This review is spoiler-free!
Looking for more spooky movies to enjoy during October? Do you find yourself watching “Corpse Bride” or “The Nightmare before Christmas” every Halloween season? You may want to add this movie to your list; “Wendell and Wild” is a stop-motion animated horror-comedy film that came out in 2022. This movie is criminally underrated and deserves so much more attention than it initially got. Due to its availability being limited to Netflix, I never saw much advertising being done for it around the time of its release. The writing and directing of this movie comes from Henry Selick, the writer of “Coraline,” and was based on an unpublished book of his. The movie has a PG-13 rating for some dark themes, light swearing, and some possibly disturbing imagery.
The story of “Wendell and Wild” is a little complicated, and similarly to other films directed by Selick, has a lot of fantastical elements that take a minute to understand. The story follows an orphaned juvenile delinquent named Kat Elliot, who is attending school back in her hometown thanks to a “break the cycle” program. The titular characters Wendell and Wild are two demons from the underworld, and they use Kat to get onto the surface world by telling her that they can help bring her parents back. Within Kat’s dying hometown, the remaining townspeople are up against a corporation trying to knock down the town and build a prison. The story has a very sweet and heartwarming message about family, and comes together really concisely at the end. The stop-motion animation itself is super charming, the puppets are really well made and have a unique art style that both stands out and is a throwback to “Coraline.” Both the score and the soundtrack of the movie are fun to listen to, and have some super great existing and new songs, like “I am A Poseur” by X-Ray Spex, a song used in the movie to illuminate the anti-authority punk mindset of Kat.
The biggest seller of this movie for me would be the characters. “Wendell and Wild” has an extremely diverse cast of characters coming from all sorts of different backgrounds, ethnicities, and orientations. The movie has a canonically transgender character who is treated with genuine respect for his identity throughout the movie. I personally enjoyed this movie a ton, and I’d give it a million out of ten stars if I could. It had me both laughing and crying multiple times throughout, and the message at the end tugged at my heartstrings.
If you’re looking for a diverse, funny and unique movie to add to your Halloween watchlist, “Wendell and Wild” is the movie for you.
