Henry Selick's welcome return to direction is expectedly visually splendorous. Though a lot more rudimentary in it's appearance than Coraline, Wendell & Wild is brimming with life in the design of every one of its memorable characters and sets.
The unique style and quirky designs add a great deal of vibrancy to the many, many creative ideas present in the story. It makes for a gleefully bizarre, oddly captivating experience. I can see this becoming a cult classic like some of Selick's other stop-motion animated films.
I thought the characters all had more than sufficient unique personality to keep the film effortlessly watchable and engaging.
But there is WAY too much going on here. And I'm starting to see this as a trend in screenplays involving Jordan Peele, as Nope had the same problem earlier this year.
Wendell and Wild as characters are actually barely in this movie, and they are woefully underdeveloped, given the bare minimum of motivations and rushed, shallow character growth. And it's because the writers felt the need to make room for a plethora of other characters and story beats that are never given their time to become impactful.
Kat has an "overcoming trauma" arc that is simplistically glossed over in one scene, and she has magical powers that are introduced with almost no build-up.
Some generically-written friends of Kat's are given even less development and some scenes try to highlight them only to have little to no impact on the story.
I could go on, but I'll lastly mention that there are way too many antagonist characters, and because there's no time to focus on them, they're disappointingly simplistic and cartoonish, and it results in the story's themes being delivered in such an on-the-nose manner that the film's conclusion is unfortunately disappointing.
