Wildwood needed 1,124 faces for a single shot
One shot in Laika's Wildwood needed 1,124 different faces.
Production VFX supervisor Steve Emerson described it as a stop-motion record during a presentation on the film's visual effects at View Conference in Turin, Variety reported. The talk detailed a production that ran for 265 weeks from the start of stage animation to delivery of the effects. Emerson joined the film in February 2020.
Wildwood is directed by Travis Knight. It follows Prue McKeel, a girl trying to rescue her kidnapped brother, and is based on the illustrated fantasy novel by Colin Meloy. It is made in stop-motion, in which puppets are moved slightly and photographed frame by frame to create movement.
The scale is large for a handmade production. The film contains 2,776 shots, almost double the 1,486 shots in Laika's 2019 feature Missing Link, Variety reported. That work took more than five years. Emerson, an Oscar-nominated supervisor, was speaking about his sixth film at the studio.
The physical build was huge too. The crew made 132 practical sets across 117 locations, with 223 handcrafted puppets. Animators used 142,030 replacement faces, tiny printed pieces swapped between frames to change expression. One miniature alone tells the story.
That miniature was Pittock Mansion. It measured 14 feet wide and 10 feet tall. It took 11.5 weeks of labour by 45 to 50 artists to build.
Laika plans to release Wildwood in theatres everywhere on 23 October 2026, with Fathom Entertainment and FilmNation Entertainment named as partners, LAIKA said. The studio says tickets are on sale now. Laika calls the film a love letter to its home just outside Portland, Oregon.
What makes this stand out is the mix. Hands build the puppets and sets. Computers extend them, clean them up and stitch them together. For fans, this means the world on screen still starts as something you could touch.
