Movie Review: "Wildwood's" Wonderful Animation Gets Lost In A Forest of Homages
Image courtesy of Fathom Entertainment
6/12 ForReel Score | 3/5 Stars
I’ve been a fan of Portland based animation studio Laika since I was traumatized from watching Coraline as a child, as well as having seen both Paranorman & the incredibly underrated Kubo & The Two Strings. Naturally, I was very curious about their newest film Wildwood especially after the wonderful teaser scored to M83’s My Tears Are Becoming A Sea. Unfortunately, Wildwood seems to get a little lost in the forest of its own homages to be something truly unique, with Hayao Miyazaki’s Princess Mononoke, the films of Jim Henson, and the city of Portland being incredibly obvious influences on the story.
That fault does not apply to the animators at Laika because what that department has achieved here is simply breathtaking, with a moment involving a bird called The General (Angela Bassett) almost taking my breath away. Based on a novel by Canadian author Carson Ellis & Colin Meloy (Meloy is the frontman of The Decemberists, a Portland based band who also have an original song featured in the credits), Wildwood follows Prue McKeel (Peyton Elizabeth Lee), a teenager thrown into an odyssey with her hapless friend Curtis (Jacob Tremblay, We’ll get to him later) after Prue’s baby brother is abducted by a group of crows and taken into an enchanted forest known as The Wood outside of Portland. The wilderness is home to many magical creatures and objects, many of which are controlled by the Dowager Governess Alexandra (Carey Mulligan). Mulligan’s character is probably the most interesting, as it allows the film to go to a slightly darker register that I quite enjoyed and wished the film committed to more than it actually does.
Image courtesy of Fathom Entertainment
If I had any major positives it would lie in the film’s magnificent cast. Actors like the aforementioned Mulligan, Mahershala Ali, Charlie Day, Tom Waits, & Tantoo Cardinal are highlights, especially Cardinal who arrives as the film begins to trip and fall into a mix of Miyazaki and Ferngully but is able to sell the big emotional moment to the point that I found myself nearly tearing up from her performance. Jacob Tremblay gets shafted the most in terms of scripting, as Curtis really only feels like he exists to drive the plot forward so we can get to the next character, rather than getting any development beyond a wimpy kid who becomes heroic. I really would have appreciated more scenes between Prue & Curtis, as that relationship feels severely underdeveloped by the end of the film. I thought Peyton Elizabeth Lee was quite good, although obviously not up to par with someone like Dakota Fanning in Coraline.
The world of Wildwood feels very lived in, and is one of the most interesting parts of the film. Due to the scope of the world, some of the many factions are reduced to merely one scene to shine. It really is heartbreaking that this film is written as poorly as it is, as in the age of seemingly more and more art being created by artificial intelligence, this film can at times be a wonderful reminder of what humans are capable of. This is so clearly a passion project for Travis Knight and his team, but I just can’t get past how bad the writing is here. The book was published in 2011 and it feels as if the screenplay was written around the same time and not updated since. I really hope Laika’s next project (if they get to make one after this will more than likely tank at the box office) is something a bit more original. At least it’s better than Masters of the Universe.