It may have taken over a decade, but in the last few weeks we have finally started to get a first real look at Wildwoodthe latest epic stop-motion animation adventure from Oregon studio Laika Studio. Last month we exclusively shared a first photo of Kubo and the two strings director Travis Knight’s long-held passion project and quickly followed it up with the world’s first stop-motion digital magazine cover, introducing the film’s plucky heroine, Prue McKeel. Today, the studio finally released the first teaser for Knight’s adaptation of Colin Meloy’s anthropomorphic young adult fantasy book – with a little help from some familiar faces. Check it out below:
Now that’s a teaser! “There are places in the world that people should never visit,” Jake Johnson intones threateningly over footage of Coralline, ParaNormanAnd KuboThe heroes of The Last Man venture into “dark forests where the trees hide even darker secrets.” There we catch a glimpse of glittering coyote eyes, twisted trees, and the various inhabitants of the ominously named “impassable wilderness” – also known as the titular Wildwood. It is a dark, atmospheric, but ultimately irresistible allusion to a magical realm that Knight Rich as an “American Narnia,” and while the previous Laika heroes announced in this new teaser will not appear in the film itself (no stop-motion multiverse shenanigans here—sorry, folks!), this fifty-second appetizer ends with a shot of the story’s new heroes, Prue and schoolmate Curtis, standing on the edge of the great Wildwood.
The action takes place in Portland, Oregon (the same area where a certain Coraline Jones comes from, didn’t you know?). Wildwood The story – at least according to the book – is about Prue, a seventh-grader from Portland who travels to the Wildwood to track down a flock of crows that have captured her little brother Mac. There, she and her goofy classmate Curtis embark on a transformative adventure full of danger, magic, talking animals, and surprisingly clever political intrigue for a young adult book series. Or, as Laika’s succinct logline puts it: “Wildwood is a story of love, loss, sacrifice and secrets and of the magic that can be found right on your doorstep if you are willing to look for it.”
Among the stars who bring Knight and screenwriter Chris Butler’s film to life are *deep breath* Peyton Elizabeth Lee, Carey Mulligan, Mahershala Ali, Jacob Tremblay, Awkwafina, Angela Bassett, Jake Johnson, Charlie Day, Amandla Stenberg, Jemaine Clement, Tom Waits and Richard E. Grant. We will go into the woods with them all when Wildwood will hit our screens sometime in 2025.
