town is where 12 year old Prue (Peyton Elizabeth Lee) lives with her hippy parents and baby brother Mac who she is charged with looking after and in his pushchair she pushes him around hipsterville with the geeky Curtis (Jacob Tremblay) in tow. Riffing on a scene from ‘The Birds’, Mac is whisked away by a murder of crows into the Impassable Wildreness pursued by a desperate Prue with a besotted Curtis tagging along.
Deep in the Wildwood….
The Wildwood is populated by talking animals and a world of humans that includes bureaucrats and forest dwellers and overseen by the dowager governess (Carey Mulligan) whose judgement is blinded by grief and loss and consequently rules the forest with fear enforced by her army of coyotes and ivy that chokes the life and joy out of everything it touches like a horticultural version of Meghan Markle
The world building here is endearingly old fashioned and the story plays like Narnia meets Lord of the Rings with a sprinkling of Terry Gilliam’s Time Bandits. Beautifully crafted by director Travis Knight and his team of animators with an unsettling opening scene and for parents an equally unsettling climax along with a brilliantly realized battle sequence there’s an immense amount to like about the film even if it is overlong at 132 minutes.
related feature : Stop Motion genius Phil Tippett and how George Lucas hired him for Star Wars & that chess set scene
related feature : The Top 25 highest grossing animated films ever….
Here’s the trailer…..
