Wildwood (2026) reviews

The Fuzzy Mushroom take on Wildwood

By Fuzzy Mushroom · Updated 10 November 2026 · The Pros 93 · The Punters 88 · Spore Score 92 · How we write our takes

Why The Pros and The Punters agree

Wildwood is one of those rare films where The Pros and The Punters watch the same thing and walk out feeling the same way. The Pros sit on 93, The Punters on 88, and the Spore Score lands at 92. Critics have reached for their biggest words about Laika's craft, while audiences, who are usually harder on long family films, have stayed with it for all 132 minutes. That near-agreement is the story here: this is not a critics' darling that families sit through politely.

What it does well

Start with how it was made. Laika built 136 sets and 231 puppets for Wildwood, and it is now the longest stop-motion feature ever released. You can feel the handwork in every frame: the uniformed coyotes, the ivy creeping round the edge of the Impassable Wilderness, the sheer bulk of the golden eagle known as the General. Travis Knight, who directed Kubo and the Two Strings for the same studio, stages battles and aerial chases that stop-motion is not supposed to manage, and still finds time for small, quiet close-ups.

The story, adapted by Chris Butler from the 2011 novel by Colin Meloy and Carson Ellis, follows Prue, a Portland girl whose baby brother is snatched by a murder of crows and carried into a forest outsiders cannot enter. Peyton Elizabeth Lee voices Prue and Jacob Tremblay plays her classmate Curtis, but the performance people will remember is Carey Mulligan as Alexandra, a grieving exile whose sorrow has curdled into something frightening. She is a proper villain with a proper reason, and that is why the film hits harder than most family fantasies.

Where it wobbles

The handful of reviews that held back make a fair point. Strip away the craft and the plot is familiar: rival factions, a special child, a big battle at the end. The forest's politics, with bandits, coyotes and a useless governor all fighting over the same land, are sketched rather than explored, and the final clash is more spectacle than surprise. It is also darker than Laika's usual fare. It carries a 12A in the UK and is the studio's first PG-13 in the US, and a couple of deaths are handled with real weight.

Who it is for

Older children, teenagers and any adult who grew up on Coraline or Kubo. If your youngest is under eight, watch the trailer together first. If you care about animation as an art form, see it on the biggest screen you can find.

Context

Laika optioned the book in 2011, the week it was published, then spent years building the tools to film it in its Oregon studio. Wildwood premiered at the BFI London Film Festival on 11 October 2026 and opened in the US on 23 October. Dario Marianelli, who scored The Boxtrolls and Kubo, wrote the music, and Meloy's band The Decemberists add an original song.

The Fuzzy Mushroom verdict

Must-see, with a Spore Score of 92. A landmark in handmade animation, carrying a story that is good rather than great and a villain who is better than both. Both camps say go, and so do we.