Every now and again, a film comes along that feels truly special – and more often that not, it’s when you’re least expecting it. Travis Knight’s Wildwood was one such example for me, vaguely heard of, booked at the festival without much of a second thought beside thinking the trailer looked mildly entertaining. How wrong I was. There is much joy in discovering the work that went on behind Wildwood in hindsight: a feat fifteen years in the making, Laika’s longest stop-motion feature, crafted by hundreds of talented people’s bare hands in age where everything is – at the risk of sounding redundant – increasingly fake and “generated”. It is, truly and wondrously, a spectacle to behold, and one that will no doubt bewitch generations to come.
Technical expertise aside, Wildwood’s beating heart is in its gloriously entertaining story, based upon Colin Meloy and Carson Ellis’ 2011 novel about a young girl who travels into an enchanted forest after her baby brother is abducted by a murder of crows. The latest addition to a line of Laika protagonists including the likes of ParaNorman and Coraline, Prue McKeel (voiced by Peyton Elizabeth Lee) fits in wondrously – tenacious, self-assured, adventurous. There isn’t a moment’s hesitation when baby Mac is flown into the forest Prue’s father (Jake Johnson) has warned her against, and despite shy schoolmate Curtis’ (Jacob Tremblay) pleas to stay out of it. There, Prue comes across an entire civilisation just a stone’s throw away from her hometown of Portland, Oregon, one that includes humans and animals co-habiting as equals, witches, and a dowager governess (Carey Mulligan) consumed by grief. As the Harry Potter series did so well in the late 1990s and early 2000s, Wildwood mixes and matches several elements of fantastical classics – The Chronicles of Narnia and Game of Thrones amongst them – while retaining a distinct voice of its own. At over two hours’ runtime, there isn’t a second wasted or a moment where the mind wanders – its story is as masterfully crafted as its visuals, pulling at the heartstrings in the most despicable of ways, then warming them just as they come close to being overwrought. Dario Marianelli’s soundtrack is a superb accompaniment, tender when it needs to be, brutal and choir-like in times of high tension – on this matter, Wildwood is also surprisingly graphic, the first Laika film to receive a PG-13 rating, yet this never feels overdone or gratuitous. This is a coming-of-age story for Prue and friends after all, and one can never come of age without a little hardship. Paired to this is the natural, sometimes adult humour that emanates from certain situations, the ability to appeal to both generations by allowing a select few jokes to fly over children’s heads, a trick that hasn’t truly been done properly since Shrek. There are hearty laughs, and even heartier tears. True to the love, sweat and blood one can only imagine was poured into this magnum opus, this is cinema that celebrates creativity and unity, that feels exactly what a film should feel like – forgetting about the outside world and immersing one’s self into an enchanted forest. Wildwood is magic cinema, and magic that deserves to be watched on the big screen.
Wildwood screened at the London Film Festival and will be released in UK cinemas on 23 October 2026.
