Wildwood is an impossible film about confronting the impossible: the impossibility of moving on after a sudden tragedy; the impossibility of giving up on the ones you love; the impossibility, sometimes, of conception; the impossibility of magic. The feats of stop-motion animation Wildwood pulls off are breathtaking, mystifying; it is, without a doubt, a new standard-bearer for the art form. It’s such a joy to watch that even minor quibbles about its overstuffed plot and abundance of themes—not all of which get enough attention—fall into the background because you simply don’t want to leave its world.
The film, directed by Laika co-founder and CEO Travis Knight, follows Prue McKeel (Peyton Elizabeth Lee), a teenager whose charming hippie parents (Maya Erskine and Jake Johnson) are oddly overprotective of her baby brother, Mac (Arthur Knight). When Prue’s parents leave her alone to babysit Mac, they warn her not to take him outside, but, of course, she does. Their trip through the quirky streets of Portland, Ore., quickly becomes a nightmare when a murder of crows kidnaps Mac and carries him off to the Impassable Wilderness, a magical forest on the edge of town from which Prue’s father has always warned her away. Prue and her classmate, Curtis (Jacob Tremblay), set off into the Impassable Wilderness to rescue Mac, where they must unite the forest’s disparate factions to take down Alexandra (Carey Mulligan), the Dowager Governess, a witch who practices dark magic as an outlet for her grief.
Along the way, we meet several other forest residents, including Brendan (Mahershala Ali), a human and the leader of a group of bandits; Owl Rex (Richard E. Grant), an owl and the crown prince of the Avian Principality; the General (Angela Bassett), an eagle who shepherds Prue through the wilderness; Maksim (Tom Waits), a coyote and the leader of Alexandra’s army; Dmitri (Charlie Day), a coyote who defects from Alexandra’s army; and Septima (Awkwafina), a rat who helps Curtis when he gets separated from Prue. It’s a big cast, and it feels especially sprawling because they’re mostly doing their own things in different locations, with plots that don’t intersect until the last third of the film. Still, that sprawl provides ample settings for several Rube Goldberg-esque chase and escape scenes, each unfolding with no small amount of wonder.
Even though the main plot of the film follows Prue as she tries to rescue her brother, Wildwood has more to say about parenthood and grief than sibling bonds or even about Prue herself. Prue is an inherently likeable character whose strength and fierce determination are beautifully brought to life by Lee, so the way Wildwood centers Prue while really telling a story about the adults around her can sometimes be frustrating. Her arc, about embracing the magic in the world—both the mundane kind, like a Darth Vader mask-wearing man playing the bagpipes while unicycling down the streets of Portland, and the real kind, the kind that allows a place like the Impassable Forest to exist—has promise, but it’s underdeveloped, as she’s (rightfully) more concerned with getting Mac back than gawping at the sudden appearance of talking animals.
Curtis fares a little better. His arc is essentially the inverse of Prue’s. Before they enter the Impassable Wilderness, he regales her with stories of his fantastical tabletop roleplaying game campaign (which she has absolutely no interest in, thinking she’s too mature for games like that), a Dungeons & Dragons analogue that’s clearly a very important part of his life. So when he and Prue enter the forest, he’s initially excited; this is basically the coolest, most detailed live-action roleplaying scenario he could imagine. He quickly realizes this isn’t a game, though, and has to confront what it really means to be a hero.
But at its heart, Wildwood is the Dowager Governess’ story, and it’s a worthy one. Her backstory is tragic but written with care, allowing the audience to empathize with her while also seeing the terrible flaws in her actions. Mulligan gives it her all, delivering a layered, haunted performance.
This is also a film that isn’t afraid to get dark. The opening scene is particularly jarring, and the level of violence throughout is significantly higher than I expected. It’s not egregious, but it is noticeable. The Impassable Wilderness is a land beset by war, and the film doesn’t shy away from the realities of that.
And yet, in the middle of all this darkness, Wildwood is a technical marvel. The climactic scene, for all its fire and bloodshed, is jaw-dropping. It shouldn’t be possible to make stop-motion puppets move as smoothly as these models do. It shouldn’t be possible to coordinate such a large-scale, ambitious stop-motion narrative and have it be anywhere close to coherent. But Wildwood, somehow, finds a way to make its magic real.
Wildwood opens in theaters on October 23.
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