Go see Wildwood!

I finally saw Wildwood yesterday.

I was not sure I was going to.While I did read a lot of fantasy and adventure as an adolescent, I moved away from that, more toward non-fiction. Colin Meloy's book is after my time.

The clear love for Portland drew me in. The Unipiper is in it? Look at those cherry trees!

Plus, I am strongly in favor of Laika's anti-AI stance.

In addition, I liked the other Laika films I've seen pretty well:

https://sporkful.blogspot.com/2021/10/halloween-viewing-laika-edition.html 

(I still have not seen Missing Link.) 

At least, I liked their hearts; visually I often thought they were kind of ugly.

Wildwood looked like it was going to be really beautiful.

It was.

The ride through Portland doesn't take very long, though it is packed and impressive.

The beauty doesn't stop there, nor the love for the Pacific Northwest. 

If parts of it are less specific, those woods are very familiar, and that gorge and that coastline. 

One of the most memorable bits for me was fish leaping in a river and then a waterfall. Gorgeous.

Also, so much effort! 

I have made two animated short films: one in fourth grade and one in sixth. 

This is not to brag; they were not great. However, I do still remember how hard it was to get the vision to match what you could actually make, and the errors that happened even when you were being so careful. That's not just from my efforts but also seeing what my classmates ran into. 

Yes, we were kids with a small budget and not much experience; it's different. We also watched several animated films (that is where I was first introduced to Will Vinton). There is some background knowledge that no matter how swept up (really tense, sometimes) I was during the movie, I can look back at the swarming birds in flight or the facial expressions or the scale of the battle, have an idea of the difficulty of that, and be amazed.

Then there is the heart.

Grief comes through in the picture; it is something that has been on my mind a lot for various reasons.

There are different ways of dealing with loss. It can warp us, or it can soften us in a way that becomes a strength.  

So I say go see Wildwood.

Go because it loves Portland, and some of the worst people keep slandering Portland. Portland deserves the love.

Go because it is not only beautiful and technically accomplished, but because it does that valuing the contribution of humans.

And go for the belief in the connection and love.