Sixteen years in the making, LAIKA’s newest feature, Wildwood, is plucked straight from the mind of The Decemberists lead singer, Colin Meloy. This sumptuous, visually spectacular marvel is a fantasy lover’s wet dream. The characters are richly drawn, the world is vibrant with life, and the jet black darkness of the story is utterly infectious. There’s something to be said of sticking with a specific theme, and while LAIKA’s past films have been consistently great, Wildwood feels like it has reached a new plateau. Some of these effects are astonishing, and will reward repeat viewings with its thorough texture. A stunning surprise, Wildwood mixes Labyrinth with a dash of The Black Cauldron and a dose of Game of Thrones. This stop motion genre flick is easily the best animated film of 2026.
A gripping opening sequence sees a clockwork child rip out his own gear heart and leap to his death. This grizzly visual is just a taste of the Alexandra’s backstory, which we get much later in the film. Alexandra (Carey Mulligan) does not appear as a traditional villain, instead existing in a nuanced, albeit disturbing reality. Our main focus is on Prue (Peyton Elizabeth Lee), who lives out her existence in Portland, Oregon with her hippie-ish family that constantly asks her to babysit her younger brother. Setting the film in Portland is quite apt, considering LAIKA Studios hails from that destination.
Despite her parents’ wishes, Prue directly disobey their orders. She takes her brother out for a joyride on a little wagon attached to her bike, weaving their way through the streets of Oregon until she bumps into her nerdy friend Curtis (Jacob Tremblay). It’s as Curtis and Prue are chatting away that the crows converge at a playground. They snatch baby Mac, setting off a chain of events that will lead Prue and Curtis deep into the forbidden woods of the Impassable Wilderness. The woods themselves are filled with fantastical creatures, but these aren’t your average ordinary fairytale characters. Instead, they are humanlike in their personalities and actions. Ferocious wolves in soldier clothing appear to side with the villains, and all manner of other talking creatures can be found, including a whole population of birds, farm animals, and many more. Even the rats can talk, and Septima, voiced by Awkwafina, becomes one of the film’s most lovable characters.
As Prue and Curtis are separated early on, each must embark on their own separate journeys to ultimately rescue Mac. Chris Butler’s script, based on the first novel of Meloy’s three book trilogy, is filled with depth and and plenty of magical realism. That’s no surprise given the breadth of Meloy’s Decemberists cataloge. At least one Easter egg to the Decemberists can be found by way of a tour poster hanging on a character’s wall, and Meloy’s band even contributes a stellar new track, “The Better Part of Bravery,” that encapsulates the themes of the film. While the narrative is breathtaking and perfectly realized, the handmade element brought by LAIKA is equally as marvelous.
The matching of Meloy’s prose with LAIKA’s knack for building out layered characters and dazzling worlds are a match made in stop-motion heaven. So much imagination here gets channeled in realizing the different areas of the Impassable Wilderness. Additionally, the script takes its time in building out the world, so as not to overwhelm the viewer at any point. We learned just as Prue and Curtis learn about their new situations, and how fun o bake that into part of the adventure. With a PG-13 rating being the first clue, this excellent feature is probably best for older kids and up, depending on their comfort level when it comes to darker themes. There are perhaps hundreds of deaths in this film, and the violence never holds back either. To be honest, I’m surprised they got away with some of this without going into an R-rating, including eyes being gouged out, giant explosions, beheadings, and many more. The brutality found within makes Wildwood feel like a dangerous world, one existing just on the fringes of reality.
In this way, this fantasy world feels far less forgiving than other like-minded series. Older audience members can appreciate the richness of the subtext and the beauty behind it all. As the larger plot unravels, I fell deeper and deeper in love with Wildwood as it went along. Whether subsequent books in the series are set for adaptation is another story. While you can tell this was truly a labor of love, it was no doubt arduous to make. The voice acting is seamless, the world building is immaculate, the villain is the total opposite of cartoonish, and the heroine is strong, but flawed. There are so many great qualities about Wildwood that one hopes it does not get brushed under the rug with the rest of October‘s movie overflow. There are so many films coming out this month that it’s easy for something to get lost in the fray. LAIKA’s movie is a special one indeed, one that has an immense amount of heart and depth poured into it. It took four years alone just to animate an elaborate flying sequence.
Even as it approaches its finale amid a staggering two-hour runtime, Wildwood never slows the pacing down whatsoever. An epic battle puts others in live action to shame. How great that we have come this far in the animation sphere that this sort of hyper-realism can blend perfectly with the fairytale aesthetic of Meloy and the Decemberists. There’s so much here to unpack that I would love to see further adventures set in this world. A fantastical world realized with the detailed eye of LAIKA, the imagination of Colin Meloy, and direction from Travis Knight, Wildwood explodes with creativity, heart, and astonishingly great visuals.
Enter the world of Wildwood, now playing in theaters worldwide.
