Wildwood review – Laika’s pleasingly old fashioned stop-motion magic-forest odyssey
Laika, the Portland-based animation studio behind "Coraline," has released "Wildwood," a stop-motion fantasy adventure directed by the studio's lead animator Travis Knight, according to a review published by Guardian…
Source: Guardian Film · October 11, 2026 at 11:02 PM · AI-assisted report
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PORTLAND, OREGON, 12 OCTOBER 2026 —
Laika, the Portland-based animation studio behind "Coraline," has released "Wildwood," a stop-motion fantasy adventure directed by the studio's lead animator Travis Knight, according to a review published by Guardian Film on October 11.
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The film is written by Chris Butler from the bestselling novel of the same title by Carson Ellis and Colin Meloy, the latter a member of the band The Decemberists, whose tour poster appears in the movie.
The voice cast includes Peyton Elizabeth Lee as 12-year-old Prue, Jake Johnson and Maya Erskine as her parents, Jacob Tremblay as her classmate Curtis, Marc Evan Jackson as the governor, Carey Mulligan as the dowager governess, and Mahershala Ali as the bandit leader Brendan.
The story begins in modern-day Portland, Oregon, where the film affectionately mocks the city's hipster culture, including a coffee shop called Dripster and "Woke 1.0 signage." Prue's baby brother Mac is abducted by a murder of crows to the adjacent forest park, mythologised as the impassable "wildwood" — a parallel world populated by talking animals, fairytale nobility and oppressed humans, unknown to city dwellers.
Prue and Curtis pursue Mac into the forest, where they confront the dowager governess who commands a redcoat army of coyotes, and the incompetent governor. The governess's motive stems from "a wrenching sadness in her heart, due to an awful loss and a tragic attempt at a cover-up," shown in the opening sequence.
The stop-motion animation displays "a robust and pleasing directness," resulting in "a more organic character and physical immediacy than Pixar's ubiquitous digital look, to which it makes a welcome change," the review states. The film is described as "a forthright, exuberant, good-natured and old-fashioned children's tale which CS Lewis and JRR Tolkien might have recognised."
However, the reviewer notes the narrative did not deliver "a satisfyingly clear motive for the governess's reprehensible plan," and the story "did not have the scary punch of Coraline, except in the uncanny opening sequence." The review concludes: "Then again, it's not that kind of story."
Related: Laika · Travis Knight · Portland, Oregon