WHAT’S IT ABOUT?

After regaling their daughter Prue (Peyton Elizabeth Lee) with scary stories about the local Impassable Woods, the McKeels pop out, leaving her to look after her young brother Mac, with a strict instruction not to take him out. Of course, she promises to do what she’s told. Of course, she doesn’t do what she’s told.

First stop, the local coffee shop, and she bumps into the local geek Curtis (Jacob Tremblay), and then she can’t shake him off. He follows her to a playground, where Prue lets Mac play on the slide. Then, from out of nowhere, dozens of crows descend, snatch Mac and fly him into the Impassable Woods.

Prue is going to be in so much trouble, she has to get him back before her parents find out. Curtis follows her into the woods, where they encounter talking coyotes, giant birds, corrupt officials, an evil governess (Carey Mulligan), a mystic and a band of bandits.

Can Prue and Curtis work out who they can trust, find Mac and get him home to her parents?

WHAT’S IT LIKE?

In an age when animation has become increasingly computer generated, the arrival of a stop-motion feature is a welcome surprise. The director Travis Knight puts it more eloquently, “At a time when entire worlds can be built with the click of a mouse and videos generated from a prompt, choosing to make a stop-motion film feels like a quiet act of rebellion.”

It’s so highly accomplished, that it doesn’t take long before it’s as believable as if you were watching these characters in a live action fantasy adventure. But the stop motion enables them to take the story somewhere that live action couldn’t reach.

From concepts as simple as a baby being thrown lovingly into the air to a full-on battle with hundreds of archers being met with balls of fire, every frame is utterly convincing – even if computers are used just a little to help fill out the background or clean up some of the physical tools.

The heart-warming story deftly blends real-life with fantasy, tied together with a script that manages to splinter some darker themes with shards of lighter humour.

Throwaway lines early on in the film become imbued with meaning as the story unfolds and while you’re constantly rooting for Prue to save Mac, the film-makers manage to make us feel sorry for the chief antagonist.

Watching Prue’s overconfidence and Curtis’ dorkiness (Prue’s word, not mine) converge into mutual heroism, as the Dowager Governess uses the remnants of her magical powers and prowess to try to bring back everything she has lost takes us on a thought-provoking roller-coaster ride of emotions.

A few details of the plot feel a little arch or don’t quite fit with the overall narrative but such criticism could be seen as – literally in this film – getting into the weeds.

From the story-telling and the design to the characters and the dialogue, Wildwood’s ambition is admirable and it hits the target – luckily – more often than the coyote archers.

Its 12A certificate belies some of its darker elements, which make it less suitable for the younger children usually targeted by animations, but older teens who think they’re past moving models should think again.

At more than two action-packed hours, it’s an astonishing feat – a delightful tale, skillfully told.