The woods are lovely, dark, and deep,
An obstacle of ageless sleep
To those with promises to keep
And fragile lives so brief.

The woods are life and death in turn
From ivy vine to fir and fern.
To sky they grow, to ash they burn,
And seeds are free of grief.

What business have you in the wood
Where trees care not for bad and good?
They’ve seen far more than humans could,
And they shall watch you too.

Good luck whatever road you take,
Whatever bones or hearts shall break,
Whatever sleeping dogs you wake…
You can’t escape their view.
______________________

MPA rating:  PG-13 (for violence and a suicide)

Well, so much for my plans to review some scary movies ahead of Halloween. I’ve still had some issues with writing motivation, so in lieu of National Novel Writing Month, I’ll try to post a review per day in November. No promises, of course, but I’m hoping this will get my creative juices flowing again. And I’m kicking things off with a new release that was one of my most anticipated films of the year.

The trailers alone for Wildwood have given me chills, so I was eagerly awaiting the newest film from stop-motion studio Laika. I have rarely fully connected with Laika’s previous films like Coraline and Missing Link, though I do love Kubo and the Two Strings. Often stop-motion films are technically impressive, but the stories somehow don’t resonate with me, as if they weren’t worth the amount of effort put into them. Yet I could tell Wildwood had a lot of potential, to the point that I read the 2011 novel on which it’s based, written by Colin Meloy of the band The Decemberists, which only heightened my expectations. And after seeing it twice now in the theaters, I am so glad that Wildwood is the masterpiece I wanted it to be.

Set in Meloy’s hometown of Portland, Oregon, the story follows tweens Prue (Peyton Elizabeth Lee) and Curtis (Jacob Tremblay) as they enter a magical world in the nearby woods after Prue’s baby brother Mac is kidnapped by a murder of crows. The two are soon caught in the middle as tensions rise between neighboring nations of the wood, and the deposed Dowager Governess Alexandra (Carey Mulligan) has raised an army and plots destruction on all who stand in her way.

For starters, the animation is absolutely wondrous, a technical achievement that has been universally praised by critics and audiences alike. I consider it the apotheosis of stop-motion animation. The sheer number of locations, characters, costumes, and set pieces that were fashioned by hand are staggering, and stop-motion’s sometimes jerky look that lends itself to the creepy or grotesque is remarkably smooth here, to the point that it’s easy to forget the pain-staking process that went into every second of what is now the longest stop-motion film ever made. The lush forest environments are gorgeous, and the warm colors and cinematography make the miniature world come alive. There’s a huge battle toward the end that has drawn fitting comparison to The Lord of the Rings, and the scale of it is truly a new high in Laika’s chosen art form.

As for the story, that seems to be where at least some viewers are more mixed, finding it perhaps less than original or too stuffed with plot for the characters to stand out. Such observations are not unwarranted, but, having read the book, I think it’s a really masterful adaptation. A lot happens over 500+ pages, and Chris Butler’s screenplay manages to capture most of the story while speeding up the pace, a little gender-swapping, adding some more exciting scenes, recreating others straight from the page, and retaining a remarkable amount of heart at the core of Prue and Alexandra’s conflicting journeys. The film even manages to fix a couple plot points that annoyed me in the original book.

So though Wildwood isn’t immune from some plot weakness and fast pacing, it’s nonetheless a truly special film, one worthy of the amount of time and craft that Laika invested in it. As its deserved PG-13 rating suggests, it’s also much more mature than the typical animated fare, with much death, a suicide, and intense battle scenes (though not overly graphic), which only increased my appreciation for how seriously the filmmakers approached this story that touches on grief and desperation. At this point, I am actively rooting for Wildwood to get a Best Picture nomination at the next Oscars, while also bemoaning its criminally low box office numbers. Something about this film just makes me so glad that it exists, and I suspect that its reputation will only grow in the future.

Rank: Top 100-Worthy

© 2026 S.G. Liput
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