Wildwood is directed by Travis Knight, written by Chris Butler, and based on the 2011 novel of the same name. The film stars Peyton Elizabeth Lee, Jacob Tremblay, Carey Mulligan, Mahershala Ali, and many more. It was easily one of my most anticipated films of the year, and having seen it, I’m happy to say I think it’s going to be the number one contender for Best Animated Feature of 2026. There’s still more to come this year, and I’m sure a couple of niche indie flicks will pop up toward the end of it. But having seen over 130 films in 2026, this is easily one of my favorites so far.
For anybody unfamiliar, this is the sixth film from Laika, a studio known for being one of the very few still doing stop-motion animation. Their previous films include Coraline, ParaNorman, and Kubo and the Two Strings, which Travis Knight also directed. This is also Knight’s second film this year, alongside Masters of the Universe. Kudos to him for having two big films come out in the same year.
There’s been a lot of conversation about this film not tracking well in early sales, and I’m hoping it gets strong word of mouth, because if you look at the scores on Letterboxd and online in general, this movie is being praised up the ass. In my opinion, it’s for great reasons.
When a murder of crows abducts her baby brother, Mac, headstrong teenager Prue McKeel ventures into the impenetrable wilderness, a mysterious enchanted forest hidden just beyond Portland, Oregon. Joined by her loyal but awkward classmate Curtis, Prue encounters talking animals, bandits, and powerful figures caught up in a struggle over the forest’s future. To rescue her brother, she must confront dangerous forces and discover a strength she never knew she possessed.
I absolutely love this movie. I am blown away by it, and it’s the kind of movie that reminds me why I love film. I’ve said it many times before, but stop-motion is without a doubt one of my favorite forms of animation. Laika is one of the few studios, alongside companies like Aardman, able to get these films into theaters and put money behind them. But in the grand scheme of things, stop-motion is a dying art form. We see fewer of these films every year, and it feels more like a passion project than a lucrative business.
I’ve loved Laika’s previous movies, and they’re one of the most unique studios working today. They consistently make films that are beautifully crafted from top to bottom, even if I don’t love them all to the same degree. There’s not a single title in their lineup I’ve disliked, and I’ve appreciated watching their journey. Wildwood throws itself into the conversation as possibly the best-made of the bunch.
Is it going to be your favorite overall in terms of story and character? That’s still to be decided, and I don’t know how I feel about that just yet. But for me, this was a love letter to everything stop-motion animation has been up to this point, and a clear sign of what it can be moving forward.
Including pre-production, this film was in the works for over 10 years as the studio developed the technology needed to make it a reality. Principal photography started back in 2020, meaning over five years of actual stop-motion animation. For anybody unfamiliar, the process is grueling. One scene can take weeks or months to get right. Here you have a film that runs over two hours and features some of the craziest stop-motion sequences I’ve ever seen, from full-on action and battle sequences to a character riding a bike past people and down a hill, with so many moving parts.
All of this requires meticulous, slow movement of every character, changing their facial expressions, hair, clothing, and everything else, then taking pictures one little bit at a time until you eventually have a full motion picture. It’s one of the art forms I have the most respect for.
From what I’ve read, over a thousand people worked on this film. There were over 200 individual puppets, dozens of main characters, and hundreds of locations to build. I also read that just shy of 50 shots in the film are primarily digital. Digital elements enhance some backgrounds, but the vast majority of the film’s almost 3,000 shots are stop-motion. That is insanely impressive.
You can see the detail and hard work on screen, and visually, it’s an absolutely stunning movie from top to bottom. It’s easily the best-looking film Laika has ever put out, and you can tell they’re using new techniques. I’ve been watching stop-motion since I was a kid, and I first fell in love with filmmaking through claymation and stop-motion, so it’s a beautiful thing to see that art form still being practiced by a major studio that’s able to push the boundaries of what this kind of filmmaking can be.
The voice cast is great. I enjoyed Peyton Elizabeth Lee as Prue, our main character. She creates someone headstrong and fun, a character you can get behind. She doesn’t feel wimpy, but she doesn’t feel overpowered either. It’s about her being willing to go to those places. Will she be able to do everything she wants to? That’s up in the air. She meets people along the way who help her get in and out of certain situations. But as far as her journey to save her baby brother goes, I was on board from top to bottom.
I also enjoyed Jacob Tremblay, Mahershala Ali (who’s appearing in movies a lot more now), Angela Bassett, Awkwafina, Jake Johnson, and Charlie Day. There are so many big names in this film, but the other absolute standout in terms of vocal performance and character is Carey Mulligan as the main villain, Alexandra.
She’s a bad guy who, in some ways, fits traditional bad-guy archetypes, but she’s also a character you can fully understand. The film gives you a reason to understand who she is.
Thematically, I appreciated that this film dips its toes into dark themes. I’ve talked many times about how I hate that, over the last 10 to 15 years, a lot of family movies have shied away from darker subject matter. Anybody who grew up before or in the early 2000s, watching stuff from the ’80s and ’90s, knows a lot of things made for families were pretty dark. Even early Disney films featured some pretty dark imagery.
In an effort to keep things safe for kids, movies started dumbing things down and making everything feel cushy, safe, colorful, and vibrant. What I love about this film is that you get a beautiful, colorful, fun animated movie with talking creatures and all kinds of crazy magical elements, but also a story about grief. It doesn’t shy away from death or characters dying. It doesn’t shy away from violence either, but it’s never gratuitous or violent just for the sake of violence.
The film has things to say about life, death, love, and grief, and how those things can change who you are. It explores what it means to let go of something, when you need to learn to let go, and when you need to keep fighting for what you’re struggling to let go of. It handles darker subject matter without ever feeling overly scary or like something kids can’t watch.
That was refreshing at a time when so many animated family films feel like they have to be super cushy and safe. Movies like this remind me of what I grew up watching, where stories touched on death, grief, and sadness. Maybe as a kid I didn’t fully grasp what was going on, but those elements always made things far more compelling.
All in all, Wildwood is an incredibly beautiful-looking film with incredible performances. It’s well-crafted in its filmmaking and this specific style of animation, it pushes that style forward, and it shows that Laika is consistently growing as a studio. Story-wise, you get a big, sprawling adventure with everything from over-the-top epic battle sequences to small character moments and silly, whimsical ones.
The film is funny, charming, endearing, and very loving at times. It has a lot to say about the relationship between a child and their parent, what a parent is willing to go through for their kid, and the grief and pain people carry when they lose someone. It’s a rich film in so many ways, and it immediately became one of the best films I’ve seen in 2026.
I went in having heard a lot of the buzz and was curious how I’d feel about it. This is one where the hype definitely lives up to the expectations, and I honestly can’t wait to see it again.
If I had to point out any gripes, I wish we had a little more time with some of the film’s other characters. Not Prue, Alexandra, or Curtis, who are at the very center of the story, but the group of bandits we’re introduced to, along with some of the fun, fantastical creatures who appear at various points. I think we could have spent a little more time with them.
Other than that, this is an incredibly well-made film that most people will enjoy.
Rating: 10/10