Laika showcases smoother stop-motion animation in Wildwood preview
The studio presented unfinished clips and production details at TIFF, ahead of Wildwood’s 23 October cinema release.
Laika has offered an early look at Wildwood, its forthcoming stop-motion fantasy, at the 2026 Toronto International Film Festival. The film follows Prue, a girl searching for her lost brother in an impassable wilderness containing a rich fantasy world.
The studio’s head of animation, Brad Schiff, said digital cameras and “frame-grabbers” allow animators to review recently shot frames while working. The process helps them track puppet movements and produce smoother sequences, Laika said.
Wildwood’s major puppets are fitted with an internal mechanism known as a “breather”, designed to create the appearance of natural breathing. Laika first tested the technology on 2019’s Missing Link.
The production includes 233 puppets, including 36 versions of Prue, and involved 49 animators over 231 weeks. Clips shown at TIFF included a tense bike chase and scenes featuring Prue escaping an ornate mansion and travelling above a landscape on a giant bird.
The Verge reported that the clips were unfinished, meaning their appearance may not represent the final film. Laika, whose previous stop-motion features include ParaNorman, The Boxtrolls and Kubo and the Two Strings, is due to release Wildwood in cinemas on 23 October.
