Laika’s Wildwood trailer presents a sinister stop-motion adventure with echoes of Coraline, Labyrinth and, in its darker mythology, Pan’s Labyrinth.
A child disappears into an enchanted forest
Laika, the Portland, Oregon-based animation studio that began in 2009 with Henry Selick’s acclaimed adaptation of Neil Gaiman’s Coraline, returns to unsettling fairy-tale territory with Wildwood.
The new trailer introduces Alexandra, played by Carey Mulligan, as the mysterious ruler of a magical forest near Portland. After losing her own son, Alexandra sends a murder of crows to seize an infant from a city playground.
The missing baby is Mac, the brother of Prue McKeel, voiced by Peyton Elizabeth Lee. Prue enters the dangerous woods alongside her classmate Curtis Mehlberg, played by Jacob Tremblay, determined to bring Mac home. Their journey puts them against Alexandra and her army of wolves.
Wildwood’s familiar fantasy foundations
A slow, haunting version of Avicii’s “Wake Me Up” gives the trailer an uneasy mood. Its central setup also recalls Labyrinth: a young girl crosses into a magical realm to rescue her infant brother after his abduction by the Goblin King. In that 1986 Jim Henson musical, the girl’s frustrated wish for goblins to take the crying baby away effectively begins the crisis.
The premise has another grim parallel in Pan’s Labyrinth, where a faun tells a girl that her baby brother’s blood is needed to open a passage to a realm in which she could become a princess.
An earlier Wildwood teaser showed Prue’s parents warning her never to take Mac outside. That detail leaves open the possibility that they know Mac came from the woods and are trying to keep Alexandra from finding him.
Prue finds allies while Curtis is captured
The connection to Coraline is more than a shared stop-motion approach. Both stories centre on a young woman confronting a powerful, threatening mother figure. Coraline received help from a cat and her young neighbour, while Prue appears to build her own group of allies inside the forest.
The trailer gives the two young heroes very different experiences. Prue is shown riding a giant eagle, whereas Curtis appears in the uniform of Alexandra’s soldiers and is seen confined inside a cage.
The Kubo team returns
Wildwood is directed by Travis Knight and written by Chris Butler. The pair previously collaborated on Laika’s 2016 family fantasy Kubo and the Two Strings, which follows a boy searching for his missing samurai father.
The ensemble cast also includes Mahershala Ali, Awkwafina, Angela Bassett and Charlie Day. Wildwood is scheduled for release through Fathom Entertainment on 23 October.
For fans who enjoy imaginative worlds, handcrafted visual design and fantasy storytelling, the trailer is a reminder that atmosphere can be just as important as action. You can follow more arcade news and gaming features from RETROCADE, or explore arcade videos for more visual inspiration.
If Wildwood’s forest-world aesthetic has you considering a themed games room, RETROCADE’s arcade machine buying guide can help you compare the practical options before choosing a cabinet.
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