Laika's 'Wildwood' Premieres at London Film Festival to Rapturous Reception

Deadline suggested the film could continue Laika's streak of Academy Award nominations. The film is Laika's most ambitious project to date, according to Deadline. Knight, who grew up in Portland, described the film as "a madly ambitious story of magic, wonder, and danger set in the place I grew up."

The adaptation draws from the first book in Meloy's "Wildwood Chronicles" trilogy. The film's setting modernizes the story's Portland backdrop, with affectionate nods to the city's culture, including a coffee shop called Dripster, according to The Guardian. Laika's previous films "Coraline," "ParaNorman," "The Boxtrolls," "Kubo and the Two Strings," and "Missing Link" all received Best Animated Feature nominations.

The film, directed by Travis Knight from a screenplay by Chris Butler, adapts the bestselling novel by Colin Meloy and Carson Ellis. It follows 12-year-old Prue McKeel, voiced by Peyton Elizabeth Lee, whose baby brother Mac is kidnapped by crows and taken into the Impassable Wilderness, a magical forest outside Portland, Oregon. Prue and her classmate Curtis, voiced by Jacob Tremblay, enter the forest to rescue him and discover a world of talking animals and warring factions.

Carey Mulligan voices the film's antagonist, the Dowager Governess, who commands an army of coyotes. Mahershala Ali voices Brendan, a bandit leader and freedom fighter. The cast also includes Awkwafina, Jake Johnson, and Maya Erskine, according to The Guardian's review.

Speaking at the premiere, Knight reflected on the project's unusually long gestation. "When we started this, Barack Obama was a fresh-faced president," he said, according to Variety. The Guardian called it "a pleasingly old fashioned stop-motion magic-forest odyssey" and noted its "distinctively crafted" visual style.