Laika’s latest stop motion film has shades of both Coraline and Labyrinth
Portland, Oregon-based stop-motion animation studio Laika launched in 2009 with Coraline, Henry Selick’s highly acclaimed adaptation of Neil Gaiman’s dark fairy tale about a girl who discovers another world where a twisted doppelganger of her mother hopes to keep her forever. The new trailer for the studio’s latest film, Wildwood, shows a return to Laika’s roots with an eerie story that combines aspects of Coraline and Jim Henson’s 1986 musical Labyrinth.
Set to a hauntingly slow version of Avicii’s “Wake Me Up,” the trailer introduces Alexandra (Carey Mulligan), the mysterious ruler of an enchanted forest near Portland. Alexandra lost her own son and is so desperate that she sends a murder of crows to abduct an infant from a city playground. Prue McKeel (Peyton Elizabeth Lee) journeys into the dangerous woods with her classmate Curtis Mehlberg (Jacob Tremblay) to rescue her brother Mac, seeking help to face Alexandra and her wolf army.
Labyrinth also followed a young girl journeying to a magical realm to rescue her infant brother after he was abducted by the Goblin King, though in that film she effectively summoned him by wishing goblins would take the crying baby away. The fairytale setup was also part of Pan’s Labyrinth, where a faun asks a girl to shed her baby brother’s blood to open a portal to another world where she could become a princess. The initial teaser trailer for Wildwood showed Prue’s parents making her promise not to take her brother outside, so it’s possible they know that he came from the woods and are trying to protect him from Alexandra.
Beyond sharing an animation style, Coraline and Wildwood also focus on young women facing tyrannical mother figures. Coraline had assistance from a cat and her young neighbor. While Curtis goes to the woods with Prue, he seems to be having a very bad time. Prue is making allies and riding a giant eagle while Curtis is dressed in the uniform of one of Alexandra’s soldiers and held in a cage.
Wildwood is directed by Travis Knight and written by Chris Butler. The two previously worked together on the 2016 Laika film Kubo and the Two Strings, another family-focused fairy tale following a boy looking for his missing samurai father. The star-studded cast includes Mahershala Ali, Awkwafina, Angela Bassett, and Charlie Day. Wildwood releases on Oct. 23 through Fathom Entertainment.