Alright! Today I'm reviewing Wildwood, the newest stop motion adventure from Laika, the studio behind Coraline and Kubo and the Two Strings. Wildwood is based on the 2011 Carson Ellis novel of the same name and follows Prue McKeel as she enters a magical forest to save her baby brother, who was kidnapped by a murder of crows (basically the plot of Labyrinth).
Everyone in the world should see Wildwood. This is a fact. Not only is the movie very good and beautiful, it is also the most ambitious artistic endeavor the animation industry has seen since Into the Spider-Verse. The scale and breadth of the stop motion is unprecedented, and many sequences in the film are devoted to "showing off" how good Laika is at what they do. Playing with physics, chase scenes, large battles, funny textures, elaborate camera placement, the enormous scale of the world and story - Laika has truly outdone themselves to create the most amibitious stop motion feature ever made.
Accompanying this beautiful stop motion is the intense texture work, clothing, hair elements, and voice acting - Carey Mulligan is especially good as Alexandra, the film's antagonist. She's a scene-stealer and the world of Wildwood feels most fully realized when it focuses on her. Her darker actions, disturbed psyche, and inimitable drive to dominate are superbly done, and the movie feels like it "locks in" whenever she's on screen.
However, Wildwood is not a perfect movie, and there are two specific aspects I found very lacking - the first being the musical score and the second being the protagonist. For a world as expansive and beautifully crafted as the world of Wildwood is, a musical score akin to The Lord of the Rings would have been in order; instead, it's a disappointingly generic and umemorable score that the movie only allows to vamp once. Most of the time a good movie can survive a lackluster score, but a stronger musical core really would have helped tie Wildwood together, and a few motifs for different characters and locations would have been more than welcome. There are a few scenes that, had they been given the nonverbal moments to breathe, could have been Laika's First Flight, encompassing you in emotional cinematic bliss - instead, the closest you get is awe over the craftsmanship.
The second is the protagonist, Prue McKeel. To preface this, one of my favorite protagonists in all of fiction is Coraline because of how active she is in the story. Whether it's visiting her nieghbors, crawling through the portal, running away from Other Mother, deciding to return and save the ghost children, or ultimately killing the Other Mother, Coraline is the one doing the deciding. She takes an active hand in the story and her movie is consequently very character-driven.
Wildwood has the opposite problem - Prue McKeel, despite having a terrific emotional hook for driving the plot, is very passive for most of the movie. She goes from location to location and meets various characters, each of whom gives her a snippet of exposition and sends her to the next character and location. The first half of the movie feels very unfocused and episodic for this reason, and will probably suffer on rewatch; an aforementioned motif to tie characters and locations together, or otherwise combining characters (such as giving the General Owl Rex's exposition) would have smoothed things over. As soon as Prue finally takes control of the movie, she immediately relinquishes it to visit yet another character in another location and hear more exposition.
There's also just something missing in Wildwood that I wish I could more fully describe. The stop motion is beautiful, as is the cinematography and framing, but there is a lack of harrowing imagery that the plot lent itself to - nothing here is topping Death's presence in Puss in Boots or Pinocchio's rabbit pallbearers. The movie is PG-13 and earns that, but it lacks the unsettling atmosphere of similar films such as The Secret of NIMH or Coraline and the childlike wonder of similar films such as Labyrinth or Narnia.
Many characters exist in bubbles for the plot, such as Awkwafina's rat, who immmediately takes a liking to Curtis and risks everything to help him despite having no reason to do so, and Prue herself does not feel like she overcame an obstacle by the end. Sure, she's on a quest to save her brother - but that's man vs. man, and the movie has enough ingredients to serve a dual man vs. self theme, but just doesn't. In the beginning, Prue is condescending towards Curtis and his childish interests for no particular reason, nor does she believe in magic - at the end, she's just traumatized by the adventure she went on, with no discernible character growth. Sure, the movie has a theme - but no growth. It will make you feel wonders over the animation, but the movie has to threaten a baby to make you feel for the story.
Despite these criticisms - and these are genuine criticisms, not nitpicks - Wildwood does not feel like a disappointment. All of these flaws are apparent within the first ten minutes, giving you the next two hours to come to terms with them, and in any case, the animation is so amazing you won't focus too hard on them anyway. While I wish it impressed me on a visceral or cinematic level instead of just a technical one, Wildwood is a testament to human creativity.
This is the movie we need now more than ever. It's a beautiful artistic endeavor and that love of the art form is visible in (literally) every single frame. It's amazing that we still get this beautiful art form in a time of streaming and A.I. slop, and the film starts off with an introduction from director Travis Knight, who details the creative process and expansive scope of the project. We're not like to see a movie like Wildwood for quite some time - especially since it took 16 years to make it.
Overall, I give Wildwood an 8/10. "Wildwood is not the best movie of the year - but it is the most passionate."
Comments
Post a Comment