‘Wendell & Wild’ Movie Review: Henry Selick Returns With Thoughtful, Overstuffed World of Demons
Henry Selick, the animated mastermind behind The Nightmare Before Christmas, returns to feature filmmaking with Wendell & Wild for the first time since 2009’s stellar Coraline. He’s once again dipping his feet into a spookier side of storytelling through a screenplay he co-wrote with Jordan Peele. Wendell & Wild is well-intentioned and wonderfully diverse, but it bites off far more than it can chew.
‘Wendell & Wild’ gives Kat’s demons their names
A teenaged Kat Elliot (Lyric Ross) blames herself for the death of her parents (Gabrielle Dennis, Gary Gatewood) after they get in a tragic car accident. As a result, she’s the sole survivor and now an orphan. She’s given another opportunity when she’s accepted into a fairly strict religious school. Kat meets a potential friend in Raul (Sam Zelaya), but she has difficulty letting others in.
Meanwhile, two demons named Wendell (Keegan-Michael Key) and Wild (Peele) dream of escaping their imprisonment under Buffalo Belzer (Ving Rhames). So, they concoct a scheme to use Kat to enact a ritual to bring them to the Land of the Living to accomplish their own goals.
Overcoming trauma and getting personal demons on your side
Wendell & Wild pulls personal demons from the shadows and gives them names. They’re both physical and symbolic manifestations of Kat’s trauma after the devastating loss of her parents, which left her feeling that she would “hate myself for the rest of my life.” She’s set on a path of new beginnings in familiar places with the new school near her old home. However, it’s not what it used to be, forcing her to confront what weighed her down since childhood.
Kat says that good memories can hurt the most, as they’re a constant reminder of the self-blame that she inflicted on herself over the years. She created her own internal monster long before Wendell and Wild called out to her, which was born of trauma and memory. Kat takes it out on those around her, refusing to let others in. However, she’s willing to bargain with her internal and external demons to try to find a remedy to her pain.
Selick explores greed through multiple lenses, as most of the characters in Wendell & Wild act in their own self-interest. The demons are the most overt example of this, but it’s also clearly demonstrated in how the characters barter with one another to advance their own interests. Kat calls the popular girls at her school “poodles,” frequently trying to separate herself from the collective and trying to find her own voice and reach her own goals.
‘Wendell & Wild’ is well-intentioned, but narratively overstuffed
Wendell & Wild introduces a diverse world filled with a wide variety of supporting characters. It’s delightful to see this form of storytelling come to life, especially with a platform as big as Selick and Peele’s. However, they struggle with assimilating these stories into Kat’s narrative. There are so many sub-plots happening at once that don’t necessarily tie together, creating bumpy pacing.
Selick once again impresses with astonishing character models within a whimsical world. It’s easy to get lost in the visual wonder of this film, as the environments are thoroughly detailed and immersive. There’s more of a CGI look than in Selick’s previous works, but it remains a beautiful picture to look at. Composer Bruno Coulais brings a ghoulishly delightful score to the film that elevates the spectacular stop-motion animation.
It’s great to have Selick back and, hopefully, the world won’t have to wait 13 years to see what else he has up his stop-motion animated sleeve. His grand return offers a thoughtful message about learning to love yourself and transforming your personal demons into a source of strength, but it lacks a clear focus, often sidelining its primary narrative for numerous underbaked sub-plots. Wendell & Wild is narratively overstuffed past its limits, losing its protagonist and the impact of her journey in the chaos.
Wendell & Wild spooks into select theaters on Oct. 21 and streams on Netflix starting on Oct. 28.
