Wendell et Wild

Henry Selick's welcome return to direction is expectedly visually splendorous. Though a lot more rudimentary in it's appearance than Coraline, Wendell & Wild is brimming with life in the design of every one of its memorable characters and sets.

The unique style and quirky designs add a great deal of vibrancy to the many, many creative ideas present in the story. It makes for a gleefully bizarre, oddly captivating experience. I can see this becoming a cult classic like some of Selick's other stop-motion animated films.

I thought the characters all had more than sufficient unique personality to keep the film effortlessly watchable and engaging.

But there is WAY too much going on here. And I'm starting to see this as a trend in screenplays involving Jordan Peele, as Nope had the same problem earlier this year.

Wendell and Wild as characters are actually barely in this movie, and they are woefully underdeveloped, given the bare minimum of motivations and rushed, shallow character growth. And it's because the writers felt the need to make room for a plethora of other characters and story beats that are never given their time to become impactful.

Kat has an "overcoming trauma" arc that is simplistically glossed over in one scene, and she has magical powers that are introduced with almost no build-up.

Some generically-written friends of Kat's are given even less development and some scenes try to highlight them only to have little to no impact on the story.

I could go on, but I'll lastly mention that there are way too many antagonist characters, and because there's no time to focus on them, they're disappointingly simplistic and cartoonish, and it results in the story's themes being delivered in such an on-the-nose manner that the film's conclusion is unfortunately disappointing.

The idea of Key&Peele as stop-motion characters was enough to draw me in, the problem with the movie is they're not the main characters even though the title says Wendell & Wild, the main character is the school girl Kat, and because her life's trauma left her cold, she hard to like, the animation has high production value, it looks good, but the story is about too many different things, and the title characters fade into the background, Kat is supposed to be some kind of hell something lol, and her mentor played by Angela Bassett has the same powers but it's not fleshed out enough to understand what the purpose of those powers are, overall a cute Halloween movie for a family to watch, parents turn off your brain and let the kids enjoy the animation.

I love Henry Selick's work in Stop Motion, Coraline is even one of my all time favorite films, however this new effort has unfortunately left me a little cold.

On the technical side it is certainly something great but the script is really simple with an unbalanced pace.

The ending comes all of a sudden and the viewer is not given time to empathize with what's going on.

The protagonists are nice even if some have a design that didn't drive me crazy. However, the film is not a bad film but thinking about past works it does not even reach those levels a bit.

Such a shame as I was very confident for Wendell & Wild.

Very little charm, not scary or creepy, and lacking any heart. This was wholly disappointing. I had trouble connecting with any of the characters, although I tried my best to! Kat, the movie's protagonist and an orphan, should've been SO much more sympathetic than she was. Even the titular characters Wendall & Wild were pretty one-dimensional.

The story lines also felt very jarring and disjointed. The only thing keeping me engaged was the stop motion and the occasional laugh, but even that wasn't enough to make me care. There's something seriously wrong with this movie. It should've been amazing, but ultimately, there's no magic to be had here.

'Wendell & Wild (2022)' is adaptation of Henry Selick's own book about a troubled girl who meets her demons shortly after being enrolled at an all-girls catholic school in her home town. It's the director's first film since his much-loved classic, 'Coraline (2009)', and it features many of the hallmarks of his delightfully macabre style. Teaming up with Jordan Peele (who takes on co-writing, producing and acting as the titular Wild) seems like a match made in heaven - or, perhaps, hell - and a lot of the movie lives up to that potential. However, ultimately it's one of the weaker entries in either filmmakers' filmographies because it simply can't get a handle on what it wants to be. Straight away, something seems off with the pacing. The editing is very elliptical, even in the most straight-forward sequences, and the overarching structure is very unfocused. The piece bounces around between its various elements, never quite coming together as a cohesive whole. These elements are mostly excellent in isolation, but the fact that they never quite gel leads to an experience that's difficult to get fully immersed in. The flick deals with a lot of interesting ideas, touching on themes of family and guilt while commenting on important societal issues such as the prison-industrial complex, and it's also awash in positive representation (even though I could have done without the deadnaming of one of its characters). It's a bit heavy-handed, sure, but it mostly works and actively enhances the narrative. It's a shame that these subtextual, and even textual, aspects get a bit lost in the overall muddled nature of the affair. There are, I suppose, too many for any one of them to be fully fleshed out, leading to moments in which certain things pop up and affect the plot - despite never having been set-up properly - and then fizzle away just as quickly as they appeared. Despite its issues, though, the film is enjoyable throughout. Its aesthetic is distinct and and appealing, with its fluid animation combining with its colourful characters to bring its gleefully grotesque world to life. It has a tangible vibe to it, which is one of its most valuable assets. Regardless of how messy its story is, it's undeniably entertaining, and it conveys several good messages that are as expected as they are necessary. It often deals with familiar elements in an unfamiliar way, at its best when playing with its more subversive scenarios. The picture is a solid effort, even though it certainly has a few narrative issues. If it were more focused, it could have been great. Still, it's a good time overall.