.

Occasionally Netflix will go all out with the marketing, as they do with Stranger Things and The Crown, but generally they go totally the opposite way and not publicise something at all. This is especially true with their movies. Maybe it is because all of their budget for this goes on those big shows, maybe it is due to them relying on word of mouth or the algorithms, but it isn’t unusual for a film, even one with high profile people attached, to be released with no fanfare whatsoever. There have been times when a property has started streaming that you have not even heard of (and this is from the guy that reads a lot of movie press).

This is one such time.

I know that outside of Disney, Pixar and the Minions animation is a commonly overlooked medium, stop motion even more so, but Wendell & Wild is directed by Henry Selick who gave us The Nightmare Before Christmas. (Everyone now knows that wasn’t directed by Tim Burton, right?) It is also written by modern horror master Jordan Peele and stars him working again with Keegan-Michael Key. That is some pedigree and I’m surprised I did not know this one was coming, especially considering how long stop motion takes to complete.

We’ve missed it now but Wendell & Wild was perfect for Halloween (it was dropped online last Friday); like much of the work of Selick and Peele it is proper spooky. The title characters are demons (voiced and resembling Key and Peele) who are summoned from a very surreal hell dimension by a teenage girl who is struggling to find peace in a world where she has lost her parents. You might have started to make this connection yourself but rather than The Nightmare Before Christmas, this shares a lot thematically with Selick’s superior film Coraline. There is even a creep toy but this time it is a teddy bear rather that a doll.

It isn’t a good as Coraline but few American animated movies are, and it also doesn’t reach the heights of any of Peele’s films, Get Out, Us or Nope, but these are high benchmarks and Wendell & Wild is still an absolute treat. It feels perhaps a little manic at first and not all of the humour lands but it soon settles into a charming and often moving adventure dealing with life and death, acceptance and hope. Like the best of Selick’s movies (he also did James and the Giant Peach and Little Nightmares) it is these elements of human existence that sustain it more than any puppet slapstick or other visual gags.

Of course the broader visuals are amazing. The design is superb and some of the imagery is wonderfully dark, most notably the school caretaker with his detached feet (and this guy is a human not a ghoul). There is also some good representation; the protagonist Kat is very like Coraline apart from the fact that she is black and her closest ally Raul is teen and trans.

To say to any more would steal away much of what this film has to be discovered. I certainly recommend it, particularly if you’ve enjoyed movies like any of the aforementioned or Kubo and the Two Strings, Boxtrolls and Corpse Bride. It is a little grizzly so would suggest it is suitable for any child over eight but don’t feel you need to be in the company of a kid to watch it.

.

The Ripley Factor:

Yeah, this girl Kat has real Buffy/Lisbeth Salander vibes. She is a kid who suffered childhood tragedy and had been fighting the system ever since, only to discover she has a capacity for dealing with the occult awarded to only a select few women.

Then there is Angela Basset’s warrior Nun and not one but two representations of strong motherhood.

The bad guy is clearly modelled on Donald Trump which also feels like a win for feminists.