Laika Needs ‘Wildwood’ to Be About More Than the Stop-Motion Craft That Went Into It: ‘Prestige Alone Isn’t Enough’
by MoneyLibrarian9032
Laika Needs ‘Wildwood’ to Be About More Than the Stop-Motion Craft That Went Into It: ‘Prestige Alone Isn’t Enough’
by MoneyLibrarian9032
5 Comments
Unfortuabtly it feels exactly what this film is. It doesn’t feel like it’s trying to reach out to a general audience but rather create a prestige story that the initiated will appreciate.
The trailer looked way better than I was expecting. I liked Coraline but find it hard to connect with most of their films.
Studios like Laika, Cartoon Saloon, Ghibli, Aardman and Chomet’s studio (whatever that’s called) are still so sorely needed in the Illumination hellscape we live in, and things are only going to get worse when slop made by humans like Mario Galaxy becomes slop made by AI for cost-cutting reasons.
It’s fine that animation is so often for kids, but we also need animated films that resist being for kids. We need animated films that resist Disney and Pixar’s brand of humour, or timid approach to storytelling. We need animated films that take creative risks, that don’t try and please everyone, that push the envelope visually and narratively. We need animated films that aren’t sequels or franchisable ‘products’.
It’s terrifying how this genre disincentivises creativity through the fear of the box office and how time and labour intensive these films are to make. I wish this were not the case, but film lovers should see animated film as an endangered species we need to protect.
I love Laika, but with their more recent releases it sometimes feels like they try too much to hide the stop motion. Everything’s handmade, yes, but to a level of realism and precision that doesn’t always sing.
Like the article mentions, for those in the know it’s really impressive to see behind the scenes footage, but what’s the point of doing this in 2026 if it could be mistaken for computer animation?
The tactile feel and scrappiness of stop motion is what sets it apart from other forms of animation in my opinion. The Del Toro Pinocchio really leaned into this aspect.
Laika is the pet project of some billionaire son. It exists because the guy likes stop motion animation and believes it should exist. Art that exists for its own sake is important to our culture, not everything has to or can make a bazillion dollars, especially if that art is animated.