Laika Returns With Wildwood, an Old-Fashioned Stop-Motion Quest

Laika, the Portland-based studio behind Coraline, returns with Wildwood, a stop-motion fantasy adventure that reviewers describe as "a forthright, exuberant, good-natured and old-fashioned children's tale" in the tradition CS Lewis and JRR Tolkien would have recognised.

The film is directed by Travis Knight, Laika's lead animator, and written by Chris Butler. It adapts the bestselling novel of the same title by Carson Ellis and Colin Meloy — Meloy is a member of the band The Decemberists, and eagle-eyed viewers will spot one of the band's tour posters in the film itself.

What is Wildwood about?

The story is set in modern-day Portland, Oregon. The city's hipster stores — including a coffee shop actually called Dripster — and its "Woke 1.0" signage are affectionately mocked. But the film's real focus lies beside the city: a vast forest park mythologised as the impassable wilderness, or "wildwood," where strange creatures, fairytale nobility and wisecracking talking animals reportedly dwell — a secret world of which the city's human residents remain entirely ignorant.

The Guardian's review notes that the film captures "the mysterious glory of going on a quest and the terrible fear and wish-fulfilment euphoria of being called upon to confront secret forces that the grownups know nothing about."

Who are the characters?

• Prue, a 12-year-old girl voiced by Peyton Elizabeth Lee.
• Her parents, a couple of amiable hippies who believe in natural forces and benign magic, voiced by Jake Johnson and Maya Erskine.
• Mac, Prue's baby brother, whom she must push around the city in his stroller while babysitting.
• Curtis, a nerdy classmate with a crush on Prue, voiced by Jacob Tremblay, who tags along on the fateful outing.

The film's marketing promises a magical tale of "strange beasts, talking animals and evil governesses" hidden within the wildwood.

Why does this film matter for Laika?

Wildwood marks the latest feature from a studio that has built its reputation on distinctive, handcrafted stop-motion animation since Coraline. Where competitors rely on CGI, Laika's signature technique — combining traditional puppet animation with modern refinements — gives its films a tactile, storybook quality that reviewers consistently single out.

The choice of source material reinforces that identity. Ellis and Meloy's novel, like Laika's earlier adaptations, leans into children's fantasy conventions: a young protagonist, a hidden world, and adults who cannot see what children can. The reviewer's comparison to Lewis and Tolkien positions Wildwood squarely in that lineage rather than in the irony-heavy register of much contemporary family entertainment.

With Knight — who has served as the studio's lead animator across its history — taking the director's chair, the film continues Laika's practice of keeping its creative leadership in-house.

For family audiences seeking an alternative to franchise animation, Wildwood offers exactly what its makers promise: a quest story told with handcrafted care, set in a forest world that the film's own city-dwellers never suspect exists next door.