That Question Got a Whole Lot Easier To Answer

 Much like most of my "What is your favorite" answers when pop culture media is concerned, "What is your favorite Laika film?" led to a great deal of internal debate...

Until now.

Wildwood was absolutely, insanely gorgeous for every moment of its 131 minute run time. No one has done a stop motion film of this length or at this scale before. The huge number of skilled artists and the time they invested in this project shows throughout the entire story. Even digital elements, like the crows, were created via hand sculpted models that were scanned in. 

And that's only taking into account how it looks. (And sounds. Yet another beautiful Laika score has been created.)

It starts out seeming like it will be a typical coming of age fantasy tale, of the Wizard of Oz, Alice in Wonderland, or Labyrinth variety. However, there is a lot more world building in this one, and also detailed development arcs for mulitple characters. 

This story throws in a great deal of classic fairytale elements but builds them into a Epic Fantasy adventure. (There was even a Frazetta reference or two thrown in.) It is telling that, like all excellent fantasy tales, while the climax takes place during a massive battle, the key moments all come down to individual decisions and interactions.

While the story does use many fantasy and fairy tale tropes, it does not use them in obvious or cliche ways. The story has multiple well handled surprises and twists throughout. Even actions that will obviously happen because "If that is the way it is done, then that is how you must do it," don't always happen following the method or at the time that would be expected.

For a "hero's journey" there were many mentors with different kinds of wisdom... and, happily, more than I expected surprisingly survived. 

The villain was understandable and went through a terrible tragedy to reach the point of villainy, yet was still clearly evil. I very much appreciated that the film provided the villain with humanizing moments, but those didn't lead to a sugar coated last minute redemption or rejection of evil plans in the final moments.

This film was made over years of work with more than 200 puppets on well over 100 sets. With it's limited release via Fathom events, the target was not breaking any box office records. Yet it has resulted in a magnificent work of art which will stand the test of time and be relevant and inspiring to people far longer than any short sighted decision made solely to increase stockholders' value.

While the investment to make this film likely won't turn a profit in theaters. It did employ a huge number of people for a long time AND created something that will last and be meaningful and inspiring to people (and, yes, generate income) for generations.

[Later edit- Looks like this amazing, hand made effort is on track to be a box office success after all. Take that A.I.!]