Having just made its World Premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival on Sunday, Wendell & Wild is ready to cast a deviously delightful spell over theatergoers and streaming viewers this Halloween season.
While the stop-motion feature is carrying its 100% Fresh Rotten Tomatoes rating on the backs of just a handful of reviews (MetaCritic score TBD), the critical consensus is that of a modern horror tale with a complicated teen heroine that, while sometimes over-busy, is a welcome conjuring of Henry Selick (The Nightmare Before Christmas, Coraline) back to the director’s chair, augmented by co-writer/producer Jordan Peele’s (Nope, Get Out) gift for poignant social observation, and showcasing both filmmakers’ gifts for creepiness and comedy.
Wendell & Wild tells the story of Kat (voiced by Lyric Ross), a troubled teen haunted by her past, who must confront her personal demons, Wendell (Keegan-Michael Key) and Wild (Peele) to start a new life in her old hometown. The voice cast also features Angela Bassett, James Hong, Tantoo Cardinal and Ving Rhames. The movie will open in select theaters on October 21 before making its Netflix debut October 28.
You can read more about the making of Wendell & Wild in the November ’22 issue of Animation Magazine, available Oct. 5.
Here’s what critics are saying:
“While not nearly as frightening as Coraline, it still is overflowing with ghosts and ghouls galore that are all beautifully realized. There are even some magnificent musical sequences that prove to be standouts …
Where this story goes is best experienced for yourself, though it is clear that Peele’s fingerprints are all over the production, and it is all the better for it. Wendell & Wild packs a healthy dose of skepticism for institutional corruption that routinely decimates lives from prisons to the corporations that run them. This makes a clear parallel between the ghoulishness of these systems and the demonic forces that live underneath them.”
— Chase Hutchinson, Collider
“… The gorgeously intricate, wondrous stop-motion landscape is ultimately pure Selick, imbued with a fitting color scheme of swirling, eerily glowing greens and purples choreographed against a mischievous score by Bruno Coulais that effectively sets the mood for the film’s pre-Halloween arrival.
And while there are admittedly a few laggy patches that could benefit from a little tightening, the production takes a refreshingly unorthodox path to the obligatory animated movie themes of family and friendship.”
— Michael Rechtshaffen, The Hollywood Reporter
“At the film’s center, Lyric Ross gives a snarling performance that brings to vivid life the pain Kat has suffered. Haunted by her past, she puts on a gruff front to keep others away, because her broken heart cannot endure any more grief. Selick illustrates her alienation with a goth-punk aesthetic … she stands out like a sore middle finger … Wendell & Wild is a heady trip through a spooky and suspenseful terrain, dotted with big emotions and big ideas. Some are more smoothly woven in than others, but all contribute to a tapestry that is boldly macabre, earnestly heartfelt, and visually astonishing.”
— Kristy Puchko, Mashable
“Wendell & Wild struggles to find the balance between urgent reflections and childish antics, with its wide cast of characters … But the more characters Selick has to work with, the more room there is for his deliciously strange and comic visual craft. That’s what we’re here for, ain’t it? … And because he’s now working with Black characters, Selick and company also meet the opportunity to celebrate Black hair and its diverse styles and textures, including braids, bantu knots, those puffs and more. That’s perhaps the most beautiful thing about it.”
— Radheyan Simonpillai, The Guardian
“This is exactly the kind of family-friendly film that entertains grown-ups just as much as the younger viewers; Selick has infused a lot of personality into the visuals, which are captivating to watch from start to finish. The animation itself is, of course, gorgeous. We’ve never really had a Selick film that wasn’t stylish and expansive, but the 2022 Netflix film manages to top even 2009’s Coraline.”
— Sarah Milner, Slash Film
“Stop-motion animator Henry Selick has offered up a new goth heroine for three successive generations now: Gen X had Sally from The Nightmare Before Christmas, millennials got the titular Coraline of Coraline, and now Gen Z has Kat from Wendell & Wild … a 13-year-old Black girl with trauma in her past, green hair, and a pair of kick-ass combat boots.
… Even if Wendell & Wild, based on an unpublished novel Selick co-wrote, packs a little too much in, you can just sit back and enjoy the magic of Selick and his puppeteers’ visuals. It’s a good reminder of Selick’s visionary talent, and some of the creatures he has cooked up defy easy description.”
— Esther Zuckerman, Vanity Fair
