|
|
|
|
|
With 2017’s Get Out, Oscar winner Jordan Peele stepped outside his usual comedy sketches and became the one to watch in the horror genre. And for Netflix’s Wendell & Wild, he teams up with legendary stop-motion director Henry Selick for an animated adventure that’s as dark and eerie and strangely comical as you’d expect from the filmmaking team.
Wendell & Wild breaks the barrier between the Land of the Living and the Land of the Dead with troubled teen Kat (voiced by Lyric Ross). Since her parents were killed in a car accident, Kat has been in and out of homes and facilities. She gets a chance for a fresh start at Rust Bank Catholic, a prestigious girls’ school in her old hometown. But her new life takes a dark turn when demon brothers Wendell and Wild (Keegan-Michael Key and Jordan Peele) discover that she can help them change their fortunes in the Land of the Living.
In order to achieve their goal of building a Dream Faire in the Land of the Living, though, these bumbling demon brothers will have to do some wheeling and dealing—convincing Kat, a pair of greedy developers, and an undead priest to do their bidding. The story gets a little muddled from time to time, with a whole lot of pieces in play: evil corporations trying to take over the town, a troubled teen with a chip on her shoulder, demons trying to break away from their demanding dad, and a private school that’s hiding a whole lot of secrets. But, really, the focus is less on the incredibly busy story than on its Selick-Peele style.
This edgy punk-rock stop-motion adventure takes viewers from a run-down private school in a down-and-out town to a strange underworld where a beastly, all-powerful demon runs a terrifying amusement park on his enormous belly. It’s dark and strange, creepy and colorful, all presented in Selick’s hauntingly imaginative animation style. But there’s some heart here, too—and viewers will fall in love with this flawed teenager whose life in the system only adds to the film’s horrors. Like some of the director’s earlier films, it’s definitely quite dark for younger viewers—but it’s a wonderfully eerie visual spectacle.
With its mix of Coraline’s creepiness and Get Out’s cleverness, Wendell & Wild is a collaboration that just makes sense—and fans of the writer and director will enjoy it. Had the story been a little less messy, it would have been a new animated classic—but it’s still worth checking out.
You can summon Wendell & Wild into your home through Netflix starting on October 28, 2022.
Listen to the review on Reel Discovery:
|
|
|
|
