WENDELL & WILD

Visually the picture's world-building is impressive, but it doesn't back that up with a coherent, easy to follow, compelling central storyline.

Wendell & Wild, Henry Selick's return to feature stop-motion animation for the first time since 2009's Coraline, has quite a few things going in its favour.

The movie is designed like no other stop-motion movie, it touches upon intriguing themes and it boasts the involvement of Jordan Peele, who is credited as a screenwriter alongside Selick. Yet despite a promising setup, Wendell & Wild somehow never catches fire.

Apart from the leading girl— a young orphan who literally gets in touch with her inner demons — none of the characters is sufficiently developed, the narrative too often bounces around aimlessly and the rhythm of the film leaves a lot to be desired, with some scenes dragging on while others are frustratingly raffled off.

Visually the picture's world-building is impressive, but it doesn't back that up with a coherent, easy to follow, compelling central storyline, which explains why the movie left me oddly cold, even if some of its images and ideas linger in the mind.

release: 2022

director: Henry Selick

starring: Keegan-Michael Key, Jordan Peele, Angela Bassett, Lyric Ross