Travis Knight says LAIKA spent 16 years bringing Wildwood to the screen, an extraordinary production timeline shaped by the painstaking demands of stop-motion animation.

Speaking at Deadline’s Contenders London event, Knight appeared alongside cinematographer Caleb Deschanel, composer Dario Marianelli and costume designer Deb Cook to discuss the work behind the studio’s new release. The film’s magical realms, vicious crows and large-scale battle sequences presented an especially formidable challenge for a process built around tiny, incremental movements.

Knight described stop-motion as a cycle in which artists construct thousands of miniature elements, place them under set lights and move them microscopic distances between individual photographs. That routine is repeated until the images collectively become a movie.

“And with this one, it actually could have gone either way because it took us 16 years to make this movie,” Knight joked after saying the process continues until either a film emerges or society collapses. To underline the scale of that timeline, he noted that Barack Obama was a new president in his first term when the work began.

Why Knight Remains Committed to Stop-Motion

Despite the difficulty, Knight argued that the method gives Wildwood an identity that another filmmaking approach could not replicate. He called stop-motion “the absolute worst way there is to make a movie,” while also emphasizing the distinctive beauty created when artists and craftspeople physically build a film’s world.

That handmade quality, he said, was suited to the story itself. Knight believes the creative process leaves visible traces on the finished art, and that audiences can feel the years of effort contributed by the people who helped bring Wildwood into existence.

The film draws from Colin Meloy’s 2011 novel and could potentially become the first installment in a series, although that possibility remains unconfirmed. It also marks new territory for LAIKA as the studio’s first movie to receive a PG-13 rating.

A Fantasy Story Tackling Loss and Grief

Knight said there was no real hesitation over the direction of the movie, but the filmmakers were mindful of the care required when addressing its more sophisticated themes. Among the subjects explored in Wildwood are grief and loss.

For Knight, animation and fantasy can create useful distance from everyday reality, allowing difficult emotions to take on a form that viewers can encounter through an imagined world. His hope is that audiences will recognize reflections of their own lives through that different perspective.

He also rejected the idea that challenging emotional material is beyond younger viewers. “Young people know what it is to feel alone, to feel afraid, to feel powerless,” Knight said, adding that stories have a responsibility to handle those experiences sensitively.

Wildwood asks emotionally demanding questions about love, letting go and the consequences of refusing to release what has been lost. Knight framed those ideas around several central questions: How far should someone go for love? When is it necessary to let go? What does holding on cost, and how can a person remain emotionally open while knowing the pain that openness can bring?

Although the story enters difficult territory, Knight said its ultimate destination is joyful and filled with light. The intention, however, was not to arrive there too easily. In his words, the filmmakers wanted to “earn the light honestly.”

ShowBiz Take

The significance of Wildwood lies not simply in its 16-year production history, but in the relationship Knight draws between that labor-intensive process and the movie’s emotional ambitions. A story about grief, devotion and the cost of holding on was itself created through years of patient, hands-on work by artists and craftspeople.

The PG-13 rating also makes the release a notable first for LAIKA. Rather than avoiding emotionally complex material, Knight’s comments suggest the filmmakers approached it as something younger audiences could understand when treated with sensitivity and responsibility.

What Happens Next?

A video of the Contenders London panel featuring Knight, Deschanel, Marianelli and Cook is scheduled to be posted Monday. Whether Wildwood ultimately leads to a broader series based on Meloy’s novel remains only a possibility.