Wildwood made runtime history — yes, it’s officially record-setting

Here we go, another autumn, another wildly ambitious project from Laika landing smack in the prime spot before Halloween. Wildwood is shaping up to be the one to watch this year, especially if you have any soft spot for painstakingly crafted stop-motion or just want to see how many A-listers can fit into one animated script. If that’s you: buckle up, because there’s a lot to unpack.

Wildwood clocks in at 2 hours 20 minutes, making it the longest stop-motion film ever made.

An Epic Runtime and an Even Bigger Task

So, AMC Theatres have it down: Wildwood runs for an eye-watering 2 hours and 20 minutes — 140 minutes, to be precise. That’s not just long for a kids’ film, that’s shattering the record for stop-motion. For comparison, Guillermo del Toro’s take on Pinocchio lasted a perfectly respectable 1 hour 57, and even Laika’s own previous longest, Kubo and the Two Strings, only managed 1 hour 42. By the numbers, Wildwood is practically another act longer.

The story’s built from Colin Meloy and Carson Ellis’s 2011 children’s novel — so, yes, Portland, Oregon, enchanted forests, missing kid, and a thoroughly offbeat quest. Your main duo: Prue McKeel (voiced by Peyton Elizabeth Lee) and Curtis Mehlberg (Jacob Tremblay) who wind up plunging into magic woodland territory to save Prue’s younger brother Mac from this enigmatic baddie, Alexandria (Carey Mulligan). Plotwise, it’s familiar but with a foot in the surreal, which — let’s face it — is Laika’s house style.

Voice Cast and Production Scale

The voice cast is proper stacked, and here’s the full breakdown:

• Mahershala Ali (Moonlight)
• Awkwafina (The Farewell)
• Angela Bassett (Black Panther: Wakanda Forever)
• Charlie Day (It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia)
• Jemaine Clement (Moana)
• Jake Johnson (Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse)
• Amandla Stenberg (Children of Blood and Bone)
• Maya Erskine (Mr. and Mrs. Smith)
• Tantoo Cardinal (Killers of the Flower Moon)
• Len Cariou (Spotlight)
• Richard E. Grant (Can You Ever Forgive Me?)

Laika isn’t messing about with the technicals, either. Wildwood has 136 sets — yes, you read that right, one-hundred-and-thirty-six — and a frankly bonkers 231 practical puppets. The DP on this marathon is none other than six-time Oscar nominee Caleb Deschanel. No one’s revealing the budget, but considering the production kicked off back in 2021 and it’s gone full tilt for over four years, plus with that cast, it’s probably north of the $100 million spent on their previous high-water mark, The Missing Link.

The Competition and Awards Hopes

Wildwood drops into cinemas 23 October, courtesy of Fathom Entertainment. That’s the same weekend as DC Studios’ body horror punt, Clayface — so expect a bit of a box office dust-up right as Halloween fever peaks. Now, whatever DC’s got up its sleeve with twisted, gooey antagonists, Wildwood’s already shown its hand with those trailers — which just casually racked up over 90 million hits on YouTube. That’s not a niche audience, that’s game-changing numbers for this kind of project.

Bottom line: the runtime’s a record, the visuals are eye-watering, the cast is absurdly good, and the interest is already outpacing its main competition. I won’t be surprised if this lands squarely in the Best Animated Film conversation come awards season. Let’s see if the actual film can keep pace with the hype.