What would you do to bring back the ones you love? Would you sell your soul or make a deal with a devil? Would you believe that a tube of psychedelic hair cream could do the job?
From the director that brought a host of stop motion all-time-favorites such as Coraline and The Nightmare Before Christmas comes a new film vying for the same attention and appreciation. Wendell & Wild, released as a Netflix original on October 28 and directed by Henry Sellick, shares the same emphasis on grim themes and developing relationships as its predecessors.
Two demon brothers, Wendell and Wild, voiced by Keegan-Michael Key and Jordan Peele respectively, see an opportunity to upstage their father, Belzer (Ving Rhames), with a bigger and better amusement park for lost souls when they get in contact with their Hell Maiden, Kat (Lyric Ross), a justifiably troubled and orphaned teen punk. The demons promise to bring back Kat’s dead parents if she will summon them to the land of the living, where the brothers intend to find a backer to finance their dream park.
I have always had an appreciation for stop motion animation and the way that artists do all they can to faithfully recreate a real environment. The movie’s visuals are absolutely astounding, especially through its use of color. The vibrant purples and greens make the amusement park for the dead look more lively than the grays and browns of the land of the living.
The film seems to take some inspiration from Coraline, both in its use of stop-motion puppetry to convey dark themes as well as in its soundtrack. Several of the tracks, which according to the subtitles are sung in French, have a similar beat and playful tune, comparable to the vocalizing in some of the most famous Coraline tracks.
Something that this movie should especially be applauded for is the diversity of its characters, most notably the inclusion and treatment of Raul, a trans man. Film writers sometimes fall into the trap of dehumanizing a character by making a character’s sexual orientation or gender identity their own personality trait. Raul, however, is compassionately developed as a talented artist and caring companion. His identity is not forcibly put on display but tastefully revealed and addressed in a handful of exchanges.
One of my biggest complaints about this film is its pacing. It's not so fast that one can’t keep up with it, but character after character after character are introduced one after another in the first few minutes of the movie. I also felt that scenes that were meant to carry more weight were quickly glossed over and made trivial. The final conflict of the film between Belzer and his
children felt rushed and insincere, where a deadbeat dad that sentenced his own sons to eternal servitude quickly turns over a new leaf.
Despite the film's pacing issues, it is a genuinely enjoyable narrative exploring trauma, healing, and, weirdly, the problems with private prisons. It is a shame that this film is not readily available to the public, especially to those who are fans of Sellick’s previous work. I will also readily admit that the hair cream that the brothers wastefully ingest is on the same level as Hook’s multicolored pudding in terms of how much I want to eat it in real life.
4/5 stars
