‘Wildwood’ Is a $100M+ Stop-Motion Triumph, Oscar Frontrunner — and It's About to Be One of the Biggest Bombs of the Year

Let's start with the good news, because there's a lot of it. Critics are ecstatic about Travis Knight's "Wildwood," which sits at 100% on Rotten Tomatoes and 85 on Metacritic. It's the Oscar frontrunner for Best Animated Feature, way ahead of anything else. It's not particularly close.

Some critics are calling it the greatest stop-motion movie ever made. I wouldn't go that far. My pick for that title is still Wes Anderson's "Fantastic Mr. Fox," and I don't see that changing anytime soon. However, "Wildwood" is, without a doubt, Laika's best movie. It's better than "Coraline" and "Kubo and the Two Strings."

It's also one of the most ambitious animated films ever made. There's a sense of scale to this thing that's simply unheard of for the medium. At 132 minutes, it's the longest stop-motion animated movie ever released. It's also rated PG-13, which means families will likely stay far away from it, leaving it with a very limited audience: adults who love animation.

Now, it’s not perfect. The film starts off slow. It runs into a lull here and there, and the runtime isn't altogether necessary. The first hour takes its time, getting the pieces on the board, but stick with it. The second half is where "Wildwood" really comes alive, and it builds to a great, roughly half-hour battle sequence that is astounding for animation. It's one of the most remarkable animated sequences I’ve seen in quite a while. Think LOTR’s “Battle of Helm’s Deep,” but in stop-motion.

So, here's the problem, and it has nothing to do with the art. Nobody is going to see it. The tracking is limp. "Wildwood" is eyeing a $6M–$8M domestic opening against an estimated $100M budget (via Variety). That would make it one of the biggest bombs of the year.

Yep. There’s a PG-13, 132-minute stop-motion epic that cost $100M+ opening this weekend, with glowing reviews to boot, and almost nobody cares.

Then again, does any of this really matter? Let's be honest about what Laika is. Travis Knight is the son of Nike co-founder Phil Knight, and this studio has never really been just a business. It's a passion project bankrolled by one of the richest families in America. A $100M+ bomb is pocket change for the Knights. Phil Knight isn't losing sleep over "Wildwood's" opening weekend, he’s probably just happy and proud his son is being acclaimed as an artist.

So, yes, Knight is a nepo baby, but if you're going to inherit that kind of monstrous wealth, and you are fully absorbed by stop-motion animation, I can't think of a better way to spend it than this. He spent 15 years making this personal project about grief and war in the woods outside Portland. It's a movie most people will never see, but time could be very kind to it.