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In 'Wendell & Wild,' stop motion moves to an Afro-punk beat

NEW YORK (AP) 鈥 The spooky, sublime stop-motion animation worlds of Henry Selick are feasts for the eye that can burrow into the imaginations of young minds.
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Henry Selick, center, co-writer and director of the stop-motion animated film "Wendell & Wild," poses for a portrait with voice cast member Keegan-Michael Key, left, and co-writer/co-producer/cast member Jordan Peele during the 2022 Toronto International Film Festival, Sunday, Sept. 11, 2022, at the Shangri-La Hotel in Toronto. (AP Photo/Chris Pizzello)

NEW YORK (AP) 鈥 The spooky, sublime stop-motion animation worlds of Henry Selick are feasts for the eye that can burrow into the imaginations of young minds. In films like 鈥淭he Nightmare Before Christmas,鈥 鈥淛ames and the Giant Peach鈥 and 鈥淐oraline,鈥 the dark, handmade curiosities of Selick have tended to leave a mark.

鈥淭hat鈥檚 what I hope for all my films,鈥 says Selick, 69, smiling. 鈥淭o shake up those kids but not mess them up for good.鈥

Jordan Peele, was one of those shaken kids.

鈥淚 remember seeing 鈥楴ightmare Before Christmas鈥 when I was a kid,鈥 Peele says of the 1994 film. 鈥淢y mother had the wherewithal to buy all the figurines at Macy鈥檚 before the film came out. She was like: 鈥楾his is going to be a classic.鈥 It was transformative for me as an artist.鈥

But, partly due to an abruptly canceled passion project for Pixar called 鈥淭he Shadow King,鈥 it's been 13 years since Selick's last film, 鈥淐oraline.鈥 Back in 2015, Selick met with Peele about making what would become At the time, Peele and Keegan-Michael Key were still making 鈥淜ey & Peele.鈥 鈥淕et Out," which would launch Peele as Hollywood's foremost horror practitioner and an in-demand filmmaker, hadn't come out yet.

鈥淗e let me read the screenplay. I knew it was good," says Selick. 鈥淗e was like, 鈥榃e've got to set up 鈥榃endell & Wild鈥 before the film comes out. It might not work out.鈥 I said, 鈥楧on鈥檛 worry about it.鈥欌

Seven years after that first meeting, 鈥淲endell & Wild,鈥 produced and co-written by Peele, is finally arriving in select theaters Friday and on Netflix on Oct. 28. It heralds not just the return of Selick but , who voice the film's titular demons.

But 鈥淲endell & Wild鈥 is also a stop-motion animation unlike any before it. Its lead character 鈥 something Peele pushed 鈥 isn't Wendell or Wild but Kat (Lyric Ross), a young orphan with green Afro puffs of hair who attends Catholic school. There are elements of death, grief and whimsy that will remind moviegoers of Selick's earlier films. But there is also a vivid Afro-punk spirit to match the movie's Black protagonist, who carries a boombox with an eyeball woofer. The multicultural cast includes Ving Rhames, James Hong and Angela Bassett. The giddy needle drops feature Living Colour, TV on the Radio and

鈥淚t was a character and a world that if I had seen this when I was that age, it would have been a whole different level of transformation,鈥 Peele, 43, said in an interview alongside Selick, Key and Ross at the Toronto International Film Festival last month.

In the opening scenes of the PG-13-rated "Wendell & Wild,鈥 Kat's parents are killed in a car accident. She's later coaxed into summoning them from the underworld by the devious Wendell and Wild. She's no pushover, though. Years of foster care and juvenile detention have hardened the combat boot-wearing Kat into brash goth heroine.

鈥淚鈥檝e never seen anything like that before,鈥 Ross says recalling the first time she saw a model for her character. 鈥淲hat I loved is the whole Afro Punk style and the green, natural hair. I feel like if anyone can rock that, it鈥檚 Black girls. I was in awe. She鈥檚 gorgeous.鈥

Wendell and Wild were rendered more like caricatures of Peele and Key with a demonic twist. The belly on Wild, Peele thinks, is a touch too large. But the film meant the comic duo's most substantial collaboration in years. They were determined to spend as much time together recording to get the natural rhythm of their still stunningly funny interplay. Selick estimates that he has several comedy albums worth of outtakes from their sessions.

鈥淭hat you would let somebody improvise in this art form,鈥 marvels Key. 鈥淭he fact that he would allow us that freedom knowing it would take two months just to make someone鈥檚 mouth open.鈥

Later this fall, 鈥淲endell & Wild鈥 will be joined on Netflix by another stop-motion animated film, But such releases remain a rarity for the form, a painstaking process requiring great patience.

鈥淚t comes in fashion for very brief amounts of time, and then the executives at the studios go: 'Oh my god! No stop motion. It takes too long,'鈥 says Selick. 鈥淚t鈥檚 a rare occurrence.鈥

During the early pandemic, while computer animation revved into high gear, production at the Portland, Oregon, set of 鈥淲endell & Wild鈥 had to shut down. Selick would sometimes have 30 sets going simultaneously, each requiring constant, minute manipulation. Nearby fires also intruded on the production.

鈥淗ow many weeks did you shoot that first one?鈥 Selick asks Peele. 鈥淭hree weeks,鈥 responds Peele, causing Selick to let out a prolonged cackle. Yet Peele knows something a bit about the artform, Selick notes, referencing the logo for Peele's production company, .

鈥淵ou鈥檙e going for perfect, but you鈥檒l never get there,鈥 Selick says. 鈥淏ut that鈥檚 what makes it wonderful, the flaws.鈥

To a remarkable degree, 鈥淲endell & Wild鈥 represents the melding of Selick and Peele's equally unique sensibilities. Intricate, otherworldly stop-motion landscapes fuse with antic comedy and sly social commentary: Two visionary filmmakers in one eye-popping sandbox.

鈥淧art of that first meeting, Henry was explaining his journey. From my perspective, we have one of the modern masters of animation,鈥 says Peele. 鈥淎s many Henry Selick movies as we get is the amount we deserve. I hope we get a lot more.鈥

___

Follow AP Film Writer Jake Coyle on Twitter at:

Jake Coyle, The Associated Press

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