Wildwood (2026) Review – LAIKA’s Handcrafted Stop-Motion Epic Is a Forest Worth Getting Lost In

Our Rating: ★★★★☆ 8.5/10

LAIKA had not released a feature film since Missing Link in 2019, so the arrival of Wildwood felt like an event before a single frame had been seen. Seven years of silence, sixteen years of development by some accounts, and then a film that premiered at the BFI London Film Festival, won the audience prize at Sitges, and opened to the best reviews in the studio’s history. The early numbers told the same story as the applause: a perfect Rotten Tomatoes score from its first wave of critics, an average rating around 8.7 out of 10, and a Metacritic score in the mid-80s. Wildwood is not a perfect film, and this review will say plainly where it stumbles. But it is a remarkable one — a handcrafted fantasy epic that reminds you, in an age of weightless digital spectacle, what it feels like when every leaf on screen was placed there by a human hand.

This review is spoiler-free on the film’s later revelations. The forest keeps its secrets, and so will we.

Quick Facts: Wildwood at a Glance

The Story: Into the Impassable Wilderness (Spoiler-Free)

Prue McKeel is an ordinary girl in Portland, Oregon, minding her baby brother Mac on an ordinary day — until a murder of crows sweeps down and carries the baby away into the Impassable Wilderness, the forbidden forest at the edge of town. Prue follows on her bicycle, accompanied by her classmate Curtis, a boy whose caution and curiosity are in constant, funny conflict. Beyond the tree line, the rules change. The forest is a kingdom of talking animals, giant birds, bandits and old magic, and it is sliding toward war. At its centre stands Alexandra, a grieving witch played with magnificent severity by Carey Mulligan, who commands an army of uniformed coyotes and nurses a sorrow that has curdled into something dangerous.

The setup comes from Colin Meloy and Carson Ellis’s 2011 novel, and it carries the sturdy bones of classic children’s fantasy: an ordinary child, an impossible place, a rescue that becomes something much larger. What makes Wildwood feel different is its refusal to sand down the edges. This is LAIKA’s first PG-13 film, and the rating is earned — the fantasy violence is real, the images are occasionally bloody, and the story deals frankly with grief, war and loss. Parents expecting another gentle Coraline-style fable for small children should know that this one is aimed at older kids and adults. The darkness is not decoration; it is the point. The forest is beautiful and terrifying in the same breath, and the film trusts its audience to hold both feelings at once.

The middle stretch is where the film’s ambition shows most. Prue and Curtis are separated, reunited, captured, freed and drawn deeper into the forest’s politics, and the film juggles a large cast of creatures without ever losing the emotional thread: a sister trying to bring her brother home. Some critics found the story less enchanting than the animation around it, and there is truth in that — the plot leans on familiar quest beats, and at 132 minutes, the longest film LAIKA has ever made, a few passages feel stretched. But the film’s heart never wanders, and its final act earns its emotion honestly.

Performances: A Voice Cast With No Weak Link

Peyton Elizabeth Lee as Prue McKeel — Lee is the film’s anchor, and she is terrific: stalwart, curious, funny and afraid in the right proportions. Prue is not a chosen-one cliché; she is a big sister who refuses to go home without her brother, and Lee makes that stubbornness feel like the most heroic thing in the world.

Jacob Tremblay as Curtis — Tremblay gives Curtis exactly the right mix of doubt and determination. He is the audience’s way into the forest — the kid who asks the sensible questions while still following his friend into danger — and his scenes with Lee are the film’s warmest.

Carey Mulligan as Alexandra — Mulligan’s witch is the film’s great creation: righteous in her grief, beguiling in her mischief, ruthless in her command. She never becomes a cartoon villain, and that is what makes her frightening. You understand her sorrow even as you fear what it has made her do.

Mahershala Ali, Angela Bassett, Awkwafina and the ensemble — Ali brings gravity to his role, Bassett brings authority, and Awkwafina, as the rat Septima, brings much of the film’s humour — reviewers singled her out as especially good in an otherwise sombre film. Jake Johnson, as Prue’s devoted and anxious father, may be first among equals in the supporting cast, while Charlie Day, Jemaine Clement, Maya Erskine, Tom Waits and Richard E. Grant fill out a company so deep that even small roles feel fully inhabited.

Direction and Technical Craft

Travis Knight, LAIKA’s chief executive and the director of Kubo and the Two Strings, has made the studio’s most ambitious film, and the craft is simply staggering. Every frame is hand-built: the moss on the trees, the feathers on the crows, the uniforms on the coyote army, the weather moving across the forest canopy. Cinematographer Caleb Deschanel, shooting his first animated film, gives the forest a painterly depth that makes the stop-motion feel vast rather than miniature. The action — chases through the undergrowth, battles between animal factions, flights over the canopy — is staged with a confidence that live-action fantasy rarely matches, because here the camera can go anywhere and the world is real enough to touch.

