Laika’s Wildwood met its first audience on Sunday at the BFI London Film Festival, and the reviews that followed the premiere keep circling back to the same performance. Reviewer after reviewer has landed on Peyton Elizabeth Lee, whose voice carries the film as Prue McKeel, the Portland teenager who ventures into the Impassable Wilderness to rescue her baby brother from a murder of crows.
Next Best Picture wrote that Lee “absolutely shines as the reluctant heroine,” noting that she is not afraid to make Prue a little unlikable at first and that she conveys the character’s wit, fierceness and compassion beautifully, with some unexpected comedic chops along the way. Flickering Myth called her work “voiced superbly” and went further, describing Prue as “a hero for our times.” DiscussingFilm praised the wise capability Lee gives Prue, one that makes her easy to root for as her idea of maturity is tested, while Get Your Comic On noted that Lee does much of the film’s heavy lifting, and does it with ease.
The film around her is having a remarkable week as well. Wildwood debuted with a perfect 100% score on Rotten Tomatoes, a mark ComicBook notes makes it the highest-rated animated feature of the decade so far. At roughly 132 minutes it is also the longest stop-motion feature ever made, and it is Laika’s first PG-13 film, a darker and more ambitious epic than the studio has attempted before. Directed by Travis Knight and written by Chris Butler, it adapts Colin Meloy and Carson Ellis’s novel with a voice cast that surrounds Lee with Carey Mulligan, Jacob Tremblay, Mahershala Ali, Angela Bassett and Awkwafina.
Readers of this site have followed Lee for a long time, from her Disney Channel years on Andi Mack through reunions with her old costars and the final trailer for this film. Prue is the biggest role of her career so far, and the London response suggests she was ready for it.
American audiences get their turn soon. Wildwood makes its US premiere as the opening night selection of AFI Fest on October 21, then opens in theaters nationwide on October 23 through Fathom Entertainment, with select presentations in 4DX, D-BOX and Dolby Cinema. Tickets are on sale now, and if the London premiere is any indication, Lee’s Prue is the performance everyone will be talking about on the way home.