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Henry Selick—master of stop-motion animation, netherworlds and childhood trauma wrapped in kooky merriment—is back with his first movie in 13 years, Wendell & Wild (which is currently streaming on Netflix and playing at the Hollywood Theatre).
The Nightmare Before Christmas and Coraline director and his team spent the better part of four years in their Milwaukie studio animating the film, an aesthetically marvelous and narratively chaotic tale of two demons, Wendell and Wild, who ascend to earth to visit an orphaned 13-year-old named Kat (Lyric Ross) as she enrolls in an austere Catholic school.
With its macabre fun and peerless puppetry, Wendell & Wild is a quintessential Selick creation with added political and mythological dimensions from co-writer, producer and Wild voice actor Jordan Peele (his Key & Peele compatriot Keegan-Michael Key voices Wendell).
WW spoke to the film’s Portland-based animation supervisors, Jeff Riley and Malcolm Lamont, about embracing animation’s so-called imperfections, weathering the fires of 2020, and their hopes for the future of stop-motion in Portland.
WW: What did Selick films mean to you coming up in the ‘90s?
Jeff Riley: I was interested in special effects in high school; all my friends were going to good schools to be scientists and lawyers. I went and visited my sister in college…she was like, “I saw ads for this movie; it made me think of you.” It was The Nightmare Before Christmas, and I was like, “Oh, it’s a Disney movie? There are songs? I really don’t want to.” Anyway, she convinced me to go, and I was just mesmerized. I remember not even really speaking for the rest of my visit. By the time the train ride home ended, I was really like, “That’s what I’m going to do—stop-motion animation.”
I’ve read there was a prerogative on Wendell & Wild to leave in some things, like puppet seam lines (the lines on puppet faces to which their changeable facial expressions adhere), that could be viewed as imperfections. Why?
Riley: I think Henry thought stop-motion trying to emulate CG was going too far…[he’d say], “This is stop-motion, don’t hide it.” You can leave in little crinkles in the costumes. There are a lot of shots where you can see a character’s hair moving. We call it charm.
Malcolm Lamont: That seam line thing is something he’s wanted to leave in for a long time. When we did Coraline, there was a studiowide survey on whether to leave it in or paint it out. Ultimately, it went. I think this was his chance. Even up until close to the end, I believe it hadn’t been decided through Netflix whether to leave it in or not. Watching it, you might notice [the lines] in the first 30 seconds but then not think about it again. It’s a good test to see if your film is engaging.
Did you have to perform a puppet rescue during the fires of fall 2020?
Riley: That was the craziest day. The air quality went past where the chart could measure. It was a huge volunteer group that showed up just to make sure we could keep going. Because those puppets are not replaceable.
Where do puppets go when they evacuate?
Riley: Our head of puppets had a family farm: a big barn that was way out of the way of the fire.
Now that the long-awaited, Portland-made W&W and Pinocchio are being released, how do you feel about the future of stop-motion in town?
Lamont: The idea that you have a full-time job in stop-motion is always a little difficult. I’ve heard of a lot of graduates moving to Portland just for the hope of getting a job. I hope there’s enough work for everyone.
It’s a tricky industry. Stop-motion doesn’t always get the biggest budgets and it’s strained at times. I know the Laika films do really well on Netflix, and I hope Wendell and Pinocchio continue that. I hope Netflix sees this as a victory. They really put a lot of time and money into this medium that I don’t think they knew a whole lot about.
Riley: For all the people who are fans out there, the more they watch it, the more chance there is for us to make more.
Lamont: Yeah, leave it on a loop [laughs].
SEE IT: Wendell & Wild plays at the Hollywood Theatre, 4122 NE Sandy Blvd., 503- 493-1128, hollywoodtheatre.org. 3 and 6 pm Saturday, 4 pm Sunday, Nov. 5-6. $7-$10.