Since last year, Laika’s been keeping its latest movie Wildwood under wraps and only letting out tiny scraps of information. With ParaNorman briefly back in theaters this weekend, the stop-motion studio snuck in some more footage from the film, which it promises will be “their most ambitious cinematic journey yet.”
After an intro building up Laika’s history up to this point, the video shows off concept art from the film depicting its majestic aerial views of Portland and renders of the General, an eagle with “unshakeable grace” voiced by Angela Bassett. As the narrator explains, creating the General required models “inspired by nature” to create her movements, followed by 9,000 individual feathers going onto a pair of special puppets—one puppet for flight scenes, and the other for “intricate performance controls.”
Directed by Travis Knight (Bumblebee) and based on Colin Meloy’s 2011 kids fantasy novel, the film focuses on Portland kid Prue McKeel as she and her classmate Curtis explore a magical forest looking for her missing baby brother Mac, and enlist the General’s help to find him. The voice cast also includes Peyton Elizabeth Lee, Jacob Tremblay, and Amandla Stenberg.
Animation is what Laika movies are known for, and in that sense, Wildwood looks like another winning. Watching the animators and artists bring the General to life from render to puppeting her around sure is something, and you really believe it when the narration talks about “pouring creativity in every joint, feather, and frame.” The studio is clearly proud of what it’s made in the General—particularly when she takes to the skies—and its own technical skill, since the video talks up the “artistry, innovation, and heart” that went into production. We’ll see what it all adds up to when the film releases in 2026.
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