It’s not in Henry Selick’s “monkey” bones to direct a bad animated film. His stop-motion holiday classic, THE NIGHTMARE BEFORE CHRISTMAS, is still played on repeat every holiday season in my household. Henry Selick’s unique tone blends perfectly with Jordan Peele’s horror sensibilities. And although WENDELL AND WILD is a technical marvel, it sadly needed to spend a little more time tightening up the script.
The theme of WENDELL AND WILD covers the basis of most kid’s movies. Friendship is important, family may die, but they are always by your side, and humanity is far scarier than any demon.
Outside of the PG-13 rating, the unique protagonist, Kat (Lyric Ross), separates this story from others. Her narrative is something that only Henry Selick and Jordan Peele could dream up. And it’s a damn shame they spend far too much time on the movie’s title characters, Wendell (Keegan-Michael Key) and Wild (Jordan Peele). It all unfolds like the dialogue in the little played videogame by Night School Studio, AFTERPARTY. In that game, you have to out-drink the devil to return to the land of the living. That plot alone is worth a “shot,” yet the game gets bogged down by giving too much time to random minor characters. The same happens in WENDELL AND WILD, with about five subplots that could’ve easily been cut to three.
Yet, this is where I’m so conflicted. WENDELL AND WILD hosts a unique voice and tone and is some of the best stop-motion animation audiences will ever see. Here’s hoping for a sequel called KAT THE HELLMAIDEN that scraps the subplots and focuses on Kat, one of the coolest animated protagonists to grace the screen in a long time.
It’s available to stream on Netflix.
