WILDWOOD (2026): A Handcrafted Masterpiece

I want to climb onto the roof of my house and scream something at the top of my lungs.

GOD BLESS LAIKA.

Seriously.

We’re living in an era when people are increasingly turning to artificial intelligence to manufacture images, videos, stories, music, and just about every other form of creative expression. Apparently, typing a few sentences into a computer and watching it spit something out is the new definition of artistry.

Meanwhile, the magnificent lunatics at LAIKA are spending years meticulously building miniature worlds, crafting puppets, manipulating tiny facial expressions, moving characters fractions of an inch, and photographing their creations one painstaking frame at a time.

And the result?

WILDWOOD, one of the most breathtaking animated movies I’ve ever seen.

Take a bow, LAIKA. Take ALL the bows.

WILDWOOD isn’t just one of my favorite movies of 2026. It’s an extraordinary achievement in filmmaking, a glorious celebration of imagination, and a reminder that genuine artistry requires something more than a prompt and a powerful graphics processor.

Oh, and Elon? Whatever that AI-generated ODYSSEY nonsense was supposed to accomplish, it sure as hell wasn’t this.

Into the Woods. And Maybe Don’t Bring the Toddlers.

Based on the novel by Colin Meloy, frontman of The Decemberists, and illustrated by Carson Ellis, WILDWOOD tells the story of Prue McKeel (voiced by Peyton Elizabeth Lee), a spirited teenager living in Portland, Oregon, whose seemingly ordinary life takes a very extraordinary turn when a murder of crows swoops down and kidnaps her baby brother, Mac.

Determined to rescue her brother, Prue ventures into the mysterious Impassable Wilderness, a forbidden forest bordering Portland that conceals an entire magical civilization. Joining her is Curtis Mehlberg (Jacob Tremblay), an awkward but loyal classmate who finds himself caught up in an adventure considerably more dangerous than anything the school guidance counselor warned him about.

Inside the forest, Prue and Curtis discover a sprawling world populated by talking animals, mystical creatures, warring factions, political schemers, and enough supernatural danger to make a stroll through the woods feel like a genuinely terrible idea.

Their journey brings them into contact with an extraordinary collection of characters, including the powerful and mysterious Alexandra (Carey Mulligan), the formidable General (Angela Bassett), the noble Brendan (Mahershala Ali), the resourceful rat Septima (Awkwafina), the courageous Niamh (Amandla Stenberg), the flamboyant Owl Rex (Richard E. Grant), and a wonderfully eccentric assortment of characters voiced by Charlie Day, Jemaine Clement, Tom Waits, and others.

As Prue struggles to find her brother, she discovers that the forest is far more complicated than she imagined. Old grudges, betrayal, sacrifice, and competing visions of power threaten to tear the entire realm apart.

Naturally, the fate of this magical world ends up resting on the shoulders of a couple of kids.

No pressure.

What follows is a sweeping fantasy adventure filled with wonder, humor, heartbreak, spectacular action, and more than a few moments that will make younger audience members wish they’d stayed home watching BLUEY.

Stop-Motion Animation Is Magic. Actual Magic.

I adore stop-motion animation.

Always have.

There’s something profoundly beautiful about watching inanimate objects come to life through the patience, imagination, and craftsmanship of actual human beings.

Stop-motion isn’t just an animation technique. It’s an almost incomprehensibly laborious art form. Imagine spending an entire day creating a few seconds of footage. Every movement requires a physical adjustment. Every expression requires careful consideration. Every piece of clothing, every leaf, every branch, every texture must be designed, built, and brought to life.

And if something goes wrong?

Well, you can’t exactly tell the puppet to try another take.

LAIKA has been at the forefront of this art form for years, delivering extraordinary films like CORALINE, PARANORMAN, THE BOXTROLLS, KUBO AND THE TWO STRINGS, and MISSING LINK.

With WILDWOOD, the studio has somehow raised its own already astronomical standards.

The sheer scope of this movie is staggering.

The forests feel alive. The creatures are magnificently expressive. The environments are so intricately detailed that I frequently found myself staring at the background rather than the characters in the foreground.

The lighting, the textures, the costumes, the miniature architecture, the way the characters move through their environments. It’s all astonishing.

There were moments when I genuinely couldn’t believe what I was looking at.

And here’s what’s so remarkable: the magic isn’t just in the finished product. It’s in knowing how much human ingenuity, patience, and dedication went into creating it.

In an era when so much creative work is being reduced to how quickly something can be generated, WILDWOOD is a glorious middle finger to the idea that speed and convenience are substitutes for craftsmanship.

Of course, LAIKA uses sophisticated computers, digital effects, and cutting-edge technology alongside its practical animation. But those tools serve the artists. They don’t replace them.

There’s a world of difference.

And that difference is visible in every single frame.

A Fantasy Adventure With a Surprisingly Dark Heart

One of my favorite things about WILDWOOD is that it refuses to treat young audiences like they’re incapable of handling challenging material.

