| Wendell & Wild | |
|---|---|
 Promotional release poster | |
| Directed by | Henry Selick |
| Screenplay by |
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| Based on | Wendell & Wild (unpublished) by
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| Produced by |
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| Starring | |
| Cinematography | Peter Sorg |
| Edited by |
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| Music by | Bruno Coulais |
Production companies | |
| Distributed by | Netflix |
Release dates |
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Running time | 105 minutes[2] |
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
Wendell & Wild is a 2022 American animatedGothiccomedy horror film[3] directed byHenry Selick from a screenplay written by Selick andJordan Peele (who are also producers), based on Selick's and Clay McLeod Chapman's unpublished book of the same name.[4][5] It starsKeegan-Michael Key and Jordan Peele as the titular characters withAngela Bassett,Lyric Ross,James Hong, andVing Rhames in supporting roles. This was Selick's first feature film sinceCoraline (2009).
Selick began developing his stop-motion animation feature with Key and Peele set to star in November 2015. The distribution rights were picked up by Netflix in March 2018. Other voice cast were confirmed in March 2022. Production was done remotely during theCOVID-19 pandemic, with filming taking place inPortland, Oregon.
It premiered at the47th Toronto International Film Festival on September 11, 2022, was released inselect cinemas on October 21, 2022, and made its streaming release inNetflix[6][7] on October 28, 2022. It received generally positive reviews from critics who welcomed Selick's return and praised its stop-motion animation and characters, but criticized its screenplay. The film is dedicated to Mark Musumeci, an electricity consultant who worked on almost all of Selick's previous stop-motion features sinceThe Nightmare Before Christmas, who died during production.
Eight-year-old Katherine "Kat" Elliot lives with her parents Delroy and Wilma, who own aroot beerbrewery in the town of Rust Bank. On their way home, Kat's parents were killed in a car crash.
In theunderworld, demon brothers Wendell and Wild spend their days putting rejuvenating hair cream on their balding father,Buffalo Belzer, dreaming to build an amusement park rivalling his. They taste the cream, causing them tohallucinate of Kat, and also discover it canresurrect the dead.
Five years later, Kat becomes a juvenile delinquent who blames herself for her parents' deaths. She is enrolled in Rust Bank's all-girlsCatholic school, headed by Father Bests. Kat saves Siobhan Klaxon, whose parents Lane and Irmgard'sprivate prison company Klax Korp back the school and took over the town, from a falling brick throughpremonition, earning her respect. Meanwhile, Marianna Cocolotl investigates the burning of the brewery and is convinced that the Klaxonspurposely burned it with its workers. The Klaxons murder Bests, the last living witness to the brewery arson, upon refusing to keep funding the school.
During a class from Sister Helley, Kat receives a skull-like marking on her hand, and is told to hide and tell nobody, alerting Wendell and Wild. They identify Kat as their "hell maiden", and appear to herin a dream, falsely promising to revive her parents if shesummons them to the living world. Kat steals a teddy bear, Bearzebub, from Helley's desk and goes to her parents' grave with Raúl, Marianna'strans son, serving as her witness. However by taking the wrong way, the brothers appear in a different part of the cemetery, where Kat believes she has been stood up.
Wendell and Wild test the cream on Bests, resurrecting him. Bests convinces the Klaxons to pay him and the brothers to revive the deceased members of the town council, and give the Klaxons the votes needed to demolish Rust Bank and expand their prisons, on the condition that nobody else is revived. The brothers force Kat to serve them, lying of her parents' resurrection. Forced to exhume the council members, whom the brothers revive, Raúl steals the cream, reviving Delroy and Wilma himself. Reunited with her parents, Kat helps Raúl escape the brothers.
After thezombie council approves the Klaxons' plans, paying Bests and the brothers, Siobhan discovers her parents' lies abouttheir prisons' conditions. Helley and Manberg subject Kat to "soul binding", confronting her memories, severing her allegiance with the brothers, making her acknowledge her parents' death was not her fault. The ritual grants Kat control of her precognition, which Helley reveals are from her hell maiden powers.
