“Wildwood:” Mostly What the Doctor Ordered

In many ways, “Wildwood” is monumental; it is a stop-motion-animated “Lord of the Rings.” It has tens of thousands of individually animated parts and its hundreds of sets are larger than life. Every scene evokes the same emotion: “WOW.” Therein lies the film’s problem. “Wildwood” is monolithic but struggles to bear its own weight. For the past 20 years, Laika Studios has produced a number of dazzling, handmade stop-motion-animated films. Each movie is more expensive and expansive than the last. Each frame is dripping with human creativity. The catch? Laika films have never been profitable. Laika CEO Travis Knight is the son of former Nike CEO Phil Knight, who bankrolls the entire company. Nepotism is the unfortunate origin of all these original animated projects. Yet Laika remains one of the few film production companies adamant about its aversion to generative AI usage.

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