Evanescence so close tab4/20/2023 ![]() "Everyone's got demons," Kat says, "but my demons have got names."Īnd yet her demons aren't the biggest threat she faces. Even her brief voiceover speaks to her isolation, asserting how her pain is more profound than others. The movie's soundtrack sings of her angst with wailing rock songs. Selick's animation illustrates her inner hurt through shadow-puppet-like montages where bullies and foster parents are black silhouettes with glowing green eyes. At any moment, Kat could strut into an Evanescence or Avril Lavigne music video and fit right in among the peppy preps and gremlin-like nuns, she stands out like a sore middle finger. Selick illustrates her alienation with a goth-punk aesthetic that includes facial piercings, green hair, and a Catholic School uniform pierced with safety pins, then paired with fishnets and glossy black platform boots. ![]() Haunted by her past, she puts on a gruff front to keep others away, because her broken heart cannot endure any more grief. Wendell & Wild has an edge of teen angst.Īt the film's center, Lyric Ross gives a snarling performance that brings to vivid life the pain Kat has suffered. Then, Selick's animation adds a thick layer of slime, a spattering of ticks, and band of zombie allies to the freaky fun. Along the way, the Key & Peele stars bounce kinetically off each other's vocal performances, bringing a mirthful mayhem to these bad brothers. So, whether it takes double crosses, creepy corpse makeovers, or raising the dead to do it, they are game. Luckily, these little devils aren't seeking Kat's ruin they just want to build the "bemusement park" of their dreams. All she wants is her parents back, and she doesn't have anything to lose.Ī kid making a deal with a demon or two sounds like the start of a truly harrowing horror movie. When Wendell (Key) and Wild (Peele) come bumbling into Kat's dreams with a promise that seems too good to be true, of course she's a bit dubious - but she's also a lonely, angry teen, abandoned to a child welfare system that doesn't know what to do with her. ![]() Hardened by five years in foster care and juvenile detention, Kat is suspicious of everyone around her, be it the sensitive trans classmate (Sam Zelaya) who offers her aid, the mysterious nun (Angela Bassett) who seems to know a lot about devil's marks, or a chipper trio of popular girls who dream of transforming this tough girl into their perky protege. Wake Up, Oscars: Animation isn't just for kids Here, rather than an larger-than-life peach populated by talking insects or a tiny hidden door that opens into a realm ruled by a button-eyed Other Mother, 13-year-old orphan Kat Elliot (Lyric Ross) employs a sinister teddy bear to commune with a pair of dopey demons who claim they can reunite her with her long-dead parents. Wendell & Wild plays like Coraline meets Key & Peele.Īdapted from an unpublished book that Selick wrote with horror author Clay McLeod Chapman, Wendell & Wild plays to Selick's soft spots with its core narrative about a misfit kid going on a dangerous quest in a willful attempt to reclaim lost happiness. The trailer was promising, but in execution, Wendell & Wild is a dazzling and dark treasure. Its peculiar pedigree was enough for us to single it out as a must-see ahead of its World Premiere at the 2022 Toronto International Film Festival. Two visionary filmmakers who've made their mark on modern horror. A double act acclaimed for their comedy brilliance. Best of all, those titular demons are voiced by comedy duo Keegan-Michael Key and Jordan Peele, with the latter sharing co-writing and producing credits.Ī living legend of awe-striking animation. With his latest, Wendell & Wild, he plunges audiences into open graves, ravenous rivers, and the very depths of hell to spin a new tale of family trauma, guilt, healing, and demons. With stop-motion animation, his fingers have crafted carefully constructed characters, grounded physicalities, and daring designs that refute the dedicatedly cutesy aesthetic of their computer-animated peers. The Academy Award-nominated animator has brought to life savage realms in James and the Giant Peach, The Nightmare Before Christmas, and Coraline. Henry Selick masterfully handcrafts nightmares.
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