Laika Studio’s newest stop-motion film “Wildwood” was made frame-by-frame with human hands and has shattered all limits for what an animated feature can be.

Laika first acquired the rights to Colin Meloy’s middle-grade fantasy novel of the same name in 2011, just two years after its now-classic film “Coraline” hit theaters. Over the next decade, “Wildwood” sat in slow development, but in 2021, production finally ramped up. The actors recorded their lines and the animators got to work. 

“Wildwood” follows 13-year-old Prue McKeel who, after her baby brother Mac is abducted by a murder of crows, ventures into the woods outside of Portland, Oregon, to rescue him. Along the way, she and her friend Curtis encounter talking animals, epic battles, and the evil Dowager Governess Alexandra, who wants to sacrifice Mac to resurrect her own dead son. 

Modern fantasy is often derivative and therefore lacks the sense of wonder that comes with stories like “The Chronicles of Narnia” or “The Lord of the Rings.” “Wildwood” serves as a reminder of what good fantasy can be. 

Prue begins as cynical and overly self-reliant but eventually learns her own limits. Curtis’ arc was the most surprising, as the film develops him from a timid boy into a brave and protective young man, a character type often lacking in modern cinema. Even Alexandra broke the modern filmmaker’s obsession with justifying evil. Though the audience understands her grief-fueled motives, the film doesn’t go out of its way to excuse her actions, allowing her to serve as a truly formidable villain. 

The plot is well-written, engaging, and emotional, with plenty of twists that keep you guessing, not to mention the stellar stop-motion and breathtaking visuals. 

After buying the rights to the novel, Laika decided to build up its technological capabilities instead of rushing into immediate production. The technology required to make a stop-motion film of this scale hadn’t yet been invented, so the production company developed it over the next decade with films like “ParaNorman,” “The Box Trolls,” and “Kubo and The Two Strings.” The wait was worth it, as the new technology allows the film’s visuals to shine in a way it otherwise couldn’t.

At two hours and 12 minutes, “Wildwood” is the longest stop-motion animated film ever made, and the team of 20-40 animators used 236 different puppets on 132 unique sets. An eagle character known as the General was made with more than 9,000 individual feathers. But perhaps the most impressive feat is the 142,000 3D-printed faces the animators used to sync the characters’ expressions with the voice recordings. All together, for every 40 hours of work, the animators completed around three seconds of footage. 

According to Oregon Live, Director of Replacement Animation Brian McLean said, “On a puppet, 99.99% of that stuff you see, moving — the hair in the end scene, blowing around the fabrics, her riding her bike and her shirt moving around — that’s all done by stop motion animators on set.”

Though the majority of “Wildwood” succeeds, it suffers a little with its dialogue. Some of the writing feels Disney-ified, with the occasional cheesy delivery and try-hard joke. But this is a small flaw that’s easy to ignore amidst the well-written plot and impressive filmmaking. 

 “Wildwood” is rated PG-13 for strong fantasy violence, bloody images, thematic material, suicide-related material, brief partial nudity, and language. The voice-actors recorded their lines in 2021, during the height of “wokeism,” and there is a reference to they/them pronouns and a brief same-sex kiss. 

But if you leave the kids with a babysitter and ignore these elements, “Wildwood” is a feat of filmmaking well worth the price of a ticket. Good human-made art is worth supporting.