A mysterious forest, a kidnapped child and an evil sorceress. They’re all the ingredients of the kind of classic fantasy epic that has been the staple of children’s stories for years. There is Labyrinth, The Neverending Story, The Last Unicorn- you can name them all.
But what else can be done from this formula? How is it possible for us to make it novel in a landscape crowded with high-concept, high-speed animated movies? LAIKA, the stop-motion animation studio behind such acclaimed films as Coraline and Kubo and The Two Strings seems to be creating its own waves.
And their latest film from Kubo director Travis Knight, the breathtaking new fantasy epic Wildwood, is a triumphant tidal wave for the medium. A teenage girl (Prue McKeel) enters a mysterious kingdom in search of her kidnapped brother (Mac) in Travis Knight’s animated fantasy film, voiced by an all-star cast including Carey Mulligan and Mahershala Ali.
Inside the forest, they come across strange, fantastical things. They have to deal with talking coyotes dressed like 19th-century soldiers, warrior bandits, giant talking birds, and magical ivy with sinister properties.
But this is not all. There is Alexandra (a delightfully menacing Carey Mulligan), the Dowager Governess and a dark sorceress whose grief over her dead son has led to plunge the entirety of Wildwood into war.
There is plenty of humor in the film, stemming from their colorful characters and situations. At one point Prue finds herself meeting with Owl Rex (a delightful Richard E. Grant), a leader in the Avian Principality, in her efforts to find her brother. She tells him that she doesn’t believe in magic.
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You can say that the animation is a densely packed epic. You can agree once you watch it that it rivals some of the greatest fantasy franchises of our time. Actually, it fells somewhat miraculous that so much story is packed into a film that moves as briskly s Wildwood does.
We can never forget to give credit to Chris Butler (screenwriter). After all, he brilliantly condenses Meloy’s dense tome into a sleek adventure that never feels too weighed down by its love. And you can never ignore the deft employment of a handful of flashbacks and breezy exposition dumps.
Wildwood is the longest stop-motion animated film ever that lasts about 131 minutes long. What you find more interesting is that none of those minutes ever drags. Maybe it’s because Knight brings over some of the blockbuster spectacle he picked up from Masters of the Universe and Bumblebee. Of course, he did supercharge it in the way that only animation can achieve.
I can honestly say that Wildwood is a stunning feat of animation. And even way more because it could only have been animated in stop-motion. It is a classic fantasy story that is tied to its use of the oldest animated medium.
The animation strikes the perfect balance between classic and novel, traditional and innovative. Wildwood may be indebted to so many great films and epics before it, but there’s truly nothing like it.
