From the Battle of Helm’s Deep to clashes at Beruna, Thermopylae and Hogwarts, the big screen has hosted some colossal scraps. But we’ve never seen anything like the Battle for the Plinth before. An animated set-piece over a decade in the making and unprecedented in stop-motion, Wildwood’s third act features an almighty ding-dong that Travis Knight hails as “by far the biggest thing we’ve ever done”.
The War of the Woods begins.
Words: Jordan King
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Coyotes spark up their formidable trebuchets.
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THREE THINGS TO KNOW ABOUT THE BATTLE FOR THE PLINTH
IT’S EPIC
Bandits and coyotes fight tooth and claw.
IT’S REALLY EPIC
Not convinced? What if we told you Laika’s craftspeople built functional 1:12- scale trebuchets to give Wildwood’s climactic battle some real kinetic oomph? And what if we told you said trebuchets were tested in the car park at Laika? And what if we told you that shots of them firing flaming cauldrons of tar were animated almost entirely by hand? Because that is exactly what we’re telling you.
With a staggering 3,000-plus characters set to duke it out over land and sky, and the legendary Wētā Workshop joining forces with Laika, this is a showdown on a Rings-ian scale. “There are coyotes with bayonets and bandits with battle axes, and there’s bloodshed and violence and crazy choreography,” teases Knight. “The entire history and development of our studio is brought to bear in this sequence, and it’s been really challenging to bring to life, but I think it’s exquisite.”
NO, SERIOUSLY, IT’S TRULY EPIC