Learning their resurrection, Bests and the brothers kidnap Kat's parents and take them to the cemetery to kill them, though Kat's group intervene. Siobhan, who followed herpygmy goat Gabby Goat to the cemetery, reveals that her parents paid Bests and the brothers worthlesscompany money. Belzer discovers the brothers' deception, but amural by Raúl painted on the roof of Rust Bank's houses convinces him to make up with his sons. Learning they are Belzer's children, Manberg releases his collection of jarred demons in exchange for Kat's group. Belzer apologizes to Wendell and Wild, approving their plans for their Dream Fair. Bests dies again, as Belzer confirms that the cream's effects are impermanent.
Helley tells a worried Kat her powers can help change Rust Bank. Recalling that Raúl needed a witness to prove the Klaxons guilty, Kat tells him to use the last bits of cream to revive as many deceased brewery workers as possible. The group fend off the bulldozers conducted by the council to demolish the town while Raúl revives three brewery workers to testify to the Klaxons' crimes, resulting in their arrest. The cream's effects wear off on Kat's parents, but before they die, Kat shows them a glimpse of the future where Rust Bank is revived; Wendell and Wild offer them VIP passes to their afterlife fair. Kat makes peace with her life, considering everyone her friends, even Wendell and Wild themselves.
On November 3, 2015, it was reported thatHenry Selick was developingWendell & Wild, a new stop-motion feature withKeegan-Michael Key andJordan Peele, based on an original story by Selick.[8] On March 14, 2018, the film was picked up byNetflix.[9] In a July 2019 interview, Key described the voice acting process, where "Jordan and I came in and did a session against static at recording booths, sitting looking across at Jordan and it's lots of ideas flowing, cutting each other off to keep that organic feeling. That usually ends up on the cutting room floor as you find the voices and you want a little refinement–some rhythm. We spent a good deal of time with an initial scene that Henry wrote discovering the characters and the framework of the scene. And then he uses that as inspiration to keep writing".[10] Pablo Lobato served as lead designer on the stop-motion puppets.[11] On March 14, 2022, the cast was revealed by Netflix on YouTube.[12]
As of June 15, 2020,production was being done remotely during theCOVID-19 pandemic. Lead writer and voice actor Peele stated that he "had an absolute blast working with Henry Selick and the crew forWendell & Wild. I cannot wait for you to discover this film".[13] In an October 8, 2020 interview withThe Hollywood Reporter, the film's producer,Gotham GroupCEOEllen Goldsmith-Vein, elaborated on the project: "We're mid-production inPortland, Oregon, where the crew has suffered throughfires, most recently,COVID and a lot ofpolitical and social unrest. It's been a very challenging movie."[14] Editing was done by Robert Anich, and Peter Sorg was cinematographer.[15][16][better source needed] By February 2021, production was ongoing in Portland.[17]
AfterCoraline, Selick felt stop-motion animation had become so smooth it had become indistinguishable from computer animation, defeating some of the purpose of stop-motion. He decided to allow flaws, such as keeping the seam lines on replacement faces visible, and shooting fewer frames per second in some scenes. Except for a stop-motion software called Dragonframe, he used more or less the same types of tools and techniques he used inCoraline more than a decade earlier.[18]
Part of the film was done ascutout animation to make the puppets look more two-dimensional. They were made of tin coated with silicone. Inspired by the shadow-puppet animation inHarry Potter and the Deathly Hallows – Part 1, and an idea originally intended for Selick's yet-to-be-made stop-motion filmThe Shadow King, some ofWendell & Wild was done assilhouette animation, utilizing a combination of physical cutouts and CGI, with CGI used when cutouts were too limiting.[19]
