Wildwood, the new animated film from Laika, finally made its big screen debut over the weekend after over a decade in development. The stop-motion film, from the same studio behind Coraline, Kubo and the Two Strings, and ParaNorman is based on the novel by Colin Meloy and Carson Ellis of the same name and follows Prue, a young girl who ventures into an enchanted forest to save her little brother.
The film was a hit with critics, notching a near-perfect 99% on Rotten Tomatoes with ScreenRant noting in their 10/10 review that the film is “the type of movie you just can’t look away from,” with “a truly captivating story with second-to-none stop-motion animation.”
Unfortunately, even though reviews and word-of-mouth have been positive, this PG-13 animated feature underperformed at the multiplex, landing in third place at the domestic box office in its debut weekend, earning an estimated $11.6 million in the US, behind DC superhero movie Clayface and documentary You Can See Everything.
Though the movie may have an uphill climb in front of it at the movies, if you want to watch Wildwood on the small screen, preorders for the film are now available for both digital and physical editions of the movie.
Preorders for Wildwood are now available on multiple platforms
No release dates are available, but digital should be available before the end of the year
While we don’t have an at-home streaming date yet, Wildwood is now available to pre-order digitally on several major platforms, including Apple TV, Amazon Prime Video and Fandango at Home for $25. For those who would like a physical copy, pre-orders for the film in 4K UHD as well as Blu-ray are now available on Amazon for $45. The retailer also has a special edition 4K UHD steelbook that will feature a special case and other unannounced additional features and costs $49. For those who only want a standard DVD of the film, a single disc edition is also available on Amazon for $25.
Currently, none of these pre-order pages contain a release date, but unless this becomes a runaway box office success, it seems likely that a digital release will happen sometime before the holidays. As for the physical release, I’d expect that to follow along shortly after, with this title hitting store shelves (or your mailbox if you decide to preorder) sometime early next year.
When will Wildwood arrive on a subscription-based streaming service?
Sometime in 2027, though the destination is unknown
Though most releases have a clear trajectory from VOD to physical release to subscription-based streaming services, Wildwood is in an interesting position as it is not produced or distributed by a major studio with an existing deal with any particular streaming service. Currently other movies from Laika, including Coraline, ParaNorman, and The Box Trolls are currently streaming on HBO Max, but because Wildwood was distributed by Fathom Entertainment (a first-time partnership for Laika) this history doesn’t automatically mean that this movie will end up in the same place.
While it seems likely that Wildwood will be available on a streaming service sometime next year, we don’t quite know whether that will be HBO Max, Netflix, or another service that negotiates with the studio to secure streaming rights.
- Release Date
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October 23, 2026
- Runtime
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132 Minutes
- Director
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Travis Knight
Cast
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Peyton Elizabeth Lee
Prue McKeel (voice)
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Jacob Tremblay
Curtis Mehlberg (voice)
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Carey Mulligan
Alexandra (voice)
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Mahershala Ali
Brenden (voice)
