Wildwood Film Review

There are some studios then when they bring out a new film you have to go and see it right away be it either PIXAR or Dreamworks. Well another one of those studios is Laika and they've just released a new film from the director of Kubo And The Two Strings and well I really just had to check this film the very first chance that I got and so then join me as I review the film that really shouldn't have been released on the exact same date as Clayface with the film in question being called simply just "Wildwood" enjoy.

The plot of this film is when her baby brother is kidnapped by crows and taken into a mysterious woods she and her friend have to go into the woods to find him and stop someone evil from destroying the woods using magic. Now then interms of what I personally thought / felt about the actual plot that's actually featured / presented to us in this very film well then in all honesty I in all honesty personally thought / felt that the actual plot that's actually featured / presented to us in this very film was in all honesty really good. Whilst the pot of this film does sound very similar to that of Labrinth with the whole idea of a girl having to rescue her baby sibling from an evil ruler being ripped right out of that film this film does add enough new stuff to that premise that it does make that idea seem new and fresh again. However tho in saying this is hard not to draw comparisons to both of the plots as they are very similar with the only thing that's different about them being the fact that this films takes place in the woods and that's it but the things that it does add to the plot all of which are things that can't be said as they are major spoilers and I want you guys to go into this film as blind as possible are all things that make the plot feel new and different again with the film even giving the plot alot of focus and it is something that does work for this film with perhaps the only thing that doesn't work in regards to the plot is the fact that they don't explain how these woods are magical and why people can't pass through them and that's it with the plot of this film also being really rather entertaining and as well as being really rather engaging as well in my freaking opinions anyways / at least.

Starring in this film is Peyton Elizabeth Lee as Prue McKeel , Jacob Tremblay as Curtis Mehlberg and Carey Mulligan as Alexandra. Also starring in this film is Mahershala Ali as Brendan , Awkwafina as Septima , Amandla Stenberg as Niamh , Tom Waits as Maksim , Charlie Day as Dmitri , Arthur Knight as Mac McKeel , Angela Bassett as The General , Richard E. Grant as Owl Rex , Jake Johnson as Mr. McKeel , Maya Erskine as Mrs. McKeel , Tantoo Cardinal as Iphigenia , Blythe Danner as Seer , Rob Delaney as Samuel , Jemaine Clement as Roger Swindon , Marc Evan Jackson as Lars Svik , Len Cariou as Richard , Ólafur Darri Ólafsson as Seamus and Sonic The Hedgehog 2 star Colleen O'Shaughnessey as Ember.

Now then interms of what I personally thought / felt about the actual acting that's actually featured / presented to us in this very film well then in all honesty I in all honesty personally thought / felt that the actual acting that's actually featured / presented to us in this very film was in all honesty really good. To be honest here all of this films actors do a really good job in this film which is something that is understandable as this film co-producer and director Travis Knight does know how to get a good performance out of all of his actors and alot of this films actors are some really good actors in there right and while alot of them do come more from a comedy background it is nice to see that they can do drama. With the best actor in this film being Peyton Elizabeth Lee as Prue McKeel with her being really good in this film as she does get the chance to prove that she is more then just a Disney actor in this film by getting the chance to fully go deeper with her performance then what she more then likely had the chance to do when she was with Disney and while fair enough her performance isn't as good as it could have been considering the fact out of all of this films actors she is perhaps the least well known her performance does come of as being all the more better as she does still have something to prove as while alot of people would have seen her in Andi Mack the fact that is all of the Disney Channel shows aren't mainstream shows and therefor she still has to prove that she is this good actor and this is something that she does do in this film with her own natural charm really coming through in this film. With the acting that's in this film really being helped by the fact that this film script is just so goo that all this films actors have to do is just say the lines as they are written and a good performance will come out of the naturally which is something that really does help to raise the overall quality of the acting that's in this very film.

