Director: Travis Knight
Producers: Travis Knight, Sam Wilson
Executive Producer: David Burke
Screenplay: Chris Butler
Production Studio: LAIKA Studios
Production Design: Nelson Lowry
Costume Design: Deborah Cook
Animation Technique: Stop-Motion Animation
MPA Rating: PG-13
Based On: Wildwood (2011), novel by Colin Meloy, illustrated by Carson Ellis
Estimated Budget: Approximately $100 million USD (reported, not officially confirmed)
Domestic Opening Weekend: $12.27 million USD

The World of Wildwood

Wildwood is a stop-motion animated fantasy adventure from LAIKA Studios, directed by Travis Knight. Based on Colin Meloy’s novel, the film follows Prue McKeel, a young girl whose baby brother is abducted by a flock of crows and carried into the mysterious Impassable Wilderness outside Portland, Oregon.

Accompanied by her classmate Curtis Mehlberg, Prue enters a hidden world inhabited by talking animals, bandits and competing factions. Her search becomes entangled in a larger conflict involving the powerful Alexandra, whose plans threaten the forest and its inhabitants.

Bringing the Chronicles to Life

Wildwood adapts the 2011 fantasy novel by Colin Meloy, best known as the frontman of the indie rock band the Decemberists. Illustrated by Carson Ellis, the book introduced an elaborate fantasy world inspired by the forests surrounding Portland,

LAIKA Studios began developing the adaptation in 2011, with Travis Knight directing from a screenplay by Chris Butler. The studio’s long production process involved translating Ellis’s illustrations and Meloy’s detailed world into three-dimensional environments, preserving the story’s distinctive Pacific Northwest setting and its mixture of folklore, adventure and fantasy.

Handcrafted Fantasy on an Epic Scale

Wildwood represents LAIKA’s most ambitious stop-motion production, with more than 200 handcrafted puppets, elaborate miniature environments and thousands of individually photographed shots. Production designer Nelson Lowry and his team developed a richly detailed forest world inspired by the Pacific Northwest.

The film’s animation required sophisticated engineering, particularly for complex creatures such as the General, a giant golden eagle with individually crafted feathers and intricate internal mechanisms. LAIKA’s animators worked with physical puppets, replacement facial expressions and digital effects to create expansive action sequences while preserving the tactile appearance associated with the studio’s work on Coraline and Kubo and the Two Strings.

Characters, Performances and Music

Peyton Elizabeth Lee voices Prue McKeel, whose determination to rescue her brother drives the adventure, while Jacob Tremblay plays her classmate Curtis. Carey Mulligan portrays the powerful Alexandra, and Mahershala Ali voices Brendan, the Bandit King. The supporting cast includes Angela Bassett, Awkwafina, Richard E. Grant, Charlie Day and Amandla Stenberg, portraying various inhabitants of the enchanted wilderness.

The original score by Academy Award-winning composer Dario Marianelli provides an orchestral foundation for the film’s fantasy setting. His music accompanies the story’s quieter emotional moments, mysterious forest encounters and large-scale action sequences, adding another dimension to the handcrafted world.

The World of Wildwood

Bringing the Chronicles to Life

Handcrafted Fantasy on an Epic Scale

Characters, Performances and Music

Featured Wildwood Characters