'Wildwood': Laika's stop-motion epic gets world premiere in London after 16 years
The animation studio unveiled its first film since 2019 at the London Film Festival. Early reviews are uniformly positive; it opens in Germany on Nov. 5.
Archive image · Photo: Gage Skidmore / Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 2.0 (cropped and resized)
US animation studio Laika has unveiled its new stop-motion film 'Wildwood' at the 70th BFI London Film Festival, with the world premiere held on Sunday at the Royal Festival Hall. "This movie took us 16 years to make," director Travis Knight said on stage. Laika optioned Colin Meloy's novel, illustrated by Carson Ellis, in September 2011.
The voice cast includes Peyton Elizabeth Lee, Jacob Tremblay, Carey Mulligan, Angela Bassett, Mahershala Ali and Tom Waits; Chris Butler wrote the screenplay. According to Forbes, the film stood at 100 percent positive on Rotten Tomatoes after its first 15 reviews.
'Wildwood' is Laika's sixth feature and its first since 'Missing Link' (2019). It opens in US and UK theaters on Oct. 23 and, according to kino.de, in Germany on Nov. 5 via Capelight Pictures.