Animation is having its moment, after the Oscar win ofGuillermo Del Toro’sPinocchiolast year andSpider-Man: Across the Spider-Versecurrently, breaking box office records, animation is getting its rightful attention. In a similar vein, Portland-based Laika Studio that’s given us features likeCoraline, andKubo And The Two Stringsis gearing up for its next stop-motion animated featureWildwood. While the feature is long in making the studio’s CEO and directorTravis Knightconfirmed toEmpire Magazinethat the film will finally debut on the big screens sometime in 2025.
Knight also dished out details of the upcoming movie and teased a look, the new image sees him sitting beside what looks like a clay-modeled house, made in typical gothic fashion, which will be featured in the upcoming film. Based on a book byThe DecemberistsfrontmanColin Meloy, the feature is based in Portland andfollows a young womanwho comes across a forbidden and enchanted forest. The movie will also feature a massive battle the likes of which the studio has never attempted before. Knight tells, “It’s the single most difficult thing we’re tackling on this movie.” But the director is sure the sequence will pan out, “We’re starting to chip away and tentatively stepping into, like, ‘Oh God, oh God, oh God, how are we gonna do this?’ But I think it’s going to work. And you’ll tell me when the film’s all done if it did,” he said.
For the uninitiated,stop-motion animationis one of the toughest art forms. It’s an advanced flipbook-style form of animation which involves photographing and physically manipulating objects within the frame. The technique takes a lot of time from modeling to filming and then finally processing. Knight tells, “Stop-motion films tend to look like they’re shot on a table-top because they are. Moving a physical object a frame at a time and trying to give it life, that’s its own challenge. And then you bring all the kineticism you would have in a live-action action movie… It’s so hard.”
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What’sWildwoodAbout?
The movie follows a young girl Prue McKeel, whose brother Mac is taken by a murder of crows to the enchanted forest. To save him Prue along with her hapless classmate Curtis enters the forbidden forest. While Prue might think she’s too old for fairytales but upon entering the forest she finds herself at the center of one, filled with strange talking animals, roguish bandits, and powerful figures with the darkest intentions.
