The Wildwood trailer is here, and the magic is intact
Seven years between films. Laika’s last stop-motion feature, The Missing Link, came out in 2019.
Before that, five consecutive Oscar nominations stretching back to Coraline.
The studio has always made the painstaking look effortless. Their upcoming film Wildwood suggests that hasn’t changed.
The new trailer shows what Laika does better than anyone: handmade worlds that feel genuinely alive.
Every frame is a physical object someone touched. The enchanted forest at the heart of the story looks dense and strange in the way only real materials can.
“Wildwood is a tale of love, loss, sacrifice, and secrets, and of the magic you can find on your doorstep, if you’re willing to look for it.“
The film follows Prue McKeel, a teenager who pursues a murder of crows into a hidden wilderness just beyond Portland’s city limits. Her baby brother has been taken.
Director Travis Knight, who grew up in Portland, sets the Hawthorne Bridge against the mythic. M83 scores the whole thing.
Chris Butler, who wrote Kubo and the Two Strings, adapted the story from Colin Meloy’s book series.
The voice cast includes Carey Mulligan, Mahershala Ali, Tom Waits, Awkwafina, Jacob Tremblay, Angela Bassett, and Jemaine Clement.
Wildwood opens in theaters October 23.
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