On June 4, 2020,Bruno Coulais was confirmed as the composer.[20][21][22] Its soundtrack has been noted for its emphasis onAfro-punk bands,[23][24] and includes the songs "Ma and Pa" byFishbone;[22][24] "Germfree Adolescents" and "I Am a Poseur" byX-Ray Spex;[22][24] "Ghost Town" bythe Specials;[22][25] "River" byIbeyi;[22] "The Wolf" bythe Brat;[22] "You Sexy Thing" byHot Chocolate;[22][25] "Young, Gifted, Black, in Leather" bySpecial Interest;[22] "Freakin' Out" byDeath;[22][24] "Fall Asleep" byBig Joanie;[22][24] "Cult of Personality" byLiving Colour;[22][25] "Wolf Like Me" byTV on the Radio;[22][24] "Boot" byTamar-kali;[22][24] and "Raising the Dead" and "Scream Faire" by Coulais.[22]
Speaking about the film's soundtrack, Selick stated:[23]
Before Afro-punk, there was Fishbone. There was actually several black punk bands. Fishbone was punk,ska,funk. But I ended up meeting those guys, who are still performing, and we have one of their songs in the film. They're still performing now, but I met them in the 1980s. And I wrote and directed a music video of one of their songs called "Party at Ground Zero"... And then there's all these other pioneers of the time that, some are forgotten, some are remembered, especially with the Afro-punk movement, they're remembered. But there was bands, you know, Death,Pure Hell. The Brat, which was aChicano band, actually, in L.A.Poly Styrene of X-Ray Spex.Bad Brains. Fishbone.
ProducerWin Rosenfeld suggested the use of Fishbone's "Ma and Pa" as a means of "building that bridge, sonically" between the characters of Kat and her parents.[23]
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Wendell & Wild premiered at theToronto International Film Festival on September 11, 2022[26] and was released in select theaters on October 21, 2022,[6] before its release onNetflix on October 28, 2022.[27]
On November 6, 2018, Netflix announced that it would be available for streaming in 2021.[28][29][30] On July 18, 2019, Key announced the film was planned to be released in late 2020.[11] On January 14, 2021, Netflix CEOTed Sarandos revealed that the release would be moved to "2022 or later" to meet Netflix's criteria of releasing six animated features per year.[31]Simon & Schuster would adapt the screenplay to novel form, to tie into the film's release.[14]
On thereview aggregator websiteRotten Tomatoes, 80% of 122 critics' reviews are positive, with an average rating of 6.9/10. The website's consensus reads: "Boasting visual marvels to match its ambitious and inclusive story,Wendell & Wild is a spooky treat for budding horror fans."[32]Metacritic, which uses aweighted average, assigned the film a score of 69 out of 100, based on 31 critics, indicating "generally favorable" reviews.[33]
Chase Hutchinson ofCollider, gave a positive review, saying, "when it all comes together,Wendell & Wild ends up feeling liberating, both artistically and thematically, with top work from all involved."[34] Sarah Bea Milner, of/Film, also gave a positive review, writing, "move overThe Nightmare Before Christmas — there's a new stop-motion horror flick in town."[35] Michael Rechtshaffen, ofThe Hollywood Reporter, further praised the film for being "a fresh, highly original concoction of playfulGrand Guignol proportions."[36] Radheyan Simonpillai, ofThe Guardian, wrote "the more characters Selick has to work with, the more room there is for his deliciously strange and comic visual craft."[37] In a positive review, forRogerEbert.com, Brian Tallerico wrote "there's no denying that this is a world that animation fans will just want to explore, to live in, to savor. It's been too long since we got a window into Henry Selick's brain and it's still an amazing view."[38]
Meagan Navarro, ofBloody Disgusting, gave a lukewarm review, writing, "it's an entertaining, if a bit overstuffed, romp through hell and back, with memorable characters and amusingly macabre hijinks."[39] Esther Zuckerman, writing forVanity Fair, said the film "is slightly too convoluted with some world-building short-changed, but it twists and turns to a place of genuine emotion and a rousing call to take down the ghouls of the real world rather than the demons of the underworld."[40]The Playlist's Jason Bailey praised the characters and stop-motion animation, assigning the film a grade of "B-" but ultimately concluding: "If it were a might tighter (it runs a rather flabby 105 minutes), or more rapidly paced, they might've really had something here; the highs are high, but Selick struggles to keep its narrative momentum going".[41]
