Wildwood channels The Decemberists’ folk fairytale legacy
The film Wildwood brings Colin Meloy and Carson Ellis’s story to the screen as a stop-motion fairy tale set in the Pacific Northwest. The couple say they drew on familiar folklore and the eerie woods near their home, aiming for a tale rooted in old stories rather than a wholly invented fantasy world.
The story begins with crows kidnapping a baby, drawing on Irish myth, and embraces danger and grief in the tradition of films such as Watership Down and The Dark Crystal. It is set around Portland’s Forest Park, which covers roughly 5,000 acres; director Travis Knight took nearly 16 years to bring the richly detailed setting to screen. Meloy has not ruled out returning to Wildwood in book form, if the idea feels right.
In short
- Wildwood adapts Meloy and Ellis’s fairy tale into stop-motion animation.
- The story draws on folklore and Portland’s 5,000-acre Forest Park.
- A possible return to the series would depend on Meloy’s enthusiasm.
Explained simply
Colin Meloy is the singer and songwriter of the American band The Decemberists, known for songs that often draw on history, folklore and storytelling. He and illustrator Carson Ellis created the Wildwood books, a fantasy story shaped by familiar fairy tales and the forests around their home in Portland, Oregon.
The story is set in and around Forest Park, a large woodland within the city, where a child is taken by crows and a dangerous journey begins. Its mix of wonder, peril and grief follows a tradition of children’s fantasy that includes Watership Down and The Dark Crystal.
The film brings Ellis’s illustrations and Meloy’s story into stop-motion animation, a painstaking technique in which physical models are moved and filmed frame by frame. The project connects the couple’s work with director Travis Knight’s interest in detailed animated worlds.