Where the film strains is in its length and its balance. At 132 minutes it runs about half an hour longer than anything LAIKA has made before, and a few sequences — particularly in the crowded middle — feel like they are marking time between set pieces. IndieWire’s B- review put it fairly: an impressive, carefully crafted production that does not always enchant as deeply as the studio’s best work. The Hollywood Reporter, meanwhile, called it a technical and emotional triumph, and Empire awarded it five stars. Both responses are understandable, because the film contains both experiences: passages of pure wonder, and passages where you admire the craft more than you feel the story.

Music and Sound

The score leans into folk textures and orchestral sweep in equal measure, matching a film that is part Pacific Northwest fairy tale and part war story. The sound design does quiet, essential work: the rustle of the forest, the cawing of the crows, the creak of the wicker and wood of the forest world. Nothing here is built for the charts, and that is a strength — the music serves the world rather than selling it.

What Works and What Doesn’t

What we loved:

• The most beautiful stop-motion world LAIKA has ever built — every frame handcrafted
• Peyton Elizabeth Lee’s warm, stubborn Prue and her chemistry with Jacob Tremblay’s Curtis
• Carey Mulligan’s magnificent, sorrowful witch Alexandra
• A deep, uniformly excellent voice ensemble, with Awkwafina and Jake Johnson standouts
• A story that respects its audience, with real stakes, grief and darkness alongside the wonder
• The Sitges audience prize and the near-unanimous early critical embrace

What could be better:

• At 132 minutes it is too long in places, and the middle sags between set pieces
• The quest plot leans on familiar beats and never quite matches the originality of the visuals
• The PG-13 darkness will surprise families expecting a gentle children’s film
• A few of the many creatures and factions blur together on a first viewing

Box Office: A Strong Start for Handcrafted Animation

Wildwood opened in the United States on 23 October 2026 to about $11.6 million, a solid start for a stop-motion film with a PG-13 rating, and held well: its second weekend, 30 October to 1 November, took about $7.5 million, a drop of roughly 39%, for a domestic total of about $25.9 million. It also topped the ScreenStat buzz chart on 1 November with a score of 61.1 out of 100 — the release holding attention longest among that week’s films. Those numbers will not trouble the big franchise releases, but for a handcrafted original fantasy they represent something genuinely encouraging: audiences are showing up for a film made by hand, and staying with it by word of mouth.

Verdict: Should You Watch It?

Yes — on the biggest screen you can find, and ideally with someone who still remembers what it felt like to believe a forest could hide a kingdom. Wildwood is not LAIKA’s tightest film, and its middle hour asks for patience. But its best passages are as good as anything the studio has ever made, its heroine is a delight, and its villain is one of the year’s great creations. Go in expecting wonder with weight, not a light children’s romp, and you will come out converted.

Our rating: 8.5/10 — A handcrafted fantasy epic whose beauty and heart outweigh a baggy middle — LAIKA’s most ambitious film, and very nearly its best.

Frequently Asked Questions

What is Wildwood about?

A girl named Prue McKeel follows a murder of crows into a forbidden enchanted forest to rescue her baby brother, and finds herself caught in a war between the forest’s creatures.

Who directed Wildwood?

Travis Knight, LAIKA’s chief executive and the director of Kubo and the Two Strings, from a script by Chris Butler based on Colin Meloy and Carson Ellis’s 2011 novel.

Who voices the main characters in Wildwood?

Peyton Elizabeth Lee voices Prue, Jacob Tremblay voices Curtis, Carey Mulligan voices the witch Alexandra, and Mahershala Ali, Angela Bassett and Awkwafina lead the supporting voice cast.

When was Wildwood released?

It premiered at the BFI London Film Festival on 11 October 2026 and opened in US theatres on 23 October 2026.

How long is Wildwood?

About 132 minutes, making it LAIKA’s longest film.

Is Wildwood suitable for children?

It is rated PG-13 for strong fantasy violence and bloody images, thematic material and language, so it suits older children and adults better than young kids.

How much has Wildwood earned at the box office?

About $25.9 million domestically after its second weekend (30 October–1 November 2026), after an opening of about $11.6 million.

Did Wildwood win any awards?

It won the Grand People’s Choice Award for Best Feature Film at the 59th Sitges Film Festival in October 2026.