Laika’s long-gestating stop-motion epic Wildwood makes its world debut at the BFI London Film Festival this week, capping a 16-year journey from page to puppet stage. The film’s scale and hometown roots give it immediate awards-season relevance — and could extend Laika’s unbroken run of Academy recognition for its first four features.
Laika has built a reputation for meticulous, character-driven animation; its first four films — Coraline, ParaNorman, Missing Link and Kubo and the Two Strings — all secured Best Animated Feature Oscar nominations. That streak frames expectations for Wildwood, an adaptation of Colin Meloy’s novel that director and Laika CEO Travis Knight has shepherded for years.
From page to puppet
The story centers on Prue McKeel, voiced by Peyton Elizabeth Lee, a pragmatic teen whose ordinary outing in Portland turns terrifying when a murder of crows abducts her baby brother. Unable to explain what happened, Prue plunges into a forbidden, enchanted forest — a sprawling, rule-bound world where speaking animals, bandits and cunning rulers reorder the rules of childhood and grief.
Curtis Mehlberg (Jacob Tremblay), Prue’s awkward classmate, follows her into the forest and is quickly drawn into a darker plot led by the grief-stricken Dowager Governess Alexandra (Carey Mulligan). Their separate paths intersect with a cast of leaders and outcasts: Angela Bassett voices the formidable Great Eagle known as the General, Mahershala Ali is Brendan, leader of the Bandits, and Awkwafina brings warmth to Septima, a small but pivotal rat. The film builds toward a large-scale confrontation that tests loyalties, courage and the film’s moral center.
A visual leap for stop-motion
Working with six-time Oscar-nominated cinematographer Caleb Deschanel, Laika pushes its craft into more cinematic territory. Deschanel’s live-action sensibilities shape the camera work and lighting, giving puppet performances nuanced emotional beats and depth often associated with human actors on a physical set. The production also draws from Caron Ellis’s book illustrations to create a vivid color palette and layered environments.
The result is not just meticulous frame-by-frame animation; it’s an attempt to make stop-motion read like a live-action drama, with intimate close-ups and sweeping set pieces that support — rather than overshadow — the characters’ inner lives.
- Title: Wildwood
- Festival Premiere: BFI London Film Festival (world premiere)
- North American Premiere: AFI Fest (Hollywood), later this month
- Distributor: Fathom
- Release Date: October 23, 2026
- Director / Producer: Travis Knight
- Writer: Chris Butler
- Key Cast: Carey Mulligan, Peyton Elizabeth Lee, Jacob Tremblay, Angela Bassett, Mahershala Ali, Awkwafina
- Rating / Running time: PG-13 / 2 hr 12 mins
Voice performances populate the film with distinct personalities: Tom Waits and Charlie Day supply comic and menacing coyote energy, Richard E. Grant adds world-weariness as an aging owl, and Tantoo Cardinal provides regal gravitas. The ensemble aims to balance warmth and menace across a story about loss, resilience and found family.
For Knight, the Portland setting is personal; adapting a local, fantastical tale into a major animated feature allowed him to fuse hometown familiarity with Laika’s signature craft. That connection informs the film’s attention to small, emotionally truthful moments amid ambitious set pieces.
Where Wildwood sits in the fantasy canon is a matter of scale and tone: it borrows the sweep and world-building of long-form epics while keeping its focus on a child’s point of view. The film doesn’t try to outdo the likes of classic high fantasies but instead aims to breathe fresh life into the genre through handcrafted detail and character-first storytelling.
Why it matters now: Wildwood arrives at a moment when animation voters and audiences are increasingly valuing technique that serves human stories. If Laika’s handling of the material resonates, the film could both broaden appreciation for stop-motion and reinforce the studio’s awards credentials.
Producers: Travis Knight and Sam Wilson. Critics and audiences will be watching how the film’s technical ambition and emotional core translate beyond festival buzz when it reaches theaters later this month.
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Hello, I’m Declan. I share my film reviews and discoveries with you to enrich your moviegoing experience.