Wendell and Wild duo uses hair cream's abilities

★★★ out of ★★★★

Wendell & Wild (2022)

Runtime: 105 minutes

MPAA: Rated PG-13 for some thematic material, violence, substance use and brief strong language.

Director Henry Selick returns to animation after 13 years, with a new film that will scare children just about as much as his unsettling Coraline (2009).

An array of recognisable talents like Keegan-Michael Key, Jordan Peele, James Hong, and Ving Rhames assemble in a visual delight, along with a script from Selick and Peele themselves. Surprisingly, Wendell & Wild starts off a little slow, a little unengaging for quite some time, then it quickly piques the viewer's interest with its magical atmosphere and mystical events. This is one of the rare movies that turns sleepy eyes at night to eyes wide open.

As if a little familiar, Wendell & Wild opens with a family safely driving back home, when young Kat (Lyric Ross) sees scary little caterpillar-monsters in her apple, causing her parents to be distracted and veer off a bridge. Five years later, Kat is the only surviving member and is a juvenile constantly blaming herself for her parents' deaths. At the same time, demon brothers Wendell (Keegan-Michael Key) and Wild (Jordan Peele) desperately want to escape the 'underworld', where they're doing their usual chore of applying hair cream to Buffalo Belzer (Ving Rhames), who is sort of a giant whom you might not want to mess with.

Kat is enrolled in a Rust Bank's all-girls Catholic school, where she is annoyed by a trio Siobhan (Tamara Smart), Sweetie (Ramona Young), and Sloane (Seema Virdi). Kat also kind of befriends a reserved classmate named Raul (Sam Zelaya), although I quote Kat, "I don't do friends, Raul. Bad things happen to people I'm close to." Kat also receives a skeleton-like mark in class, in which Sister Helley (Angela Bassett) urges her to keep it a secret. On the same night, she meets Wendell and Wild, who dubs Kat a 'Hell maiden'. They have promised to revive her parents in exchange for her allegiance.

However, there's a problem. Siobhan's parents run the Klaxon Korp company, who plan to demolish Rust Bank to build an expansion of their private prisons. After Father Bests (James Hong) returns from the dead, they meet the demon brothers who must revive their dead supporters, but NOT Kat's parents, or they won't get funds to build a dream fair. In the end, Kat must devise a plan to keep her parents and uncover a secret about the Klaxon Korp company.

I know, it sounds like too much is going on here. However, past the rough patch of the first twenty-ish minutes of the movie, Wendell & Wild slowly establishes each of the storylines and characters, and orchestrating all the characters like an ensemble towards the end, giving us a glimpse into the fantabulous mind of Henry Selick. Duo Key & Peele, as usual, also provides crackling energy to each scene they're in, constantly providing the film energy when it isn't showcasing the unique pictures around.

The animation, which is a painstaking and slow process, is once again pleasing to the mind, radiating nothing short of creativeness. Almost each character has distinctive personalities (expect for the trio, weirdly) and is uniquely drawn. There is also an odd janitor named Manberg (Igal Naor), whose character looks like a cross between Matt Damon and Jack Nicholson. Manberg, who's confined to a wheelchair, has a peculiar hobby of collecting demons and storing them in jars.

Just as the story got a tad too familiar, Wendell & Wild also peeks in to some territories most shallow movies in recent times don't. It discusses about overcoming traumatic memories, healing from wounds, and acceptance to move forward. Wendell & Wild also gets surprisingly dark, as its revelations of the Klaxon Korp's secret to Rust Bank Brewery's incident is revealed. This is not an everyday occurrence for animations to enter into such deep territory.

This may not be a great movie. It's got a slow start, a little too many characters, and a safe premise, which could have been solved with a little trimming of its opening and some stretching in its interesting moments. But for the most part, Wendell & Wild is gripping and aesthetically pleasing. It actually ends on a predictable note, but given the bittersweet fate of the main character, consider it forgiven.