Wildwood Has a Better Warm-Up Than Coraline
Put the button eyes away for one evening. Wildwood opens nationwide in US cinemas on Friday, October 23, and Coraline is the tempting preparation: the same studio, a child in danger, an inviting world with something wrong inside it. But LAIKA's new fantasy has a more useful companion waiting in its back catalog.
A girl heads into a forbidden forest to rescue her baby brother, encountering creatures and rival forces in a hidden realm. The advertised quest promises room to roam. Coraline's appeal is how an apparently better version of home becomes a trap.
My warm-up pick is Kubo and the Two Strings. Travis Knight directed it and Wildwood, but the shared name matters less than the family quest. Kubo gives you a child to worry about while the landscape grows more extraordinary around him. That is the appetite to bring to a forest rescue.
Somebody to worry about
Kubo's quest concerns his fallen samurai father and the powers Kubo is still discovering. Its magic gives the adventure scale; the family connection gives it a reason to keep moving. The spectacle is much easier to care about when something personal is at stake.
That is what I want Wildwood to deliver. The rescue premise is a good start: there is a particular person to find, and an unfamiliar world between the girl and her brother. If the film keeps that urgency, the forest can be as elaborate as LAIKA likes. If it loses it, even beautiful scenery will become an obstacle to getting on with the story.
Coraline is still the choice for a night of domestic unease. The attention its heroine craves turns frighteningly possessive. You watch the comforts become threats. Kubo and the Two Strings suits the evening when you want to go somewhere, meet travelling companions and feel the quest getting bigger.
So take the detour through Kubo and the Two Strings before Wildwood. Save Coraline for the night you want to be afraid of the other room. This time, pack for a journey.