Doing the animation for this film is legends and the greats that are currently over at Laika Entertainment. Now then interms of what I personally thought / felt about the actual animation that's actually featured / presented to us in this very film well then in all honesty I in all honesty personally thought / felt that the actual animation that's actually featured / presented to us in this very film was in all honesty really good. The fact that this film has some really good looking stop motion animation in it is something that really isn't all that surprising as Laika is one of those studios where you know right away that your going to be getting some really high quality work and it's still true here in this film as there animation in this film is of a really quality. There are times where you can't really tell that this is an animated film as all of the movements from the characters and all of the backgrounds are really lifelike that they look like live action actors on live action sets and while yes there are some shots where the animation is a bit rough mostly when the characters are grabbing something but alot of the time it is really nice looking animation to look at, with the film even having some really stunning visuals alot of which do leave you wondering just how it was that they managed to pull them off as they didn't use 3D CGI animation for this film therefor everything was done for real and yet you get these really complex shots in the film which not only would have been hard to work out how to do it butt also given the fact that it's a stop motion film would have taken months if not years to film and yet in the final film they look so good with there being alot of thought and effort put into making this films animation be visually stunning to look at. 

Look to be frank this film is not going to make back it's $100 million dollar budget as right now it's at $21.1 million dollars. With this being due to two things the first of which the fact that outside of Coraline Laika isn't that well known of a studio and therefor there films are never going to make that much money at the box office as people aren't likely to see a film that is a essentially an independent film when they could go and see a new film from a bigger named studio which isn't good as this film is alot more better then alot of the films out right now and yet people won't see as it's not a big studio film that isn't playing in that many theaters this is despite the fact that this film has been getting tons of positive reviews from people. Not helping matters is the fact that it's the halloween season and therefore people are going to be wanting to see something scary like they are ding with Clayface whereas if this film was released in the late summer or early August when there was nothing of note coming out then it would fair better as this is a film that is perfect for that time of year but for a film that's being released halloween time it's not going to work as it's not giving the people what they're wanting to see from a film being released around that time and that's something scary yet this film was being released around the late summer early August time then it would have stood a much more better chance as this film did have good marketing and there wasn't really anything all that big coming out in that time period that would have stopped this film and yet for one reason or another the makers of this film instead chose to release this film at the end of October when they knew that there was a big horror film from a major studio being released and heck even waiting until around November would have given this film more of a chance at the box office.

This film is based off of the 2011 novel of the same name written by author Colin Meloy and had images drawn by his wife Carson Ellis. After doing an extremely quick read of the Wikipedia pages for all three Wildwood books this film does seem to stick very true t the plot of the first book only making what might be a few minor changes here and there with this film doing the very thing that all book adaptations should do and that's make you want to read the source material this is something that alot of adaptations don't do and yet its the very thing that all of them are designed to do and it's something that this film does manage to do even if its just to see what was changed from the book the screen it doesn't matter as your still reading the book and your still spending time with characters that you might like in a world that you might love. With the one major difference that isn't a spoiler is the fact that unlike the book which is split up into three parts this film doesn't do that as there are no titles cards on screen highlighting if it's a different part or not which was a wise thing to do as there would have been no way to do something like that without disrupting the flow of the film and while there have been films that have managed to do something lie that like for example The Hateful Eight that film was designed to tell its story that way was designed to have title cards come up to tell us when it's different part this film isn't designed to do anything like that and given the fact that this film has a much different audience then The Hateful Eight did it does make sense that that part of the book was dropped for the film with this being a film that if it had aa better box office would be able to attract new fans to the book but given how poorly the film is performing right now that is something that won't be happening anytime soon.

