‘Wildwood’ pushes the boundaries of stop motion animation
LAIKA Studios’ new movie uses handmade figures to tell the story of a girl’s journey into a magical world to save her brother.
By Rylee Morrow
On October 23, 2026, LAIKA Studios, the creators of “Coraline” and “ParaNorman”, released their sixth stop motion feature film, “Wildwood”, based on the book of the same title by Colin Meloy.
Set against the backdrop of Portland, OR and the Pacific Northwest wilderness, “Wildwood” tells the story of two parallel worlds. One is a world very much like our own, while the other is filled with magic, allowing humans and animals to live together as equals.
Prue McKeel, voiced by Elizabeth Peyton Lee, lives a normal life in Portland. When her baby brother, Mac, is abducted by a murder of crows, she and her classmate Curtis, voiced by Jacob Tremblay, must venture into the Impassible Wilderness to find him.
Little does she know, the world she has stepped into is one divided. Bandits and militia are at odds with each other, with a powerful force threatening to unleash something that may destroy the Wilderness completely. After getting separated, Prue and Curtis both learn that the mission to save Mac and the mission to save the Wilderness might be the same thing.
“Wildwood” is a beautiful tale of family, loss, self-discovery and unlikely alliances. It is a story of how two kids managed to bring a fragmented society together to fight for what’s good. Above all, it is a movie about a girl who loved her little brother enough to traverse worlds to find him.
While the storytelling and themes throughout the movie are heartwarming, the production itself is even more spectacular.
LAIKA Studios specializes in stop-motion animation, meaning that every single aspect of the film is handmade and repositioned for each frame, giving the illusion that the clay models are moving It is always mind-boggling to watch a stop motion film and know that there were human hands putting endless hours into creating it frame by frame, but this is especially the case for “Wildwood”.
Running approximately 2 hours and 12 minutes long, “Wildwood” is the longest stop motion movie ever created. If you use the standard 24 frames per second for film, there are about 190,080 handmade frames within the film.
The scale of the world that they created is just as impressive as the length of the movie. It holds not just one complex world, but two. Within each one, every element had to be placed to perfection to get the desired effect for movement. This includes every building, facial expression, article of clothing, leaf, animal and more.
The climax of the movie features a blockbuster level battle that would be remarkable in any medium. There are thousands of people and animals fighting at the bottom of this ravine, and above them flies a formation of hundreds of birds. It looks seamless despite the scene being primarily hand sculpted and 3D printed models, much of which is suspended in the air for the frame-by-frame shots. The creators captured realism on a scale that is astounding.
After the credits, there is a montage that gives the audience better insight into how much work goes into a stop motion movie. It shows one of the sculptors working on the character models for Prue and Mac. At one point, it shows a wall of slight variations of Prue’s face because every expression and syllable requires a different model.
In an interview with New York Times, the director of the film, Travis Knight, said that “Wildwood” began back in 2010 when he first read the manuscript. “What the story asked of us was beyond our capabilities.” Knight said. Yet they succeeded with an amazing attention to detail that feels unmistakably human, which is necessary in a time where so much art is being passed over in favor of artificial intelligence (AI).
A report by Fortune states that LAIKA Studios’ domestic profit has shrunk with every film release. However, backed by Nike billionaire, Phil Knight, they continue to make increasingly ambitious films. Paired with just how stunning the films they produce are, they really feel like passion projects to celebrate human made art.
One detail within the movie stands out to drive home that point. As Prue is riding her bike through Portland, she passes by a small art stand. In front of the stand is a sign that says, “Enjoy handmade art before it is gone for good.”
AI is not something that will disappear from society any time soon, but movies like “Wildwood” prove that human touch is irreplaceable.
