Introduction
Happy Halloween, fellow adventurers! Blaziker is back from his one-month break. After Entergalactic, there were not much animated movies, not even a small, non-mainstream animated movie to cover. Hence, I focused on preparing for my next professional qualification exam in December and published a new work that I initially cancelled in my long-completed Rock Dog fanfiction series “Mengcheng Dreaming” (You can check my latest work, “Zitti e Buoni: A Rock Dog-Spycies Story” here). However, we got a brand new animated movie at last, and I am so excited to talk about it!
Wendell and Wild is the new animated movie from stop-motion maestro Henry Selick, the creator of many scary stop-motion flicks like The Nightmare Before Christmas, James and the Giant Peach and, of course, his masterpiece, Coraline. It reunites Keegan-Michael Key and Jordan Peele (better known as Key and Peele) as two demon brothers scheming a plan to escape to the Land of Living. They hitched the help of Kat (Lyric Ross), a 13-year-old orphan with a dark past starting a new life in her new school after serving her sentence in a juvenile prison, hoping to enter the living world.
Given that it has been about 12 years since his last year, can Selick prove he still has his Midas touch in producing great and unique stop-motion flicks, or will his demons finally catch up to him?
Key Information
- Director: Henry Selick
- Animation Studios: Netflix Animation, Monkeypaw Productions and Gotham Group
- Country of Origin: United States of America
- Rating: M18
- Release Date: 28 October 2022 (On Netflix)
Trailer
The Review
Story and Characters
Starting off with the story and writing aspects, and I must say that it may not be as creepy as his other movies, there is still an element of Selick sprinkled in the story. The story is dark and has some horror elements, with its themes about capitalism and facing one’s own demons relevant, especially in a year where some executives continue to disrespect the art of animation. The story may not be as scary, but it is still dark and edgy enough to stand out from other Netflix original animated movies.
I also enjoyed the appropriately dark comedy, especially from two titular characters of Wendell and Wild (more on them later), allowing me to be hooked on the movie even more. There was something about the story that feels very cosy and welcoming, which was why I found myself smiling a lot throughout the movie.
With that being said, the biggest issue I had with the plot is that despite its long runtime, the story did not marinate well. What I meant is that there were slightly too many plot elements in the story, to a point where the movie fails to cover most of its bases, especially in the final act where it just felt rushed. It felt as if I was into a certain plot point, then at the next scene, that plot point was never mentioned fully again. The plot just felt so overwhelming for most moviegoers, and some minor re-writes would improve the overall impact of the story.
However, the cast of characters made up for the shortcomings in the writing department. The big standouts, obviously, were Wendell and Wild. There was no denying that reuniting a fan-favourite comedy duo with Keegan-Michael Key and Jordan Peele (aka Key and Peele) was a stroke of genius, and their roles as the titular demon brothers are a lot of fun. Not only were their comedy chops still prevalent, their voice-acting is equally strong as well. They teamed up with Kat, who also has her edgy personality from her dark past. She, together with her ‘handmaiden’ Lyric Ross, possesses (pun intended) this energy that makes me want to live by my own rules of being myself. The other characters, especially with Angela Bassett’s Sister Helley and Sam Zelaya’s Raul (probably the first transgender character I ever seen), all play a significant part in making the story so fun, energetic and uniquely kooky.
Animation
Whenever it comes to stop-motion animated movies, one aspect I always look forward to has to be the animation. Seeing the animators crafting the distinct figures and environments from scratch and painstakingly move these figures frame by frame is a joy to watch. It is to no wonder that very few animators dared to pursue the art of stop-motion, because of both costs and the amount of work needed to animate them right, and also why I gave these crew members that worked on stop-motion with a lot of respect.
The first thing you will notice is the edginess of the character designs and the set environment. There is a clear distinctiveness on the deliberately rough edges of Rust Bank, where most of the story takes place and the usage of darker tones in the character designs, especially with Kat. Just like in The Sea Beast, the animators utilise the black skin tones in Kat’s design to its fullest effect.
Besides the excellent character and background designs, Selick and his crew utilise various styles of animation. Besides the labour-intensive and excellent stop-motion, there is also the usage of paper souls tormented in hell, in the form of a fair of nightmares on Buffalo Belzer’s belly. In fact, the various ways to utilise paper in the animation took me aback, but in a good way.
While certain fans of Selick’s previous works will be disappointed by the lack of creepiness in this movie, I feel it is important to celebrate that in 2022, we are getting a good amount of stop-motion animated movies, especially when CG-animated movies dominate the global animation line-up. Wendell and Wild may lack in the level of creepiness. The craft Selick and his crew put in to make an animated movie that stands out from the endless number of CG-animated movies is something we have to acknowledge.
Special Sauce
There are also certain special elements within Wendell and Wild that are worth mentioning:
- Punk Never Dies: As someone that enjoys animated movie soundtracks, the Wendell and Wild soundtrack is so much fun! Being someone that grew up in the 2000s, punk and rock are two genres I gravitate to, and the punk soundtrack is so on brand with the edginess Kat brings to the table. It goes to show that a good soundtrack goes a long way.
- Selick’s Comeback: As I mentioned, it has been 12-13 years since Henry Selick released one of the greatest stop-motion movies, Coraline, so to see him deciding to come back to work on animation shows that you are never too irrelevant to do something, as long as you are passionate.
- Back from the Dead: Wendell and Wild is based on an unreleased book Selick and Clay McLeod Chapman worked on, and having watched that movie, I can imagine the amount of unique creepiness Selick might cram inside the book. It will be a scary book for kids, but they will enjoy and appreciate Selick’s style as much as the movie.
Conclusion
Well, I had a lot of fun with Wendell and Wild. It is a movie that is so fun and original to watch, and proves that you can do animation any way that you like (just not in the way Marmaduke is).
I had a feeling that certain animation fans might feel disappointed over his latest work, but personally, Henry Selick had created another stop-motion animated movie worth remembering for. While there were a few flaws within Wendell and Wild, especially with the slightly rushed writing, the show-stopping stop-motion animation (with some out of this world stop-motion designs), the fun punk rock music score and a fun cast of characters elevated this movie to a whole new level. Wendell and Wild is yet another fun, charming and creepy animated movie that could only come from the mind that created Coraline and other great stop-motion animated movies.
Thank you so much for reading this review. There are still a good number of animated movies to check out before the year ends, so I will see you on the next adventure. Until then, k thanks bye!
Rating
- Story and Characters: 4/5
- Animation: 5/5
- Special Sauce: 5/5
- Overall score: 14/15
Rating: Fairytale
