Neither 'Toy Story 5' nor 'Avatar', this is my most anticipated animated movie of 2026

For a few years, it seemed that Laika was the only studio capable of winning a showdown against Pixar thanks to wonders like Coraline and ParaNorman. However, in 2019, after the failure of Mr. Link: The Lost Link, we didn’t hear from them again. Until now, of course: finally, the true visionaries of stop-motion animation are back to leave us in awe with their new film.

It was a study and it was called Laika

The one chosen to compete at the box office against Toy Story 5, Avatar, Hoppers, or Super Mario Galaxy is none other than Wildwood, which from its first trailer already promises to win us all over (well, at least me). Travis Knight, the very CEO of the studio that already made Kubo and the Two Strings, Bumblebee, and the new Masters of the Universe, has taken on the direction, hoping to save his studio from the hole it has been in for the last few years. If there were justice, at the very least, he would succeed.

In the movie, based on the original novel by Colin Meloy and Carson Ellis, we will follow a girl searching for her brother through a forbidden forest filled with enchanted creatures, friends, and foes. And although it may seem like a rather normal plot, far from the grand stories of its rivals, it has something they lack: charm and meticulousness in the medium. It would have been easy to release Coraline 2, but they have decided that they are worth more than that. At the very least, they deserve our respect.

This is the largest world that Laika has ever built, and a statement of intent: if they go, they will do it their way and in style (possibly with an Oscar nomination included). But in a world as terrible as this, we deserve something beautiful once in a while. We have earned Wildwood.