Review: Wendell & Wild

As we quickly approach Halloween, now’s the perfect time to sit back and watch the new Netflix stop-motion animated film: Wendell & Wild. This movie was directed by Henry Selick and it’s based on his and Clay McLeod Chapman’s unpublished book of the same name.

The movie follows Kat, a young girl whose parents died when she was eight years old. She blamed herself for their death and got herself into trouble. Kat gets sent to a new school to get a fresh start, but it’s in her hometown of Rust Bank. She finds out that her father’s brewery was burned down and that soon led to the demise of the entire town. A wealthy corporation, Klax Korp, is looking to put up a prison in its place. However, the remaining townspeople are doing everything they can to stop that from happening.

It turns out Kat is special, as she can communicate with demons. She specifically talks to Wendell & Wild, two demons who are stuck serving their father. They convince Kat to summon them to human realm and in return, they promise to revive Kat’s parents. Unfortunately, Kat comes to find out it that it’s not quite that simple.

I’ve been a huge fan of stop-motion animation since I was a kid, so I’m always interested in checking new movies of the sort. It’s especially a popular choice among horror or horror-adjacent filsm, such as Coraline and ParaNorman. The character designs themselves are a little off-putting. That happens in just about every stop-motion movie, but I’m still not a fan of every character’s design. That being said, I think it works for the demons and certain humans. The animation itself is done very well. Stop-motion animation, as I’m sure we all know, is an extremely time-consuming process. It pays off in this film as all of the effects go off without a hitch and make for a pleasant viewing experience overall.

The music in this movie is great too. The soundtrack is full of a lot of licensed songs, mainly in the rock genre. Some of the standouts are “You Sexy Thing” by Hot Chocolate, “Cult of Personality” by Living Colour, and my personal favorite track of the bunch: “Wolf Like Me” by TV on the Radio. Every song used in the movie feels like it serves a purpose and does so well.

The plot of the movie is pretty interesting. I like a lot of the supernatural elements, but there are some of them that could have used a bit more explanation.

I enjoy most of the characters in the movie. Kat is a strong and sympathetic protagonist, Raul is a good supporting character to back her up, and then we have the hilarious banter that Wendell and Wild have to offer. A lot of the characters get at least a little bit of development, but there are some fall a little flat for me. For example, I don’t care too much for Wendell and Wild’s father Belzer or Kat’s classmate Siobhan. Yeah, they’re given their moments to shine and be likable, but I was just underwhelmed by them.

The voice acting is good as well. I’m not familiar with most of the cast, if I’m being honest, but I enjoyed their roles here. My favorite performances, unsurprisingly, are Keegan-Michael key and Jordan Peele as Wendell and Wild, respectively. These have always played well off of one another and this movie is no exception. One character wouldn’t work without the other and I don’t think that’s a bad thing in this case.

Speaking of Jordan Peele, Monkeypaw Productions was involved with this movie. This is the studio’s first animated film, but Monkeypaw is primarily known for horror. Those elements are prevalent in this film and they get a bit darker than I was expecting. There a few deaths that are mentioned, but we even see a murder. There are some creative camera angles to make it a little more family-friendly, but it’s still obvious. I don’t know how family-friendly this movie will be considered anyway, since it also has a little bit of blood and strong language, but that doesn’t matter that much. After all, some of the best children’s movies contain dark moments.

Overall, I really like Wendell & Wild. It’s fun, entertaining, dark, and it can get heartfelt at times. It has some good character building, some good world building, eye-catching visuals, a killer soundtrack, and the perfect balance of laughs and frights. If you’re looking for a new movie to check out this Halloween, you can’t go wrong with Wendell & Wild.