Movie Review: Wildwood

Wildwood’s stop-motion animation may soar to new heights, but its writing flies much closer to the ground. “Wildwood” is the newest stop-motion animated film to come out of LAIKA Studios. It was adapted from Colin Meloy and Carson Ellis’ 2011 fantasy novel of the same name, and while it is an absolute pleasure to witness, the film is by no means flawless. For all the positives of Wildwood, its greatest strength is also the root of its biggest weakness. First off, this movie is just so gosh-darn gorgeous. The animation is so fluid and seamless that several times I was awestruck as to how LAIKA’s team pulled something off. The limitations of their medium did not prevent the animators from having very dynamic and frenetic action scenes. The animation never feels static or stilted; in fact, perhaps too much so. When characters run or fly, there is a conspicuous feeling that they are not pushing against anything to accomplish movement.

This excerpt comes from the named source. Read the original for the full reporting.