by Cain Noble-Davies
Worth: $18.00
FilmInk rates movies out of $20 — the score indicates the amount we believe a ticket to the movie to be worth
Cast:
Peyton Elizabeth Lee, Jacob Tremblay, Carey Mulligan, Awkwafina, Mahershala Ali, Angela Bassett, Jake Johnson, Charlie Day, Tom Waits, Jemaine Clement
Intro:
… impressive and ambitious …
From the uncanny creep of Coraline, to the zombified empathy of ParaNorman, to the cracked-out steampunk of The Boxtrolls, to the storytelling masterstroke of Kubo and the Two Strings, to the Yeti Western of Missing Link, animation studio Laika has always had a tight grip on the artistic nuances of stop-motion, at a consistency that no other animation studio still operating today, regardless of texture, has been able to keep up with. If Laika made it, chances are it will look amazing.
So, when we say that Wildwood is their best-looking feature to date, it is not to be taken lightly.
Right from its haunting cold open, the animation is some of the smoothest that has ever been seen in a stop-motion film. While there is CGI and other visual effects used to touch-up what’s on-screen, the vast majority is beautifully tangible. Everything from the walking animations to the set design to the facial expressions, shows Laika somehow finding ways to further improve on their already-fantastic aesthetic, making both humdrum Portland, Oregon and the Impassable Wilderness beyond as vibrant and lived-in as each other. The foliage is so detailed and luscious that you can almost smell it from across the screen.
This level of technical polish becomes even more impressive when taking in the sheer scale that this narrative is working on. Built like a hybrid of Narnia-style Western Isekai and the high fantasy of Tolkien, what begins with Prue (Peyton Elizabeth Lee) and Curtis (Jacob Tremblay) crossing the fog barrier to rescue Prue’s baby brother gradually unfolds into a grand war involving witches, redcoat coyotes, and woodland bandits, with the fate of the entire realm at stake. It’s reminiscent of Princess Mononoke in its examination of the natural order while conveying action scenes beyond just the thrill of the fight itself. With the intersection of anthropomorphic animals and children on a bloody and scorched battlefield, the rush of combat is fleeting compared to the heart-in-the-throat realisation of the battle.
On that point, something else that is made clear immediately is that this is easily Laika’s darkest film. Coraline and ParaNorman may have more straight horror cred, but the chills proffered here touch on something even heavier than Coraline‘s Beldam’s worst schemes. While the voice cast are all magnificent and meld sublimely into their roles (with the exception of Awkwafina as a talking rat, who only ever sounds like Awkwafina), Carey Mulligan as the Dowager Governess stands out. Mirroring Prue’s own efforts to reconnect with lost family, Mulligan’s performance of a woman lost in the depths of grief and despair, heartbreakingly aware of how far she’s fallen, and yet still marching towards atrocity because the former hurts worse than the latter, is genuinely horrifying. The anguish of her character helps anchor the sometimes-mishmashed worldbuilding, squeezing once-removed British imperialism together with pastoral mysticism and Kafkaesque farce, making Prue and Curtis’s valiant determination to restore the balance as rousing as it is tragic.
Wildwood is a testament to the stop motion animation medium in terms of scale, scope, emotional resonance, and ability to utterly absorb the audience into its world. Its depiction of the feeling world at risk from unnatural machinations (right down to a depressingly hilarious sight gag with a market stall sign reading “Get your handmade art while it still exists”) transcends being just engaging art and becomes vital.
