Entertainment · Film · 7 hrs ago
Laika’s ‘Wildwood’ is an ambitious stop-motion fantasy with mixed results
Laika’s film “Wildwood,” directed by Travis Knight, is a stop-motion fantasy set in the Pacific Northwest.
It follows a teenage girl who enters an enchanted kingdom to rescue her toddler brother after crows abduct him.
Laika is an Oregon-based animation studio known for its painstaking stop-motion work.
The film’s production involved 142,000 3D-printed face models, hand-molded trees and more than 715 miles of brass wire.
Its scale and craftsmanship are striking, but the film is less enchanting than the studio’s best movies.
The story explores how wonder can remain even after people lose faith in it.
The review gives no information about the film’s release plans or what happens next.
Travis Knight’s “Wildwood” is an ambitious stop-motion fantasy from Oregon-based studio Laika.
The film follows a teenage girl who enters an enchanted kingdom to rescue her toddler brother after he is abducted by crows.
Laika created 142,000 face models and hand-molded 728 trees for the production.
IndieWire praised the film’s craftsmanship and visual ambition but said it is less enchanting than Laika’s best movies.
The review described the film as a story about how magic can persist even after people stop believing in it.
- Who
- Laika made the film, which was directed by Travis Knight.
- What
- Wildwood” is a stop-motion fantasy about a teenage girl who enters an enchanted kingdom to rescue her abducted toddler brother.
- When
- IndieWire published its review on 2026-10-11.
- Where
- The story is set in the Pacific Northwest and an enchanted kingdom; Laika is based in Oregon.
- Why
- The teenage girl enters the kingdom to rescue her brother, who has been abducted by crows.
This story does not have two clearly opposing sides.
The longest and most ambitious movie of its kind ever made
It’s a mad feat of muchness.
It’s also, in so many others, the first of their movies that doesn’t feel as special as it looks
This story does not have a timeline yet.
- Director
- Travis Knight
- Studio location
- Oregon
- Face models
- 142,000
- Hand-molded trees
- 728
- Production duration
- 1,155 days











