WENDELL & WILD
Halloween may have ended but I’m begging you not to sleep on WENDELL & WILD (trailer here) if you haven’t seen it yet. Animation is capable of more than lighthearted G-rated fairy tales or gratuitously raunchy adult comedies, which is why I have been dying for PG-13 animated features to become more common for ages. To see it happen in stop motion feels like a gift, and hearing the words “janky, stanky ass” uttered by a puppet version of Keegan-Michael Key in a “kid’s” movie is a transcendent experience. Not to mention the fact that this movie features casual but highly intentional diversity on a level that is rarely done this well. This is a movie about a Black girl bringing down the private prison system. It’s also a movie about Key and Peele being demons who live in a giant nose. It’s about a trans kid fighting for the people who love him. It’s about magical hair cream. Director Henry Selick knows what he’s doing in the realm of spooky stop motion (he’s the director of CORALINE and THE NIGHTMARE BEFORE CHRISTMAS, after all), so while this movie feels fresh and new, it still has that nostalgic quality that makes you want to watch and rewatch again, year after year.
—Anna Lee, Development Intern
