By Peg Aloi

An enchanted forest, a stolen child, and a battle for survival: Travis Knight’s Wildwood is as emotionally rich as it is visually dazzling.

Wildwood, directed by Travis Knight. Screening at AMC Boston Common 19 and Apple Cinemas Cambridge

A scene from Wildwood. Photo: LAIKA Studios

Travis Knight, producer and lead animator of Coraline and ParaNorman, directs this ambitious, impressive film that was 16 years in the making. Wildwood, adapted from Colin Meloy’s fantasy novel by Chris Butler (writer and co-director of ParaNorman), initially looks and feels like many other stop-motion fantasy films—radiating a contemporary vibe infused with magical elements. The comic tone feels familiar, but there are darker themes here (the on-screen violence may not be suitable for younger children). Yet this visionary tale of a girl who braves untold dangers to rescue her brother is full of bold originality, sure to thrill and enchant older children and adults alike. The comic tone feels familiar, but there are darker themes here (the on-screen violence may not be suitable for younger children). Yet this visionary tale of a girl who braves untold dangers to rescue her brother is full of bold originality, sure to thrill and enchant older children and adults alike.

The film’s prologue shows a young boy plunging to his death from a castle balcony. He turns out to be not human but an automaton. The inhabitants of a medievalesque village regard his grieving mother, Queen Alexandra (voiced by Carey Mulligan), with suspicion and pity. As her story unfolds, grief fuels a quest for revenge and a lust for power.

The action shifts to the present, where Prue (Peyton Elizabeth Lee) lives in a cute bungalow in a woodsy neighborhood on the outskirts of Portland, Oregon. Her parents (played by PEN15’s Maya Erskine and Minx’s Jake Johnson) are familiar neo-hippie progressives who frequent the farmers market and encourage their kids to play outside—but apparently only if they stay close to home.

One day, left to babysit Mac while her parents head to a craft fair, the curious, rebellious Prue takes him to a local park in a wagon hitched to her bike. There they encounter her schoolmate Curtis (Jacob Tremblay), a smart but socially awkward boy who seems slightly smitten with Prue, even as she dismisses him with impatience: she finds him dull and pedantic. As they cross a bridge near the park, a flock of crows—a murder, Curtis feels compelled to clarify—swoops down and carries Mac off toward a distant forest.

A scene from Wildwood. Photo: LAIKA Studios

Thus begins a wild, fantastical journey, with Prue determined to rescue her brother by any means necessary. A wise owl (Richard E. Grant) offers guidance but is promptly captured and imprisoned. Prue and Curtis learn that Queen Alexandra is holding Mac in a fortress guarded by coyotes and other menacing creatures poised to attack any intruder. When the two friends are separated, Prue turns for help to an old druid, Iphigenia (Tantoo Cardinal), who senses a touch of magic in the girl who claims she left fairy tales behind her years ago.

Captured by the queen’s henchmen, Curtis befriends Septima (Awkwafina), a clever rat who helps him free a band of outlaws imprisoned alongside him in a vast cave. Led by Brendan (Mahershala Ali) and Niamh (Amandla Stenberg), these brawny, wild-haired, tattooed bandits are eager to return to their loved ones. Their joyful homecoming is short-lived: Alexandra’s soldiers are preparing for battle, and the bandits must take up arms to defend their community.

Reunited with Prue, who regrets her earlier unkindness, Curtis resolves to be brave. Together, they join the forest’s defenders—a dizzying coalition of bandits, farmers, birds, rats, sheep, and rabbits desperate to protect their home. Prue blames herself for setting the conflict in motion by failing to keep Mac safe, but Iphigenia assures her that a reckoning with the queen was brewing long before his abduction. Prue and Curtis commit to the fight, even as they struggle to comprehend the strange world into which they’ve stumbled.

A scene from Wildwood. Photo: LAIKA Studios

Prue’s and Curtis’s parallel journeys give this genre-spanning story a deft coming-of-age dimension. It’s refreshing to see an animated film that doesn’t dissolve into self-aware pop-culture jokes or Hallmark sentimentality. Wildwood achieves profound emotional depth by boldly blurring the narrative lines between magic and realism: we embrace the fantastical adventure because its human framework is so recognizable.

The menagerie of wildlife and farm animals co-existing is a subtle but effective ecological commentary (as is the destructive power of the invasive ivy that, once unleashed, threatens to annihilate all in its path). Some animals talk; some don’t. Some look realistic, others slightly cartoonish, but each is vivid and distinctive, and their shared social bond is undeniable. A superb voice cast—including Tom Waits, Angela Bassett, Len Cariou, Blythe Danner, and Charlie Day—gives these complex characters memorable, colorful texture and life.

The forest kingdom and its inhabitants are, for me, the film’s earthy, thrilling heart. These wild counterparts to Portland’s civilized chaos, whose mythic existence conjures collective memories modern humanity has all but discarded, have much to teach us, as cinema-goers hungry for escape and hope. Do see this film in a theatre if at all possible.

Sixteen years in the making, Wildwood is a triumph of artistic effort. The mise-en-scène is flawless, aided by the superb talents of cinematographer Caleb Deschanel (The Lion King, Never Look Away), a remarkable team of animation artists and post-production editors, and Dario Marianelli’s sweeping, tension-filled score (Atonement, Pride & Prejudice). Stay through the final credits: they’re as artful and thrilling as everything that comes before.

Peg Aloi is a former film critic for the Boston Phoenix and member of the Boston Society of Film Critics, the Critics Choice Awards, and the Alliance for Women Film Journalists. She taught film studies in Boston for over a decade. She has written on film, TV, and culture for web publications like Time, Vice, Polygon, Bustle, Dread Central, Mic, Orlando Weekly, Refinery29, and Bloody Disgusting. Her blog “The Witching Hour” can be found on substack.