Avid Quest readers may have happened upon my article from last week detailing my anticipation for Laika Studio’s newest film Wildwood (if they didn’t jet out of town too quickly before fall break). I’ll cut to the chase and say that, ultimately, Wildwood was everything I had hoped it would be. No movie is perfect, and certainly this film was far from flawless, but as someone who was quite worried about the potential for a major flop, my fears were proven unfounded.
Wildwood follows young Portlander Prue and her vexatious classmate Curtis after a murder of crows steal her baby brother Mac and spirit him away to the ‘Impassable Wilderness.’ Venturing into the Impassable Wilderness (modeled after Portland’s Forest Park), they stumble upon a magical and dangerous world full of talking animals, bandits, hippies, conniving dictators, and more.
First, the good: the animation is, as many critics laud, a technical triumph. Laika Studios is unparalleled in their stop-motion capacity. The meticulously hand-crafted sets and characters are primarily what make Laika films feel unique, and Wildwood is no exception. Upstaging even their previous work, the film climaxes in a spectacular battle sequence with a staggering number of characters consistently in motion. It boggles the mind to think that for each second of film you see, hundreds of characters had their stances perfectly positioned and re-positioned 24 times. The varied textures and scenery provide a lush backdrop populated by a healthy case of characters. The character design is pleasantly—although perhaps not exceptionally—creative. I think they could have leaned harder into a Rango-esque grotesque asymmetry, but perhaps this is a personal preference.
In Wildwood, I see elements of Rango, Coraline, and perhaps even A Series of Unfortunate Events, as it is a film marketed to children, yet one that makes parents question whether their kids might be just a little too young to be watching. Beyond foul language, they really didn’t shy away from violence: people die via suicide, firing squad, beheading, coyote mauling, crows, tactical aerial bombardment, and more. The film leans into the dirtiness of war compared to the serene scenery the forest offers, and certainly tries its best to ask deep questions about pacifism and whether violence is a necessary evil, although perhaps the execution is not ideal. On the more subtle side, I appreciate how the film reflects the book’s choice to have Prue’s parents as more than characters sidelined as soon as the inciting incident happens. Frankly, this line-pushing is my favorite part of the film. The books (particularly two and three) revel in wrapping complex issues in children’s book clothing, and I think the film does its best to live up to its legacy. If Wildwood 2 comes out in another 15 years, look forward to discussions on post-revolution reactionary fascism, religious zealotry, and French anarchist industrial sabotage.
On a more lighthearted note, the film’s pretty funny, too. It has a good bit of solid physical comedy from the anthropomorphic animals, and is full of chuckle-inducing quips. Within the first five minutes there’s a constant barrage of Portland references (shoutout flaming bagpipes unicycle Darth Vader) to the extent that I wonder whether Travel Oregon slipped Laika some money under the table. In my opinion the most unrealistic part of this magic-filled film is how Prue managed to bike from NW Portland to downtown, visit every single tourist destination, and be back in time for tea without breaking a sweat. In the book, the Impassable Wilderness itself maintains a small and tidy footprint, encroached by human development on all sides. However, in this version, it’s expanded to stretch to Mt. Hood, the Columbia Gorge, and even the coast, again adding to my Travel Oregon sugar daddy theory.
The casting and soundtrack were both perfectly nice, although nothing stood out to me as particularly fantastic. Awkwafina had a nice number, and the folksy banjo had me smiling, but I do wish the Decemberists featured more heavily, seeing as Colin Meloy is at the center of both projects. I’ve always imagined that much of the Decemberists’ music would be an excellent vibe match to Wildwood because of their common origin.
The writing of the film is, as many critiques point out, probably Wildwood’s weakest selling point. In some places, it could have been tighter, in others, more elaborated, and perhaps the moral conclusions of the film were a little too meta for its own good. Even though it was a two hour film, the pacing felt a little fast in my opinion as a result of having so much to cram in from the book. Even though there are many scenes meant to get the audience to appreciate the scenery, I still wish it would have taken some more time to revel in the whimsical environment. There were many small changes from the book to the movie, but honestly I think I agree with the choices that they made in the adaptation. Considering that many adaptations practically throw out their entire source material, I was quite happy with how closely the film stuck to the plot, emotional core, and environmental dressing of the original story.
Most people I’ve spoken with still rank Coraline or Kubo as better entries in Laika’s roster, but I still recommend going to see it in theaters (particularly if you read the book as a kid). Who knows, maybe this will be the first film that Laika actually makes a profit on.