This is a movie with genuine stakes.

There’s danger. There’s death. There’s betrayal. There’s grief. There are moments of real darkness, and the villains aren’t simply goofy obstacles waiting to be defeated by the heroes.

In fact, I’d argue that there’s a pretty healthy serving of nightmare fuel throughout this movie.

Some of the imagery is genuinely frightening, and several action sequences involve a level of violence and intensity that might surprise parents expecting a cute animated adventure about a girl rescuing her baby brother.

And then there’s a particularly dark moment involving a young, almost mechanical character and an apparent act of suicide.

Yeah.

We’re not exactly in PAW PATROL territory anymore.

There’s also some animated buttcheek action, because apparently even the most beautifully handcrafted fantasy epic occasionally needs to remind us that butts exist.

Now, let me be perfectly clear: none of this is a criticism.

Quite the opposite.

I love that WILDWOOD has the courage to explore difficult themes. I love that its filmmakers trust the audience. And I love that the movie understands how fear, loss, and even death can be essential elements of a meaningful coming-of-age story.

But parents, do your homework.

The movie is rated PG-13, which means parents are strongly cautioned that some material may be inappropriate for children under 13. The rating isn’t a decorative sticker slapped onto a movie poster.

There’s some genuinely frightening material here, alongside violence, suicide-related themes, and brief nudity. Depending on your child’s age and sensitivity, you may want to learn a little more before purchasing tickets.

And maybe prepare yourself for some interesting conversations on the ride home.

That’s not a bad thing.

Sometimes the best stories are the ones that encourage kids to ask difficult questions.

Just don’t assume that because something is animated, it’s automatically appropriate for a five-year-old.

An Extraordinary Cast, an Extraordinary World

The voice performances are every bit as impressive as the animation.

Peyton Elizabeth Lee brings an appealing combination of toughness, vulnerability, and determination to Prue. She’s a wonderfully imperfect protagonist, driven by love for her brother but forced to confront a world much bigger and more complicated than herself.

Jacob Tremblay is terrific as Curtis, whose initially awkward presence evolves into something genuinely heroic.

Carey Mulligan gives Alexandra an unsettling emotional complexity, while Mahershala Ali brings warmth and gravity to Brendan.

Angela Bassett could probably read a restaurant menu and make it sound like the fate of civilization depended on ordering the correct appetizer. As the General, she’s magnificent.

Awkwafina brings welcome comic energy to Septima, and Richard E. Grant’s wonderfully theatrical voice is a perfect fit for Owl Rex.

And that’s one of the great pleasures of WILDWOOD. It’s absolutely bursting with characters, ideas, visual inventions, and little surprises.

This is the kind of movie that makes me want to watch it again immediately, not because I missed something crucial to the story, but because I know there’s an entire universe of detail waiting to be discovered.

It’s a world I want to get lost in.

Even if some of its inhabitants might kill me.

A Masterpiece Made by Human Hands

Director Travis Knight, who previously gave us the wonderful KUBO AND THE TWO STRINGS, has created something genuinely special.

There’s an ambition to WILDWOOD that I wish more filmmakers would embrace. It’s enormous in scale, emotionally rich, visually overwhelming, and completely uninterested in taking shortcuts.

And in a cinematic landscape increasingly dominated by familiar formulas, sequels, remakes, and whatever the latest algorithm thinks audiences want, this movie feels like a gift.

It reminds me why I fell in love with movies in the first place.

Not because every movie needs to reinvent the medium.

Not because every story needs to be profound.

But because cinema, at its best, can take something that exists only in someone’s imagination and make it feel real.

WILDWOOD does that in spectacular fashion.

We’re nearing the end of 2026, and I’m already struggling with where this movie belongs on my annual top-ten list.

Top ten? Easily.

Top five? Entirely possible.

And when it comes to Best Animated Feature, I’m going to have a very difficult time putting anything ahead of it.

Frankly, I’d go further. WILDWOOD deserves serious consideration among the year’s very best pictures, animated or otherwise.

Because animation isn’t a genre. It’s a filmmaking medium. And there’s absolutely no reason a movie made with puppets, miniature sets, and extraordinary human craftsmanship shouldn’t stand alongside the year’s best live-action films.

I walked out of WILDWOOD exhilarated, moved, and profoundly grateful that studios like LAIKA still exist.

If you’re someone who loves movies, who appreciates the artistry behind them, or who simply wants to experience something genuinely magical, do yourself a favor and see this on the biggest screen you can find.

And if you’re an aspiring artist, animator, filmmaker, or creative person wondering whether there’s still a place for human imagination in an increasingly automated world, I hope you see it too.

Because every frame of WILDWOOD is a reminder that there is.

A+ in every single way.

Check out the trailer below, listen to the KVNU For the People Movie Show each Friday live at 5PM, or check here for the most recent podcasts.