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WILDWOOD, Laika Studio's New Film Directed by Travis Knight, Premiered at the 24th FICM

Alan Rodríguez

Travis Knight’s latest film, Wildwood, premiered in Mexico as part of the third day of activities at the 24th edition of the Morelia International Film Festival (FICM).

The screening took place at the Mariano Matamoros Theater and was introduced by René Karam, CEO of Imagem Films Mx, and Javier Ibarreche, who voices Brendan in this feature film, which marks Laika Studio’s return to the big screen.

Based on the novel of the same name by Colin Meloy, Wildwood tells the story of Prue McKeel, a teenager who embarks on a desperate rescue mission in an enchanted, hidden forest just outside Portland. Joined by Curtis, a classmate who is as clumsy as he is loyal, Prue risks everything as she journeys through a world inhabited by bandits, talking animals, and powerful figures driven by pain and ambition.

Before the screening began, René Karam thanked the audience for their support of animation and pointed out that Wildwood is the longest stop-motion film in history and Laika’s most ambitious project: “In this age of fast consumption and artificial intelligence, having this kind of film and production companies like Laika—which took more than seven years to create this work of art—is well worth it,” he added.

Laika is known for films such as Coraline (2009), ParaNorman (2012), The Boxtrolls (2014), and Kubo and the Two Strings (2016).

Javier Ibarreche acknowledged the work of Imagem Films Mx in distributing the film and reminded the audience how important projects like this one are: “In a world so saturated with technologies that bypass the creative process and directly produce results that aren’t necessarily artistic, stop-motion animation has a very special quality: it’s inevitably made by humans.”