Wildwood opens with the Dad (Jake Johnson – Maximum Pleasure Guaranteed) of the family, telling his children the tale of a Alexandra, the dowager governess, and her despondent son, the details of which I won’t spoil here, as it’s something I wasn’t expecting.
Naturally, he’s overprotective of young son, Mac (Arthur Knight), but at this early juncture, I started to wince when his inquisitive teenage daughter, Prue (Peyton Elizabeth Lee), asked, “What if he gets married?”…
And Dad replies, opening, “Well, she, he.. or they…” – Pardon? Stop bringing this pronouns bollocks into films. And no-one talks like that, anyway. The Dad would assume his son will marry a woman, or be surprised if he turned out to be gay, and wouldn’t even entertain the ‘they’ nonsense.
Similarly, a local theatre is showing: “Drag Time Story Hour” – What the…?
Anyway, back to the film, and since the parents – with their mum played by Maya Erskine (Mr And Mrs Smith) – tell Prue to keep Mac indoors… of course she’s going to go out, and that’s where things go wrong, resulting in a murder of crows swooping him up and taking him into the… Wildwood! Well, it’s referred to as the Impassable Wilderness.
Out there, events take a bizarre turn as they’re discovered and then chased by confederate soldier wolves… yes, wolves dressed that way. Similarly, aside from the crows, they talk to other birds, who don’t understand how these outsiders got in. Well, you can literally fly, so explain that.
Once inside the deep forest, Alexandra (Carey Mulligan – The Ballad of Wallis Island) is alive and well, and it turns out she was quite normal at first, but was banished from the town due to a series of unfortunate circumstances… and then turned evil, as you do.
I really wanted to love Wildwood, as I am a huge fan of Laika’s 2016 movie Kubo And The Two Strings. Plus, Coraline is also a great film, although I am still on the fence about Paranorman, having seen it twice on the big screen.
It looks amazing as you’d expect, but I really struggled to get into it, as it took sharp turns along the way, such as the anthropomorphic wolves, then a load of weird supernatural stuff, and so on.
It feels like a mish-mash of disjointed ideas, with too many characters thrown in. Plus, at 2 hours 10 minutes, it’s about 30 mins too long, and really drags. It’s just too long for an animation, and the content doesn’t fill the running time.
However, given that they make their films by hand, and with zero AI involved – as a brief mid-credits moment shows, with time-lapse photography showing their work – an early pass by a shop shows a sign that states, “Enjoy handmade art – before it’s gone!”
NOTE: There is no post-credit scene.
Wildwood is in cinemas now, and is available to pre-order on 4K Blu-ray, Blu-ray and DVD.
You can also buy The Art Of Wildhood hardback book, and the Wildwood Chronicles 3-Book Box Set: Wildwood, Under Wildwood, Wildwood Imperium.
Detailed specs:
Cert: 
Running time: 130 minutes
Release date: October 23rd 2026
Studio: Laika Studios
Aspect Ratio: 2.39:1
Cinema: Odeon Trafford Centre
Rating: 4/10
Director: Travis Knight
Producers: Travis Knight, Sam Wilson
Screenplay: Chris Butler
Novel: Colin Meloy, Carson Ellis
Music: Dario Marianelli
Cast:
Alexandra: Carey Mulligan
Prue: Peyton Elizabeth Lee
Curtis: Jacob Tremblay
Mac: Arthur Knight
Dad: Jake Johnson
Mom: Maya Erskine
Iphigenia: Tantoo Cardinal
Lars: Marc Evan Jackson
Owl Rex: Richard E Grant
Dmitri: Charlie Day
Maksim: Tom Waits
The Postmaster: Len Cariou
The General: Angela Bassett
Septima: Awkwafina
Roger: Jemaine Clement
Niamh: Amandla Stenberg
Brendan: Mahershala Ali
Seamus: Ólafur Darri Ólafsson
The Seer: Blythe Danner
Samuel: Rob Delaney
Angus the Archer: Ridley Knight
Busybody: Jeannie Elias
Ember: Colleen O’Shaughnessey
Reviewer of movies, videogames and music since 1994. Aortic valve operation survivor from the same year. Running DVDfever.co.uk since 2000. Nobel Peace Prize winner 2021.