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After being dormant for years, Laika finally reveals what has been incubating under the surface, silently waiting to announce their newest project, Wildwood. Laika is scaling new heights in artistry, technology and imagination with this new,  remarkable feature film, planned to release this year. GoldDerby.com had this to say in their 2026 article, “The stop-motion wizards at Laika are cooking up another whimsical, visually stunning adventure in the mold of previous films like Coraline and Kubo and the Two Strings.”

This feature is based on a children's book by the same name Wildwood, created by Decemberists frontman, Colin Meloy. Based on his haunting melodical storytelling music, with such songs as The Mariner’s Revenge Song and Eli, the Barrow Boy I can't help be drawn in and intrigued even before watching a single frame of teasers. Decemberists songs feel like crisp ocean air, complicated, deep longing (even in death) and will haunt your dreams.

It will be directed by CEO Travis Knight as his second film with this company but he is known for his live action credits. The voice acting is filled with award winning talent. One of the main characters is voice acted by Angela Bassett. Charlie Day and Tom Waits appear on the billing so you can't help but wonder about the sound track.

The article GoldDerby links directly from the IMDB page so the demographic for this article is most likely for cinephiles such as myself who have been dreaming of the day Laika opens its doors to reveal what they have been working on for the last decade. We have been eagerly waiting like kids outside Charlie's Chocolate Factory and its finally here!

I appreciate the way this article breaks down the questions, who, when, what the main focus of this being the featurette about Pittock Mansion, located in Portland, OR. They show beautiful interior and exterior shots along side the real life standing structure, exquisite lighting, texture in pain staking detail.

The second video enthralls my attention showing the behind the scene animation of the powerful, graceful gold eagle, its many details, armature, and individual feathers, each placed by hand. The huge bird flies with one armature puppet and the other puppet hops around, showing interactions with other elements of the film. This article gives the point by point. It's the bones of the information. Although the placement of the article is for those who know what IMDB stands for, it also gives information the general public needs to know to get excited and realize how amazing stop-motion is. It says “look we've revolutionized this field once again to bring you epical artistry, flow of motion, a grand story, and elevated this to new heights!"

However, if you are an animation nerd of epic proportions… go to Laika.com (I've been there so many times looking at job opportunities and was almost hired...perhaps someday) you will find another video, the "Title Reveal.” What I love about this video is that I absolutely felt it was for weirdo artists like myself. It made my head tingle and my neck get all brissly... like on Halloween night out on the streets, sniffing the air for danger and pretending you can see in the dark.

We pan over the house from Coraline and into the woods as an old Viking-sounding voice actor recounts the legends of old. What I like about this is that if you’re familiar with Coraline, which put Laika on the map (in my opinion), you start to believe that this is a sequel or they are reusing the house, giving their previous epic a nod... but then it cuts to scenes from ParaNorman and other creepy-cool films by them, showcasing, “This is Laika, Movies that Matter.”  Then we move into the Wildwood shots of owls and wolves with glowing eyes, eerie trees, and the phrase, “They call these woods the impassable wilderness, it was a warning, to keep away.” Freaking goosebumps.

If it had been possible THAT should have been the feature trailer for the GoldDerby.com article. I can see where it delivers a lovely treat for those of us intrigued enough to deep dive but even if that wasn’t the option I wouldn’t have done the first video of the mansion as the flagship for the film. At first I didn’t even realize there were two videos in the same article and had I not been doing this as a research project, I might have missed it entirely.

GoldDerby.com did the film justice by delivering all the information in a concise way. Other articles about this weren't written with clearity or broken down into easy bites the way this one was. I appreciate the first line calling the artists wizards as well and I think showing the eagle footage was remarkable but I wouldn’t lead with the mansion video. Because this is animation, and many people don’t fully embrace it as a medium, I would 100% lead with that title reveal for all press releases and then include the eagle video in the same articles. If possible I would also do my best to pay YouTube to have them play back to back to say “Here is the artistic trailer that gives you the feels and here is the tech, why this is ground-breaking.”  Grab the heart, then the head.