WILDWOOD Took 16 Years To Make, And Travis Knight Says Stop-Motion Nearly Broke Them

Wildwood has been a long time coming, and when it comes to LAIKA, that usually means something handmade, obsessive, strange, and gorgeous is on the way.

Director Travis Knight recently appeared at Deadline’s Contenders London event to talk about the studio’s new stop-motion fantasy epic, and it sounds like this movie pushed LAIKA’s artists into some wonderfully ridiculous territory.

Knight was joined by cinematographer Caleb Deschanel, composer Dario Marianelli, and costume designer Deb Cook, and the team pulled back the curtain on just how massive this project became.

We’re talking magical realms, vicious crows, huge battle scenes, and the kind of stop-motion insanity that only LAIKA would willingly put itself through.

“For those who don’t know,” said Knight, “the way stop-motion works is that we build thousands and thousands of tiny little [animations].

“We put them under set lights, we move them a microscopic distance, take a picture, move them another microscopic distance, take another picture, and you repeat that process over and over and over again until either a movie emerges or society collapses, whichever comes first.

“And with this one, it actually could have gone either way because it took us 16 years to make this movie. To put that in perspective, Barack Obama was a fresh-faced president in his first term at the time.”

That’s a wild amount of time to live with one project, but it also explains why Wildwood feels like such a huge swing for the studio.

LAIKA has always operated in its own lane with films like Coraline, ParaNorman, The Boxtrolls, Kubo and the Two Strings, and Missing Link, but this one seems to be aiming for something even bigger in scale.

“Stop-motion is very painful” he added. “It’s the absolute worst way there is to make a movie, but I think that it has its own unique beauty and that comes from the fact that it’s made by hand. It’s crafted by these incredible artists and craftsmen who build the world with their own hands.

“It’s very challenging, but it has a unique feeling. And I think it felt like that was in the DNA of what this story wanted to be: It felt like it was handcrafted. I am a firm believer of the notion that the process of creating art leaves fingerprints on the art itself.

“And so the fact that we had this whole incredible group of artists and craftsmen who poured years of their lives in devotion into carrying this thing into existence, I think you feel it in the movie itself.”

That handmade quality is the big reason LAIKA movies awesomely hit. Every tiny expression, every weird creature, every scrap of fabric, every miniature world has been touched by artists who spend years bringing these stories to life one frame at a time.

It’s a brutal way to make a movie, but it’s also what gives LAIKA films their personality.

Wildwood is based on the 2011 novel by Colin Meloy, and it could end up being the first chapter in a larger series. It also marks a first for LAIKA as the studio’s first PG-13 movie.

That rating makes sense considering Knight says the film deals with more mature themes, including loss and grief.

“There wasn’t really any hesitation in terms of where we were going with the movie,” said Knight, “but I think we wanted to make sure that we were treating it with great care, because we are exploring sophisticated themes, important themes, like loss and grief.

“And we wanted to make sure that we were treating that sensitively and with care. And I think that one of the things about animation and fantasy is that it provides us a couple of steps removed from the real world.

“So it allows us to give difficult feelings a shape. And so you go into this fantastic world and hopefully you’re discovering things about your own life and it’s being reflected at you through a different prism.

“I don’t think we should forget that young audiences have complex inner lives as well,” he continued. “Young people know what it is to feel alone, to feel afraid, to feel powerless.

“And I think stories have an obligation to treat that sensitively and responsibly. We’ve tried to do that with this movie. We ask difficult things, like how far would you go for love? When should you let go? What is the cost of holding on? And how do you keep your heart open when we know how much it costs us?

“I think the film ultimately arrives at a really light and joyful place — but we earn the light honestly.”

Even with the darker material, it sounds like Wildwood still has that sense of wonder LAIKA fans show up for.

Fantasy works so good when the strange creatures, hidden worlds, and dangerous journeys are tied to something real, and Knight seems to be aiming straight for that mix of adventure and emotional weight.

After 16 years of work, Wildwood sounds like one of LAIKA’s most ambitious projects yet.

Stop-motion may be, as Knight puts it, “the absolute worst way there is to make a movie,” but when the result is a handcrafted fantasy epic filled with magic, danger, heartbreak, and massive crow chaos, it’s hard not to get excited!

Source: Deadline