‘Wildwood’ Is a “Risky” Movie — Just Like ‘Coraline’ Was 20 Years Ago

Travis Knight says Laika spent 16 years bringing *Wildwood* to the screen, a project so ambitious that the studio had to develop new tools while filming. He sees the dark fantasy as a risky undertaking, much as *Coraline* was in 2009, and says its production pushed stop-motion animation further.

Knight acquired the rights to Colin Meloy’s book in 2010, but Laika initially lacked the means to realise its scale, characters and set pieces. Pre-production began about seven years ago, and the team continued inventing techniques during filming. One example was a five-foot-wide golden eagle puppet, made from fabric rather than heavy silicone and supported by motion-base technology to enable animated flight.