Laika has spent 20 years building up to Wildwood

Key Points:

• Caleb Deschanel, an experienced Hollywood cinematographer, found working on Laika’s stop-motion film Wildwood to be far more complex than anticipated, highlighting the intricate nature of stop-motion animation.
• Wildwood, directed by Laika CEO Travis Knight, is the studio’s largest production to date, featuring nearly 50 animators and over 200 puppets, and tells the story of a girl named Prue venturing into a magical forest to find her baby brother.
• Laika continues to innovate by blending traditional craftsmanship with modern technology, developing new techniques and materials such as lighter, more durable silicone for puppets, and implementing sophisticated tracking systems to manage the film’s many components.
• The film balances grand, technically challenging sequences like a 12-minute battle with intimate, emotional moments, emphasizing the artistry required to bring puppet characters to life and convey deep human emotions.
• Wildwood’s release in 2026 represents the culmination of 16 years of development and the studio’s ongoing evolution, with a mix of veteran and new animators contributing to the project, some inspired by Laika’s earlier works like Coraline.