#lyric ross

[anderwater]

Wendell & Wild (2022), post credits scene with Kat Elliot

[demifiendrsa]

Wendell & Wild | Official Teaser

Wendell & Wild will stream on Netflix on October 28, 2022.

Teaser Poster

Synopsis

From the delightfully wicked minds of Henry Selick (director of The Nightmare Before Christmas and Coraline) and Jordan Peele (Nope, Us, Get Out) comes the story of Kat (Lyric Ross), a troubled teen haunted by her past, who must confront her personal demons, Wendell & Wild (played by Keegan-Michael Key and Jordan Peele) to start a new life in her old hometown.

[beingharsh]

Wendell & Wild (2022), dir. Henry Selick

[likeahauntingmelody]

parallels in us (2019) / wendell & wild (2022)

[princess-pathetic-112898]

Everyone’s got demons. My demons have names.

[cinematicjourney]

Wendell & Wild (2022) | dir. Henry Selick

[demigoddessqueens]

Sometimes a family is a girl, two brother demons and their demon father, the friend she made, and a nun.

Seriously this movie was amazing and deserves every bit of attention!!

[wizards1977]

Face your demons! 👻

[itsthetism]

wendall & wild was genuinely so good. the characters were amazing, the stop-motion animation, the music, the diversity - it was great. i just wish netflix promoted it more

[cinethusiast]

Wendell & Wild (2022) dir by Henry Selick

[offscreendeath]

[beingharsh]

Wendell & Wild (2022), dir. Henry Selick

[blondebrainpower]

This Is Us

[supagirl]

LYRIC ROSS » THE CLASS (2022)

[rookie-critic]

Wendell & Wild (2022, dir. Henry Selick) - review by Rookie-Critic

Wendell & Wild was a wonderful stop-motion animated film with one of the best soundtracks of 2022 and a story that, while nothing spectacularly new, was wildly entertaining and full of Halloween heart. The newest from Coraline and The Nightmare Before Christmas visionary Henry Selick from a script co-written by Selick and Jordan Peele, Wendell & Wild follows Kat, an orphaned girl who, failed by the system, is dumped into a school for girls as a part of a juvenile detention rehabilitation program (the headmaster of which is very much just in it for the funding it gives to his school). Shortly after arriving, Kat starts to notice strange powers arising within her, and sees two demons (the titular Wendell & Wild, played by none other than Keegan-Michael Key & Peele) that tell her they can bring her parents back if she'll summon them to the land of the living. It of course is a bit more complicated than that, but there's your bird's eye view.

The cast of this film is a nice mix of a few veteran names alongside a slurry of fresh talent, and almost all of the newer names give fantastic performances. I'll note that a couple of the performances felt very wooden, and stood out all the more because of the phenomenal job being done by the rest of the cast. Another win for this film is its commitment to positive representation with a number of characters, the most prominent of which being the trans character Raúl. Outside of a handful of moments where the fact that Raúl is trans are brought up, the character is allowed to exist and not have his whole character defined by his gender, but rather by his loyalty and artistry. It just really seems like a lot of love and care went into making sure his character, as well as other characters representative of a marginalized group, were not portrayed as a token character of that group, but just as another character in the movie, who are fully realized personalities that are not just pigeonholed into "the trans character" or "the disabled character." That effort did not go unnoticed and I applaud Selick and Peele for making that happen. I'll also applaud this film for daring to be dark and go places that a traditional "family friendly" film wouldn't and discuss themes that most studios would say are "too mature" for a younger audience. Discussing death and loss in such a direct way, and especially framing that loss as a child losing both of their parents at an intensely young age, is a bold move on Selick's part. He, of course, is no stranger to darker themes, having made movies like Coraline, but somehow Wendell & Wild feels more grounded, more real in its depiction of death, even though it still has a foot firmly planted in the darkly fantastical, and I appreciate a movie that's willing to give a younger demographic a little more credit and give them the exposure to mature themes with the idea that they can understand and handle them.

Now it's time to give a shout out to the biggest pro this film has in its corner: the soundtrack. The needle drops in this film are insanely well done with near Guardians of the Galaxy levels of style and precision, with a track list mostly consisting of punk rock music from the late 70s/early 80s, but that ventures into alternative rock acts like TV on the Radio, and even throws in some ska for good measure. Every track hits as intended when it plays in the film, and I could not be more of a fan. If this collection of songs were available for purchase on vinyl or even CD, I'd be first in line to buy it. This one's been at the back of my head, buried in my much-neglected "streaming watch list," ever since it dropped on Netflix back in late October, and I'm glad I finally took the time to sit down and check it out.

Score: 9/10

Currently streaming on Netflix.

[leighlikescartoons]

Wendell & Wild

On Netflix October 28 |  In Select Theaters: October 21

From the delightfully wicked minds of

Henry Selick

and

Jordan Peele

comes Wendell & Wild, an animated tale about scheming demon brothers Wendell (

Keegan-Michael Key

) and Wild (Peele), who enlist the aid of Kat Elliot (

Lyric Ross

) — a tough teen with a load of guilt — to summon them to the Land of the Living. But what Kat demands in return leads to a brilliantly bizarre and comedic adventure like no other, an animated fantasy that defies the law of life and death, all told through the handmade artistry of stop motion.