So, we have our two most anticipated animated films of the year, Brad Bird’s “Ray Gunn” and Travis Knight’s “Wildwood,” seemingly skipping the fall fests. A new trailer has been released for Knight’s film.
“Wildwood” is the latest from LAIKA, following “Coraline,” “ParaNorman,” “The Boxtrolls,” “Missing Link,” and “Kubo and the Two Strings,” for which Knight directed. There’s a distinctive stop-motion animation style to these films, often featuring darkly imagined fantasy worlds.
Knight — who also directed the well-received “Transformers” movie “Bumblebee” — is working with a script written by Chris Butler (“ParaNorman”). The film is adapted from the “Wildwood” books by Colin Meloy. It looks beautifully made, and rumors of a PG-13 rating hint at potential adult animation.
The story centers on Prue McKeel, a teenager whose infant brother is kidnapped by a flock of crows, drawing her into the Impassable Wilderness—an enchanted forest hidden, as it turns out, on the outskirts of Portland, Oregon.
It should be mentioned that “Wildwood” clocks in at 139 minutes, which is lengthy for an animated film—the genre has a tendency to keep runtimes tight for kids’ shorter attention spans. In fact, “Wildwood” is the longest English-language animated film ever, tying “Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse.” It makes sense, as the first “Wildwood” book is over 500 pages long.
For Knight, “Wildwood” marks a return to feature animation following his work on “Bumblebee” and “Masters of the Universe.” LAIKA has described the film as an expansive handcrafted adventure, with earlier reports highlighting the project’s ambitious scale, including hundreds of sets and nearly 250 practical puppets.
“Wildwood” hits theaters nationwide on October 23, 2026.
The MPA has unveiled its latest batch of ratings, and a pair of high-profile titles are seemingly done with post-production work.