There is a comforting quality to their stories that makes them feel like sitting down and catching up with a childhood friend. Selick is returning to the directing game for the first time in over a decade with an all-new, original tale about a surly teen learing what it means to live with.
The way in which the movie explores a number of critical ideas about the prison industrial complex and American foster care system feels very specific to our current moment, which makes it feel like an instant classic.
Despite being named for a pair of demonic brothers from another world, the story of Wendell & Wild is in the hands of a 13-year-old girl from the small city of Rust Belt. Like all of the protagonists in Selick's films,Kat's personal pain goes a bit deeper than the sadness that comes with losing things or possessions, and the opening scenes of the film show how she first came to know grief as a young girl.
The Underworld is filled with all kinds of imaginative, supernatural creatures that exist in the Underworld, where demon brothers Wendell and Wild work as bumbling landscapers at a theme park that is itself part of a larger demon voiced by Ving R. Both Wild and Wendell are not fans of authority figures and feel like they are being misinterpreted by their peers. The demons only feel safe talking about their dream of building an even better park for fear of what would happen if they were found out.
The desire to fulfill one's deepest wishes becomes one of the film's more central themes as it pullsKat and the demons together more directly later in the film. The way in which it frameskat as a brilliant girl who is also a survivor of the juvenile justice system makes Wendell & Wild pop at the beginning. The movie is meant to be watched by young people. As it addresses things like the privatization of prisons and how a lack of proper funding for schools is its own kind of structural violence, it makes clear that it wants anyone watching the movie to feel comfortable thinking critically about those aspects of our world.
The film has its fair share of heavy moments as it follows Kat to her new home at Rust Bank Catholic school where she immediately gets the strangest vibe from Sister Helley and all of her new classmates. The movie is incredibly fun and playful, and when Kat starts to have random premonitions, it becomes a kind of Buffy-esque mystery about her discovering what kinds of secrets the teachers are hiding.
The film has a beautiful flair and verve that comes to life in some of the film's more intimate scenes thanks to the gorgeous and slightly off-putting creations of the character designer. While Key and Peele both bring more or less exactly what you would expect from them as scheming, well-meaning ghouls from Hell, Ross'kat and Bassett's Sister Helley stand out, especially for the way that their subtle, understated performances are able to pierce through the joke-filled
The movie tries to bring it all home, but it ends up muddling the story because of the late-story twists. It encourages you to go back and watch more of the film because it is so rich with visual information.
Even though it is only coming out now, it still feels like a classic piece of the spooky canon of Selick films that many of us grew up loving, one that will be part of the Halloween rotation for years to come.
James Hong and David Harewood are two of the stars of the show. On October 28th, the movie will be available on the streaming service.
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