Wildwood review
By Joel Humphries · Watched 10.19.26
★★★★ 4 / 5
Spoiler-free review
Stop-motion splendor meets Pacific Northwest mythmaking in Wildwood, where LAIKA’s meticulous craft pairs with a classic fairy-tale quest and a very Portland blend of hipster parenting, environmentalism, and woodland spirituality. Travis Knight keeps the adventure lively and specific, and I especially appreciated that Prue’s path to heroism doesn’t require the genre’s usual dead-parents shortcut; the adults can be flawed without being fridged. My worry is fit more than quality: parts may be too intense for small kids and too gentle for teens, which could hobble its theatrical run. It’s a very good movie—catch it on a big screen before it becomes a home-viewing favorite.
Full review — contains spoilers
Travis Knight, Hollywood's favorite nepo baby, has made another really good movie. Wildwood is a beautiful piece of stop-motion animation, and if you enjoy LAIKA's other films, I recommend it.
The story follows Prue, a girl living in Portland whose baby brother is abducted by crows and taken into a magical wilderness outside the city. She and her classmate Curtis go after him, encountering talking animals and a woman who wants to use the baby to recover her own lost child. It's a classic fairy-tale premise, and the adventure is entertaining.
The Pacific Northwest sensibilities are all over this film, from the parents' Portlandia hipster vibes to the environmental themes and the spiritual connection to the wilderness. It's a very specific, idealized version of that culture, and you can tell where this was made.
I particularly appreciated that Prue gets to become a hero without the writers killing her parents first. They aren't especially helpful, but they're alive. Disney, superhero movies, and Harry Potter have gotten plenty of mileage out of dead parents. Here, the adults can make mistakes and fail to solve the problem without having to die so their child can accomplish something.
My concern is that there may not be a theater audience for this one. I enjoyed it as an adult, but some of it may be too scary for younger children, and I'm not sure the story will hold their attention. That could make it difficult to attract the families an animated film needs to succeed in theaters. There weren't many people at my screening, and I suspect this may find more of its audience later.
Everybody wants to declare cult classics ahead of time now, but this feels like a good candidate. It's a very good movie that may not get the theatrical audience it deserves. See it on a big screen while you can.