{
  "id": 5302688,
  "title": "Fall Movie Preview: In an AI world, Laika makes handmade wonders – and ‘Wildwood’",
  "url": "https://urgent.news/2026/09/03/fall-movie-preview-in-an-ai-world-laika-makes-handmade-wonders-and",
  "topic": "ai",
  "section": "AI",
  "published": "2026-09-03T10:02:39.000Z",
  "source": {
    "name": "Winnipeg Free Press",
    "slug": "winnipeg-free-press",
    "url": "https://www.winnipegfreepress.com/arts-and-life/entertainment/2026/09/03/fall-movie-preview-in-an-ai-world-laika-makes-handmade-wonders-and-wildwood"
  },
  "original_language": "en",
  "account": "Travis Knight, the CEO of Laika, was unprepared for the massive response to the teaser trailer of his upcoming film \"Wildwood.\" The trailer went viral almost immediately, garnering over 90 million views on YouTube. Industry professionals, typically hardened by experience, expressed emotional reactions to the film's teaser, with one even saying, \"AI is the future. Laika: Hold my meticulously handcrafted stop motion beer.\"\n\nLaika, the Portland, Oregon-based studio, has been fighting to keep the art of stop-motion animation alive for two decades, blending it with modern computer-generated techniques. Their first major success was \"Coraline\" in 2009, but their last release, \"Missing Link\" in 2019, was a flop. Despite this, \"Wildwood,\" based on Colin Meloy's 2011 fantasy novel, is what Laika has been striving to create all along.\n\nSet in Portland, \"Wildwood\" follows a teenage girl, Prue McKee, whose infant brother is kidnapped by crows and taken into an enchanted forest. The film, which opens in theaters on October 23, is a darkly gothic tale filled with grief and adventure. With a production time of 16 years and 136 sets and 231 practical puppets, \"Wildwood\" is a testament to Laika's commitment to handcrafted filmmaking and the painstaking process of bringing their stories to life.",
  "summary": null,
  "key_points": [],
  "editors_take": null,
  "illustration": null,
  "coverage": {
    "outlets": 1,
    "also_reported_by": []
  },
  "ai_generated": true,
  "disclaimer": "Summaries, key points and the editor’s take are written by software from other outlets’ reporting and may contain errors — always check the linked original."
}