MOVIES: Wildwood  (2026, Travis Knight)

The latest from stop-motion animation studio Laika, and at 130 minutes, reportedly the longest stop-motion movie ever made. It's rated PG-13, and the violence and adult themes mean that it is not for the smallest children. It's a stunning piece of work.

Prue (voiced by Petyon Elizabeth Lee) is a young teen in Portland, Oregon. (That's Laika's home, and the first chunk of the movie is a loving depiction of the city.) Her parents (Jake Johnson & Maya Erskine) have warned her that her baby brother Mac must never leave the house, but when she's left to babysit, she decides to take Mac on a trip around town.

When Mac is kidnapped by a flock of crows and taken into the Impenetrable Wilderness -- a fantasy version of the forest just outside Portland -- Prue follows, accompanied by her classmate Curtis (Jacob Tremblay). They find a world of talking animals, including a ferocious army of coyotes who take orders from the Dowager Governess ALexandra (Carey Mulligan). It is Alexandra who has taken Mac, and Prue and Curtis must unite the rest of the forest to fight an epic battle against her.

And I do mean "epic" The final battle scene would be a massive undertaking in live action -- two armies, each with aerial support from a giant flock of birds and armed with arrows, guns, bayonets, catapults, and flaming cannonballs -- but to do it in stop-motion is astonishing, and you can understand why the movie took five years to make.

The voice cast is stellar, with small roles played by (among others) Mahershala Ali, Richard E. Grant, Angela Bassett, Awkwafina, Tom Waits, Blythe Danner, Jemaine Clement, Tantoo Cardinal, and Len Cariou.

The condensing of Colin Meloy's novel is occasionally a bit clunky, with too much background information coming in awkward dumps, and the story is a bit of a hodgepodge of elements from other fairy tales and novels. The attempts of Alexandra to sway Curtis to her side, for instance, will surely remind you of Edmund and the White Witch from the Narnia books.

But if the tropes are familiar, they are skillfully juggled; the voice cast is superb; and the animation is breathtaking. An enormous achievement, and not to be missed if you have any interest at all in animation.