Copyright Inverse
It doesn’t get much better — or more ambitious — than Laika Studios. The Oregon-based animation house has spent the last 20 years crafting breathtaking, painstakingly built stop-motion worlds, offering some much-needed disruption to the increasing sameness that studios like Disney and DreamWorks have fallen prey to. 2025 has been a big year for Laika: it hit a major milestone in its 20th anniversary, and soon, it’ll unveil what co-founder Travis Knight calls the studio’s most ambitious film yet. Five years after The Missing Link, Laika is back with a new adventure set in its own backyard of Portland: Wildwood. The film, based on Colin Meloy’s novel of the same name, follows the adventures of the 13-year-old Prue as she journeys into a fantastical realm in her own backyard. After her baby brother is abducted by a murder of crows, Prue teams up with a majestic eagle companion known as the General (voiced by Angela Bassett) to rescue him. Per Knight, Wildwood is an undertaking that’s been a decade in the making — and with Laika’s first look behind the scenes, it’s easy to see why. Wildwood transforms the forests of Oregon into a fantastical, dangerous realm, with supernatural threats like ruthless bandits and shrewd talking animals lurking around every corner. It’s clear what connective tissue it shares with films like Coraline and Kubo and the Two Strings, but it also goes further than those projects in its efforts to render the character of the General. “A huge part of the reason it’s taken us so long to bring this to life cinematically is that it’s incredibly ambitious,” Knight told Empire in 2024. “There’s all these elements that are really challenging to do in stop-motion.” Laika’s first look at Wildwood depicts those challenges in great detail, from meticulous motion tests to the building of an authentic avian model for the General. Studio artisans eventually built two different models to fit the film’s needs: one to use in Wildwood’s “breathtaking flight” sequences, and another for more intricate controls. “She’s a miracle of craftsmanship and engineering,” Knight said of the General. The character forced the Laika team to push beyond what any had accomplished in the company’s 20 years — but that dedication is more than welcome in an era where AI-assisted filmmaking is being embraced all too readily. “What I love about this team is how they’re always swimming forward, never content to rest on what’s come before,” continued Knight. “We’ve had to build up the creative tools, the technology and our storytelling muscles to do this book justice.” It won’t be long before Knight and his team will unveil their vision of Meloy’s seminal work, setting up the studio — and the entire animation industry — for an even brighter future. Wildwood will release in 2025.
