Laika’s stop-motion fantasy Wildwood looks so smooth

At TIFF, Laika showed clips from its upcoming stop-motion fantasy Wildwood and discussed why the film looks notably more lifelike than the studio’s earlier features. Members of the Laika team explained that recent technical changes have allowed animators to work with much greater visual feedback and control, producing smoother motion in puppet performances.

A key change is the use of digital cameras and what Laika calls frame-grabbers, which let animators review recently shot frames while animating so they can track every puppet movement. Brad Schiff, Laika’s head of animation, described this as part of an ongoing evolution of the art form and said it removes the need for unintentionally stuttery animation unless chosen as a style. The puppets themselves also received mechanical upgrades: major characters are fitted with an internal diaphragm or “breather,” a device Laika first tested on 2019’s Missing Link, that helps convey subtle breathing and more humanlike motion.

The clips screened at TIFF — which Laika noted were not final — included a fast bike chase through a crowded Portland and sequences ranging from a mansion filled with distracted guard dogs to a character soaring on the back of a giant bird. Those excerpts centered on Prue, a young girl who loses her little brother in an "impassable wilderness" that hides a fantastical world; the footage emphasized a speed and tension that reviewers likened to live-action staging.

Laika also released production details: Wildwood employed 233 puppets (36 were variations of the protagonist Prue), was animated by a team of 49 animators, and took 231 weeks from start to finish. The studio, known for titles such as ParaNorman, The Boxtrolls, and Kubo and the Two Strings, will release Wildwood in theaters on October 23.