DETERMINED TO FIND HER MISSING BROTHER, NO MATTER WHERE IT TAKES HER, LAIKA’S NEW HERO IS READY FOR ADVENTURE
ADOLESCENCE IS ALREADY A TIME when children begin to feel at odds with the world around them. But what happens when they find themselves at odds with two?
This is the dilemma that awaits Portland seventh-grader Prue McKeel, the courageous hero of Wildwood, based on the best-selling novel by Colin Meloy, otherwise known as frontman of The Decemberists. Animator Tilly Fidler, who was key to bringing the character to life through hand-crafted stop-motion, saw something of herself in the slipstream that Prue toes between her childhood and the great unknown ahead. “I had to bring my own personal inspiration to animating Prue,” she tells Empire. “I thought a lot about how I felt at that age, and the tension of wanting to be taken seriously and appear completely in control in an adult world that you’re quickly becoming a part of, but also still having so much to learn.”
At home, Prue has become defiant, although not in the way you’d necessarily expect for a girl leaving her younger years behind. “Typically [in stories] you’ve got strict parents and a kid that is trying to be themselves, and rebelling against that,” explains screenwriter Chris Butler. “I said, ‘Well, what if we turn that on its head?’ This project is set in Portland. So what if the parents are quite New Agey and Prue’s way of rebelling is to be more buttoned-down and grown-up?”
Within the walls of her bohemian family abode in the Oregon city — which is also, in the real world, home to Laika — Prue dotes on her young brother Mac, whom she helps to look after alongside her parents. Establishing the McKeels’ interplay was a highlight for Fidler. “I really love early in the film when you get to see her in that family dynamic, having fun with Mac in the physical, silly way that we play with toddlers,” she says. “We learn about the sense of responsibility and pressure placed on older siblings too, and we see her reticence to take instructions from her parents, because of course with all her Prue wisdom, she thinks she’s got this big-sister thing down pat already and doesn’t want to be told what to do.”
In Wildwood, Prue isn’t the only character whose life is set to change irrevocably. Her fate becomes entwined, reluctantly, with that of her bespectacled, daydreaming classmate Curtis. “He’s a very different type of kid than Prue is,” divulges director Travis Knight. “Curtis is still a kid who’s very much into all the fantasy stuff. He’s into comic books; he’s probably read Tolkien.”
Of course, Laika is no stranger to middle-schoolers confronted with the challenges of growing up. In 2009 the animation studio premiered Coraline, Henry Selick’s Oscar-nominated fable that sees an 11-year-old girl discover a dark and sinister world in her new home. “Coraline and Prue are animated in a different style, as Laika has developed a much more naturalistic style of animation for Wildwood,” compares Fidler. “As characters, though, they both have that stubborn, sassy streak and that need to go out into the world.”
Even so, when disaster strikes and Mac is snatched away from Prue in a playground by a murder of menacing crows, Prue is scared. It’s a nightmare situation. Yet giving up isn’t an option — she is responsible for her little brother and summons up all her courage to go get him back. “Across Laika’s protagonists there’s a recurring thread of characters being willing to take these huge risks to stand up for what they believe in and the people they care about,” says Fidler.
Determined to retrieve her brother at any cost, Prue (with Curtis right behind, in the little red wagon hitched to her bicycle) embarks on an adventure that begins on the railroad bridge, inspired by Portland’s many iconic crossings. Standing on the precipice, Prue must stride boldly into a mysterious new land. “She is someone who is ultimately led by her heart, and that’s the thing that kind of causes her to do crazy things,” says Knight. This family affair is about to get fantastical.
Prue and her beloved brother, Mac.
Animator Tilly Fidler, who applied her own experience to the character.
Words: Beth Webb
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