Wildwood-Battle for the Future of Film by Philip Grippi

Travis Knight, in spite of his privileged background, further proves himself to be a self-actualized juggernaut of cinema and storytelling. Knight, and his fellow artisans at Laika Studios, breathes life into the world of Colin Meloy’s fantasy trilogy of novels. Painstakingly rendered through stop motion animation, the film represents over a decade of handcrafted artistry. The efforts of this endeavor can be seen in every frame, every motion, and every landscape.

Like an intricate tapestry or painting upon the canvas, Wildwood is classical storytelling in the most primordial sense of the word. It is pure mythology at its most elemental, deeply rooted in classic folk Americana and the bluesy soul of the old frontier. Raw, human emotion dance along the air, like a song illuminated by campfire light. The worldbuilding of Meloy’s mythos, as adapted by Chris Butler, harkens back to that of CS Lewis with the vaunted Narnia series…with a distinctly modernist-American flavor with its feet planted firmly in the earthy, twisting aesthetics of Washington Irving and Edgar Allen Poe.

In a cinematic landscape threatened by the rise of AI, don’t let Wildwood fail. This is a battle for the soul of film, and Travis Knight has laid forth the perfect battleground.