Perhaps a film I feel is more 'swept under the rug' is that of Wendell and Wild, an amazing yet ignored stop motion animated film by the Director Henry Selick who's worked on other stop motion features such as James and the Giant Peach, Coraline and Nightmare before Christmas so its a surprise this film didn't get much recognition when it was released on Netflix.
The one thing you notice the most about this film is the style, it has this sharp, blocky and semi abstract look to it with the character designs, especially the demons and the villains. They're very characterised and amazing to look at it.
Perhaps what this film lacks however is the coherence in the storyline? The premise? Very promising, a girl is orphaned after her parents die in a car accident and is thrown into the system which she pushes against, growing up toughened and rebellious, she's finally sent back home which has become a bit of a run down dump. The rest of the film tells her trying to resurrect her parents by using her summoned demons: Wendell and Wild and trying to protect her town from a cooperation.
The storyline seems good enough, however, I feel the execution was a little off, the story had too many small details, too many characters to try and connect to, too many 'mysteries' that fell through.
Wendell and Wild isn't perfect, but its an all round good movie with great representation and amazing animation and designs.
Comments