A headstrong teenager sets off to a forest outside Portland to find her kidnapped brother and navigates a world of talking animals, bandits, and powerful figures driven by grief and ambition.

LAIKA Studios has always been committed to the craft of filmmaking. And I'm not simply referring to their painstaking recreation of life through stop-motion animation, but their extraordinary ability to create memorable, deeply human characters out of little more than plastic and steel, and narratives that reach into the very heart of the human experience. They've done it with the wonderfully underrated Missing Link, Kubo and the Two Strings, ParaNorman and Coraline. And with Wildwood, they've absolutely hit it out of the park again. A monumental cinematic achievement, lovingly crafted by hand over nearly two decades, Wildwood is also a thoroughly engaging tale with memorable characters and themes that will sear themselves in your soul. One of the best films of the year. 

When her baby brother is snatched away by crows, Prue McKeel ventures into the Impassable Wilderness with her classmate Curtis, stumbling into a fantastical world of mystical creatures, ancient conflicts, and warring factions far bigger than her own quest
 

Ever since watching Chicken Run as a youngster, I've been fascinated by stop-motion animation as a form of filmmaking. I even had a wee dabble at creating my own short film about an ant. So Wildwood was firmly on my very short list of films I was most looking forward to this year. It didn't disappoint. 

What struck me first was the narrative. It's complex, sometimes dark, and so not for the very young or children that are easily scared at the cinema. It has spiritual fantasy echoes of Lewis’ Narnia and Tolkien’s Middle Earth in its mythology, world building, character development and scale, while staying grounded in very human struggles. 

At its core it's about loss, pain, and how two people can respond so differently to grief. One, the protagonist, channeling it toward courage, the other, the antagonist, toward destruction. It's incredibly fascinating, and my kids loved the characters too. 

And then there's the animation - just completely mind blowing that its stop motion. Some of the most breathtaking work I've seen in a decade with expansive set design and battle sequences that are astonishing in this medium. In an age of humanless AI art, Wildwood feels like a magnificent slap in the face to that idea. It's art that has taken its decades to develop with characters and themes that will stay with you long after the credits have rolled.

A monumental cinematic achievement, lovingly crafted by hand over nearly two decades, Wildwood is also a thoroughly engaging tale with memorable characters and themes that will sear themselves in your soul. One of the best films of the year.

★★★★★