Ellie recommends Wildwood

“When we started Barack Obama was a fresh-faced president in his very first term.”

This is how director Travis Knight put the length of production into perspective as he walked on to the stage. 16 years in development, Wildwood is the most ambitious and longest stop motion film of all time and it’s no surprise it took so long when you experience its beauty on the big screen. 

Adapted from the 2011 book by Colin Meloy and Carson Ellis, the film follows teenage Prue who is given one strict instruction from her parents while babysitting her baby brother Mac: do not leave the house. She of course breaks this, exploring the eccentric characters of their home city Portland before heading to the playground. It’s here that everything changes, as a murder of crows abducts Mac into the forbidden forest surrounding the city. With a nerdy classmate Curtis accidentally in tow, she rides into the magical world of Wildwood to save her brother, meeting talking animals, terrifying soldiers and an evil queen. 

It’s hard to put into words just how impressive the world created in the film is. Equally as impressive are the tiny movement of the leaves or the curl of a character's smile, as the huge battle scene the film crescendos to. It was during this scene that me and the people around me all burst into tears, not from any particularly emotional moment, but from the sheer artistry and love clearly put into creating it. During the introduction, Travis Knight revealed that one day’s work equals only 1-2 seconds of film. The film definitely goes darker and creepier than any Studio Laika film before (yes it’s even scarier than Coraline’s mum), but this change also introduces new visuals like the splattering of blood or the detailed snarl of a dog’s mouth that I haven’t seen created so meticulously in stop motion before. 

The voice acting is also incredible. Recorded during lockdown, the cast revealed they have only actually met in the last few weeks for the first time. Carey Mulligan gave some fascinating insight into the process, recalling how Knight asked them to record each sentence in dozens of different expressions, so he had so much to work with in the edit. 

There was a scene after the credits which put some of the incredible work into reality. In particular, showing the hundreds of puppets needed to portray the slightest movement in Prue’s face. I so hope this is in the theatrical cut and that they release more behind the scenes footage upon its release. 

Travis Knight was clearly emotional showing the film for the first time but really drummed home the talent of everyone working on the film. In a world where visuals can be created with just one prompt, Wildwood is a testament to the power of human creativity and I hope people come out to watch this film as it deserves. As Travis Knight finished his introduction saying: 

“Stop motion is the worst, hardest, most difficult way to make a movie, but it’s also the most joyous thing, because it is the most human way to a movie and that’s why I think the movie’s so special.”

See Wildwood with us at HPPH from Fri 23 Oct. You can book tickets here.