LAIKA reveals ‘Wildwood’ production details at TIFF

At the Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF), animation studio LAIKA presented a special look at its upcoming stop-motion feature, ‘Wildwood’. The presentation, titled ‘Wildwood: Inside the Performance’, offered a world premiere of previously unreleased production footage at the John W. H. Bassett Theatre.

Directed and produced by Travis Knight, the film is based on the novel by Colin Meloy, illustrated by Carson Ellis, with a screenplay by Chris Butler. The plot follows a character named Prue and her classmate Curtis as they enter a forbidden wilderness near Portland to search for Prue’s younger brother.

The presentation featured LAIKA’s Animation Supervisor Brad Schiff, Lead Animator Rachelle Lambden, and stop-motion animator Tom Carey, alongside voice actor Jacob Tremblay, who voices the character Curtis. The film’s voice cast also includes Carey Mulligan, Mahershala Ali, Angela Bassett, Awkwafina, Amandla Stenberg, Richard E. Grant, and Tom Waits.