We are learning, with the advent of AI, that some people think the point of art is the end product. They think AI removes the need for an “artist” (in the context of AI, I use the term loosely) to develop and fine-tune their craft, so they can instead cut right to the part where the deed is done and they take a bow. As if the countless creative decisions that go into making art, even a seemingly simple work of art, are an obstacle to be removed. In reality, it’s that very process where art earns its meaning. Without these nearly infinite acts of creation, all you’ve got with AI is art that was already made, most of it stolen, that’s been smooshed together, sanded down and robbed of its humanity.
Travis Knight’s “Wildwood” is that humanity. It’s got soul built into every miraculous object we see on the screen. It’s an over two-hour fantasy epic brought to life through stunning stop-motion animation, and the fact that Knight made a film of this scale, in this medium, is hard to fathom.
Stop-motion is hardly a new process. It dates back to the silent era and the principles, at least, are still the same. Take a picture of an object, move it slightly, then take another picture, and do it all again. When you’re done, you play the film back at full speed and you’ve created not just the illusion of movement but an otherworldly effect, made all the more incredible by our mind’s innate understanding that what we’re seeing is somehow real. Uncanny, but real.
It’s an absurdly intricate, time-consuming medium, so making a whole feature film in stop-motion is either a fool’s errand or an obsessive act of mad genius. Laika, the studio that produced “Coraline” and “ParaNorman” and “The Boxtrolls,” is not a company of fools. They’re geniuses whose films are, indeed, strangely mad, if only because it’s hard to imagine that what they make is actually hand-crafted (albeit sometimes with CGI elements).
No Laika movie is more ambitious than “Wildwood.” Based on the novel by Decemberists frontman Colin Meloy and illustrated by Carson Ellis, it tells the story of a girl named Prue (voiced by Peyton Elizabeth Lee), who lives in Portland, Oregon. Her parents are so protective of Prue’s infant brother, Mac, that they make her promise to never let him out of the house. It’s a promise she immediately breaks before discovering, to her horror, that Mac has been kidnapped by a vast murder of crows, who pull the screaming baby into the sky and carry him away.
Prue follows, dragging a dorky local boy with her into the woods. The boy’s name is Curtis (Jacob Tremblay), and when they stumble across a group of coyotes wearing human clothes, they are attacked and separated. Prue ventures from one fantastical town to another, learning the Impassable Wilderness’ mythic history and gradually building a revolution. Curtis is captured and brought to the Dowager Governess (Carey Mulligan), who tempts him with the things boys love, like power and violence. But Curtis is a kindhearted pacifist, and over the course of the story he endures an emotional, philosophically challenging ordeal.
The story, adapted by Chris Butler, has familiar elements for fantasy lovers. The Dowager Empress is C.S. Lewis’ White Witch with a heartbreaking backstory. Prue befriends an army of birds who are on loan from Tolkien’s Middle-earth. The hodgepodge anthropomorphic citizens have emigrated from Lewis Carroll’s Wonderland, and they brought their absurd bureaucracy with them. It concludes, as even the most anti-war tales of magic and wonder usually do, with a battle to save the world.
That we can recognize these elements is not a flaw, although it sometimes makes “Wildwood’s” story seem quaint. The pieces are not rolled into a gelatinous mass, indistinguishable from ripoffs and claptrap. They are handpicked and assembled with love, forming a rich mosaic of interesting decisions and intentional callbacks, assembled into a fascinating configuration. What’s more, they were assembled by hand, which is impressive in its own right, and yet “Wildwood” goes a hundred steps further.
Each of “Wildwood’s” characters, sets, props and movements is a magic trick, and the sheer of volume of sorcery overwhelms the senses. There are sequences in “Wildwood” with thousands of moving parts across many planes of action, some rising into the sky and others dragging along the ground, while enemy stabs enemy and the forest burns with volcanic fire. Again, many fantasy movies conclude with a large set piece but we’re well past the era when epics bragged about their casts of thousands. Thanks to modern visual effects we know it’s easier to produce visual wonders than ever before, even if you’re not resorting to AI.
In “Wildwood,” we know it was difficult and that the filmmakers made it difficult on purpose. It’s impressive to watch Travis Knight’s film even if you don’t know how the sausage got made. If you do know, if you even have the slightest inkling, then it’s one of the most astonishing animated films ever produced. “Wildwood’s” jaw-dropping impact would not be possible without the meticulous process of its creation. Every detail was a massive undertaking, and human beings had to decide it was worth the Herculean effort to create each and every one of them.
“Wildwood” would be one of the best movies of the year even if the story was mediocre, but it’s an emotionally-charged narrative with intriguing, multilayered protagonists and villains, and a vast ensemble of supporting characters who have unique and wonderful qualities. It’s a story, in the end, about everything we would endure for the people we love, which makes it genuinely beautiful that Travis Knight and Laika did all this for their audience.
“Wildwood” is a rapturous experience because we can see and, in the process, feel the artists’ passion for every aspect of the film. It proves art cannot exist, and certainly cannot matter, without the effort it takes to create it. Not just the technical craft — not every work of art has to be this ambitious, that’s an unreasonable ask — but the story that the craft serves, the characters that the craft brings to life, and the messages that are actually worth conveying through the act of human expression. All that takes effort too. “Wildwood” is a wonder on many levels. I’d say it has to be seen to be believed, but even after you see this movie, it’s pretty unbelievable.
“Wildwood” premieres in theaters on Oct. 23, from Fathom Entertainment.
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