WILDWOOD*** - BFI London Film Festival 2026 - Day 5

If your dad is a billionaire willing to fund your media dreams you can turn Dark Spidey like David Ellison or use the Force for good like Travis Knight. There’s something to be said for being so insulated from commercial pressure that you can create ludicrously expensive, visually ravishing, stop-motion films that are too long and violent for kids but charm adults. His latest project, WILDWOOD, is a mash-up of elements from LABYRINTH, STAR WARS and LOTR, with a script by ParaNorman writer Chris Butler, based on the book by Carson Ellis and Colin Meloy. A teenage girl called Pru goes into a magical forest to rescue her baby brother, assisted by a nerdy gamer boy called Curtis (Jacob Tremblay). She encounters a world of magical animals, forest outlaws and Yoda-ish hippies. Together they must defeat the evil Dowager Governor (Carey Mulligan) who is so grief-stricken that she wants to use black magic to resurrect her son. 

I loved everything about the film that was to do with its look and feel. The animation is wonderful and kinetic, the soundtrack is propulsive and beautiful, and the imagination behind the worlds it creates is awe-inspiring. An early scene of the siblings cycling through Portland, Oregon is just beyond charming and the visualisation of their parents is simply adorable. It all felt organic and tactile and beautifully, lovingly hand-made. 

What I didn’t like was the script. Two hours twenty is just too long for a kids film, and as I was taken on my third, fourth and fifth chase scene even I started to tire. This film is also way way too scary for your typical kid and I am utterly surprised it’s been given a 12 rating. More than that I didn’t like that we only found out the backstory and plot motivation 45 mins in. In LABYRINTH and other great kids’ adventures you know the stakes immediately. 

It’s a measure of how far out of the movie I was that by the time we got to the big climactic battle scene I was like a) no way evil queen is losing if she has the high ground and guns b) why is her bombardment in the midst of battle when it kills her own troops rather than before the battle. So yeah. Not an immersive compelling story.

WILDWOOD is rated PG-13 and has a running time of 2hrs 13m.