Laika has spent 20 years building up to Wildwood
Across several decades in Hollywood, Caleb Deschanel has seen a lot. He served as cinematographer on films like The Passion of the Christ and The Patriot, worked on sequences in The Godfather and Titanic, and directed a few episodes of Twin Peaks. Even still, nothing could quite prepare him for his first stop-motion project: working […]
Caleb Deschanel, cinematographer for Laika's latest stop-motion film Wildwood, admits that stop-motion is a complicated process. He thought it would be easier than it turned out to be. Laika CEO Travis Knight began working on the film based on the book by Colin Meloy in 2011, but production didn't start until 2021. Knight directed Wildwood, which tells the story of a young girl named Prue who must venture into the wilderness surrounding Portland to find her missing brother.
This ambitious project required a large team of nearly 50 animators and over 200 puppets. Wildwood marks Laika's biggest production to date, utilizing new techniques to bring the fantastical world to life. These innovations include more flexible fabrics for costumes and a lighter, more durable silicone process. The film's numerous scenes, from epic battles to intimate moments, showcase the importance of these small details in breathing life into the puppet characters.
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