Laika’s ambitious, hand-crafted stop-motion fantasy feature Wildwood arrives in theaters on October 23, 2026, breaking new ground for the Oregon-based studio with its rare PG-13 rating, a 140-minute runtime, and an uncompromising stance against generative artificial intelligence.
Travis Knight looks like a man returning from battle. After a 16-year journey to bring Colin Meloy’s 500-page young-adult novel to the screen, the studio chief and director finished postproduction in London before launching a promotional tour that included pop-ups in Telluride and Annecy, France as reported by The Hollywood Reporter. Based on the 2011 book by the Decemberists frontman and illustrator Carson Ellis, the film follows a Portland teenager named Prue McKeel as she ventures into the Impassable Wilderness—Forest Park reimagined—to rescue her baby brother Mac after a murder of crows abducts him according to the Los Angeles Times.
🎬 Solid reporting by top journalist @cdaviesmedia in the @latimes on @LAIKAStudios' Wildwood opening this weekend! A quick update: My $6 million to $10 million opening weekend estimate in the article reflects my thinking over a week ago. Unreal reviews are making this a…
How Laika Defends Handcrafted Animation Against Generative Tools
The scale of the production dwarfs anything the independent studio has attempted as detailed by The Verge. More than 1,000 artists worked on the film over five years, constructing 136 sets and 231 puppets noted Variety, including 36 separate puppets of the main character Prue alone. Animator tools evolved for the project, introducing CNC steel armatures, puppet diaphragms that make characters appear to breathe, and advanced musculature on limbs The Verge explained.
Knight drew a sharp line during his interview with The Verge, denouncing the technology as fundamentally opposed to the studio’s ethos.
New clip from LAIKA's ‘WILDWOOD’.The film follows a girl who enters a magical forbidden forest to rescue her kidnapped baby brother. (Source: @IGN) pic.twitter.com/Z1PWtEHTHm
In so many ways generative AI is antithetical to everything that we are at this studio. It’s not that we don’t believe in technology. We do. We use technology, we use computers. We’re not just making films entirely with tools that we’ve inherited from a watchmaker’s widow.
Travis Knight, Laika CEO and director
Knight elaborated on the distinction between physical tools guided by human creators and systems that automate the creative labor itself, warning that there is no humanity in what comes out of the other side of that
The Verge reported.
Why Dark Themes and a PG-13 Rating Test the Market
The Motion Picture Association assigned the film a PG-13 rating for strong fantasy violence, bloody images, thematic material, suicide-related material, brief partial nudity, and language according to Variety. Running 140 minutes, it ties the record for the longest English-language animated feature ever made and stands as Laika’s first film rated above PG Variety added. Slate critics noted that the narrative opens with a naked child contemplating a perilous fall, establishing an uncommonly dark tone as Slate described.
'Wildwood' is still at 100% on Rotten Tomatoes 🍅• Based on 45 reviews• LAIKA's highest-rated film ever"Wildwood is at once beautiful and horrifying, heartwarming and gut-wrenching, hopeful and crushing" — ScreenRant“It is the finest animated film of the year and the… pic.twitter.com/0JNCkNDwpA
Executive producer David Burke told the Porterville Recorder that the studio wanted to challenge assumptions about the medium.
Burke stated that the film has real emotional stakes and consequences, and that animation should be viewed as a medium rather than an age category.
That creative risk arrives during a year dominated by family-friendly PG hits like Toy Story 5
and The Super Mario Galaxy Movie
, the Los Angeles Times noted. Industry observers point out that while major traditional studios lower their risk appetite due to downstream toy and merchandise revenues, Laika’s independent structure allows for bolder bets according to the Porterville Recorder. The studio’s confidence was reinforced after a 15th-anniversary re-release of Coraline
grossed over $52 million globally in 2024, proving its audience had matured, the Los Angeles Times reported.
Carey Mulligan and Peyton Elizabeth Lee Lead the Cast
Voice performances anchor the grim fairy-tale adventure. Peyton Elizabeth Lee stars as Prue, joined by Jacob Tremblay as her nerdy, role-playing-obsessed classmate Curtis, Jake Johnson as her father Mr. McKeel, and Awkwafina as Septima the rat companion, Animations Scoop reported. Academy Award nominee Carey Mulligan portrays the villainous Alexandra, a dowager governess ruling The South Wood Awards Watch noted.
Reviewers singled out Mulligan’s performance, particularly her delivery of the line while riding into a fiery final battlefield conflagration filled with swords, bayonets, and arterial spray Awards Watch and SlashFilm observed.
Portland Landmarks Shape the Production
The production maintains deep ties to Portland, incorporating recognizable local landmarks such as Powell’s Books, Voodoo Donuts, and St. John’s Bridge into the background SlashFilm and Outside Magazine reported.
Fathom releases the film nationwide on October 23, 2026 Variety confirmed, leaving box-office analysts and studio executives watching to see if adult-leaning stop-motion animation can successfully command mainstream theatrical audiences.