Review: Wildwood

Official Synopsis: The adventures of Prue McKeel (Peyton Elizabeth Lee) as she sets off to the forests outside Portland to find her kidnapped brother.

Ever since the first trailer for Wildwood premiered with "The hands that created Coraline" my family and I have been sold. I didn't realize until after I saw this film that it's based on a book (written by Colin Meloy of The Decemberists) so I can't speak for how the story goes adaptation wise.

Count me in with everyone else saying Wildwood is a visual masterpiece because it is stunning. It brought me back to when I saw WALL-E in theaters for the first time and how blown away with how far animation has come then. That feeling stays here. There were several times throughout the film where I just kept thinking "wow" or "how did they pull that off" or "God, that must have taken forever." And these thoughts didn't distract me from the story in any way, it just made the ride so much more scenic. You can tell everyone at LAIKA put their heart and soul into this. Not just in the lush forest scenes but all the scenes indoors from Prue's bedroom to the other places she visits. They all feel so lived in and are so detailed. It's quite astonishing. 

This is not for younger kids. I knew because of the PG-13 rating it would be darker but I was still kind of surprised at how mature some of the themes are. Of course we did see a family with young kids walk out immediately after the very disturbing (and if we're being honest...ballsy) opening. Be prepared for violence, terrified baby screams and a lot of yelping dogs sounds.

The plot itself heavily borrows from other films. You'll see a lot of Labyrinth, The Chronicles of Narnia, or any other "Hero's journey" film out there. While I wish it been a bit more original, it was also probably helpful that is was so familiar because like I mentioned earlier, you're going to be gawking at the animation quite a bit. 

The voice work is strong and you'll recognize a lot of it. One I have to call out specifically is Awkwafina. When I saw she was in the cast, I kind of braced myself because I was expecting her to do her over-the-top shouty thing she often does, but she gave a very subdued performance and I ended up liking her character a lot. Sometimes it's nice to be wrong.

I highly recommend seeing this on the biggest screen you can.

Grade: A-