To be frank the films villain Alexandra does make for a really good villain granted she's not going to be a classic villain but for the type of film that this is she does make for a good villain character. Her backstory won't be spoiled in this review but if you've read the books then you'll know why her character is the way that she is with this being something that was not only kept for the film but was also shown on screen which is something that does make this film feel alot more mature with its themes then whatever the latest film from Illumination Entertainment is with t even being something that Alexandra herself does force Prue to go through and expirence in order for her to reach her goal in this film which is somethin that does make her seem like one of the most darkest villains in kids media today. Yet with this being said tho due to the fact that the film doesn't have alot of scenes with her in it she does come across as being an afterthought of a villain with her not being in the film all that often that you do end up having to remind yourself that she is a character in the film weather or not this was true for the first book is hard to say and if it is then it is something that needed to be changed for the film and if not then it is something that does make you wonder why it was done that way in the first place as the film does have plenty of scenes that it could have cut out of the film in order to have her be more front and centre which is something that she should have been as she is the films main villain and while she doesn't come across as being a secondary villain by any means she does also feel like a side character in the film.

Now then this film has / had an exact grand total running time of exactly two hours and ne minuet and fifty five seconds. With this film actually being the longest stop motion film ever made and to be frank here you really don't notice that running time as alot of the time you are just in this world that is so well thought out that you really don't notice how long the film is with there being alot of well paced scenes all of which do make the films plot be as fleshed out as it could be and while there are a few things that should have been in the film to help make things alot more easier for the casual fan for the die hard those things would seem pointless to have in the film with this film even having the right amount of plot there to really cover that amount of running time in the first place. This film does even use its running time very wisely as the plot of this film is very well developed with this being due to the fact all of the films scenes are about adding to or advancing the films various plots therefor when the film does have a big plot heavy moment it's something that feel earned and isn't just there because it was there in the books and whole yes the book might have handled this plot alot more better as a book could have as many pages as it needs to have inorder to tell a story for a film that's this long the films plot i a bout as well developed as it was ever going to be. This is also something that's true for the films characters as well as alot of the main characters do all get some form of character development in this film with it being made clear that the makers of this film did cate about giving the characters some development as they didn't have to do that as there development was all there in the books but the fact that they did does show us that they really did care about making this film the best possible film tat they could have done but I really will admit that this film really does have some really good pacing to it tho.

So now then as this is a comedy that really does mean that I have to actually talk about the actual comedy that's actually featured / presented to us in this very film well then in all honesty I in all honesty personally thought / felt that the actual comedy that's actually featured / presented to us in this very film was in all honesty OK at best. Whilst the film does have some really good comedic moments in it sadly none of which will be spoiled as again I want you all to see this film knowing as very little as possible the jokes that the film does have are of a very mixed bag some of them are laugh out loud funny and others are just there no reason and aren't that funny with this film putting more of a focus on its action then its comedy which would be fine if this was an action film but it's really not if anything it's more of an action comedy with ore focus leaning towards the action then the comedy. With the best joke in the whole film being when Prue and Curtis are talking about weird things in there town a man in a science fiction helmet comes riding up to them on a bike playing some a familiar theme song on the bagpipes which was such a funny joke as it does catch you off guard with just how funny it is and it makes you wonder why the rest of the film wasn't as funny as that one joke does show you that the makers of this film do know how to tell a good joke that granted isn't that clever but for this film it didn't need to be it just needed t make you laugh and that's exactly what it did and while the film does have some cute funny moments with Prue and Mac none are as funny as that one joke with the rest of the films jokes being just as good as well in my freaking opinions anyways / at least.

Overall if you all get the chance to g and see this film the very first chance that you get as while it's not as good as alot of the major new releases it is still a film that does deserve to be seen on a big screen due to how visually stunning , well written and well acted that the film is in my freaking opinions anyways / at least. Now then i've talked about all of the good and as well as all of the bad things that are in this very film in this very review and as such that really does mean that this very film really does earn itself a grand old score of exactly an 8 out of 10 from me.

Now then as for where I personally got all of the images that I personally used in this very review well then boys and girls and as well as ladies and gentlemen I personally used in this very review from IMP Awards . Com and Google Images. With my personally preferred website to use to get images really from this very film being the really great Google Images this is really because of the fact that really all of the images that I really indeed got and really used from Google Images are all really high quality really with all of the images that really are all and of course really currently up and on the really great and the really solid Google Images really are all being really fairly high in quality and as well as them all really being fairly high in definition.