Tired of the AI-generated slop clogging up your timelines? Of course you are! Thankfully, the world of stop-motion animation is enjoying a revival. On the heels of Guillermo del Toro getting Netflix to help fund a stop-motion animation school and Paranorman returning to the box office, Laika has released a behind-the-scenes first-look featurette on their next film, Wildwood. The clip, which runs less than three minutes, emphasizes the handcrafted puppets developed to make its main bird, The General (a golden giant eagle voiced by Angela Bassett), fly. Nine thousand feathers later, Wildwood is about ready for take off.
Adapted from the book by Decemberists frontman Colin Meloy and illustrated by Carson Ellis, Wildwood is the second stop-motion movie from Travis Knight, Laika’s lead animator, CEO, and the director of Kubo And The Two Strings. The movie has been in development since the book’s 2011 publication and was initially expected in theaters by 2014. Laika even produced a trailer for the book, but this kind of thing takes time. Since then, Meloy published two more Wildwood books, turning the book into a trilogy that he and Ellis completed in 2014.
Wildwood follows Prue McKeel (Peyton Elizabeth Lee) and her friend Curtis Mehlberg (Jacob Tremblay) into a magical world “just beyond the edge of Portland” as they quest for her baby brother, Mac, who was kidnapped by a murder of crows. She teams with The General, a majestic golden eagle who watches over the creatures of Wildwood, to find her lost brother. However, there’s also the problem of Maxim, the “terrifying” antagonist played by Tom Waits, to contend with. The film co-stars Bassett, Waits, Carey Mulligan, Mahershala Ali, Jemaine Clement, Jake Johnson, Charlie Day, Amandla Stenberg, Maya Erskine, Tantoo Cardinal, and Richard E. Grant.
No release date has been set, but Wildwood is expected to land in theaters next year.
