Stop-motion movies have long been a part of the Halloween genre. Movies like The Corpse Bride, ParaNorman, and even James and the Giant Peach all seem to come around on Halloween. Henry Selick, director of the classics The Nightmare Before Christmas and Coroline, recently teamed up with Jordan Peele to create the newest stop-motion Halloween movie since the early 2010s. Wendell and Wild, released October 21st on Netflix, puts this whole genre of movies in a new perspective, and includes the voices of Key and Peele, as well as Angela Bassett. The basic plot is that after her parents died in a car crash, Kat blames herself and has trouble adjusting. She ends up at a Catholic school in her hometown of Rust Bank and begins to encounter supernatural beings, two of them being Wendell and Wild, her own personal demons, who she summons in order to bring her parents back to life. Kat must face not only her demons, but also the evil Klax Korp in order to save the town and herself.
One special thing about this movie is the vast amount of diversity the movie placed within its characters. Peele emphasized to Selick that even though he loved stop-motion movies, he rarely felt represented in their characters and stories. Wendell and Wild not only features a young, black girl as its protagonist, but features other minority characters as well. There is a trans Latinx character, Raúl, along with an Indiginous character, as well as a variety of other diverse side characters. The movie also doesn’t shy away when it comes to Kat’s trauma. She suffers from flashbacks and is seen as angry at the world, but we hear through her narration of the movie where that really comes from.
One other thing that Wendell and Wild doesn’t shy away from is tackling darker themes that are present in our world today. The movie revolves pretty heavily around death and how people process and grieve, but there are other aspects that I was not expecting. The main villains of the story, Klax Korp, are a rich family pushing small businesses out in order to build their private prison in place of the town of Rust Bank. I wasn’t expecting the prison industrial complex to pop up in this Halloween-esque narrative, but it seems to fit right in. The movie also briefly brings up Kat’s experience in group homes and foster care, and how the system’s inadequate care was part of the reason she began “acting out.”
SLIGHT SPOILER WARNING AHEAD
Overall, I really enjoyed the movie. It made me laugh, it made me cry, and I loved the soundtrack. I think it was also an important showcase of how easily representation can be achieved, without things like tokenization. Take Raúl for example–he’s a trans boy, but that’s not his entire purpose in the movie. I also liked how the “popular mean girl” trope took a different route with Siobhan. Although she was the daughter of the villainous Klaxons, she wasn’t depicted as an evil girl, if not a bit oblivious, and she fought with Kat in the end. Another thing I really enjoyed about the movie was that since it’s rated PG-13, there were quite a few subtle, more mature jokes throughout the film. They had everything from getting high on magic hair cream to one of the villains, Lane Klaxon, being a not-so-subtle reference to a certain American president (seriously Google it). Even with everything I enjoyed that doesn’t mean there weren’t some drawbacks. The world-building could be seen as a bit convoluted, and I think some of the characters had room for more development. The plot was interesting, but seemed pretty rushed at times. Still, it doesn’t take away from the entertainment value of Wendell and Wild and if you enjoy Selick’s other work I highly recommend you check it out.