Wildwood Earns Perfect 100% Rotten Tomatoes Score in Early Reviews

Laika’s latest stop-motion feature, Wildwood, is earning widespread critical acclaim following its world premiere at the BFI London Film Festival on Sunday, with the film currently holding a perfect 100% critics’ score on Rotten Tomatoes.

The studio’s sixth stop-motion feature since 2009, Wildwood arrives in theaters October 23. Directed by Travis Knight from a screenplay by Chris Butler, the PG-13 animated adventure follows Prue McKeel (voiced by Peyton Elizabeth Lee), a teenager who ventures into a mysterious wilderness after her baby brother is abducted by a murder of crows.

Joined by her classmate Curtis Mehlberg (voiced by Jacob Tremblay), Prue journeys into the Impassable Wilderness, a vast forest beyond Portland, Oregon, where they encounter talking animals, bandits and powerful adversaries.

The film currently holds a 100% “fresh” critics’ score on Rotten Tomatoes based on 15 reviews. The site’s Critics Consensus is still pending, and audience ratings will not be available until the film opens in theaters.

If Wildwood maintains its perfect score, it will become the first Laika film to achieve a 100% critics’ rating on Rotten Tomatoes. The studio’s previous features include Coraline (2009), which earned 91%; ParaNorman (2012), which received 89%; The Boxtrolls (2014), which scored 78%; Kubo and the Two Strings (2016), which earned 97%; and Missing Link (2019), which received 88%.

The film features a star-studded voice cast, including Angela Bassett, Mahershala Ali, Carey Mulligan, Jake Johnson, Awkwafina, Charlie Day, Maya Erskine, Tom Waits, Jemaine Clement, Tantoo Cardinal and Richard E. Grant.

Critics Praise Wildwood’s Ambition and Animation

Early reviews have praised Wildwood for its technical achievements, ambitious storytelling and richly detailed animation.

William Bibbiani of TheWrap awarded the film a positive review, writing in his Rotten Tomatoes review summary, “It’s impressive to watch Travis Knight’s film even if you don’t know how the sausage got made. If you do know, if you even have the slightest inkling, then it’s one of the most astonishing animated films ever produced.”

Frank Scheck of The Hollywood Reporter similarly praised the film, writing on Rotten Tomatoes, “Laika’s most ambitious effort to date, Wildwood may also be the company’s masterpiece.”

Variety critic Guy Lodge also gave the film a positive review, writing, “Some longtime Laika fans may harbor warmer feelings for the studio’s smaller, quirkier outings, but as both a formal achievement and a generation-crossing crowd pleaser, Wildwood is a spectacular success.”

Wendy Ide of Screen International acknowledged some reservations about the story but praised the film’s execution, writing, “If the story lacks some originality, the execution more than makes up for it. The dazzling stop motion animation breaks new ground in terms of scale, intricacy and ambition. You won’t have seen anything quite like this before.’

Peter Bradshaw of The Guardian also praised the film, writing, “It’s a forthright, exuberant, good-natured and old-fashioned children’s tale which CS Lewis and JRR Tolkien might have recognized.”

With its early reviews pointing to a major achievement for the studio, Wildwood is shaping up to be one of Laika’s most acclaimed releases to date.

Wildwood opens in theaters October 23. Read the whole article on Forbes.