Wendell & Wild review: Giggles from the grave

Enjoying a brief theatrical window before landing on Netflix next week, Wendell & Wild is the fifth feature from the peerless Henry Selick.

Selick, who has crafted such classics as Coraline and The Nightmare Before Christmas, is too often overlooked in favour of such collaborators as Tim Burton, Laika studios, and now, Jordan Peele.

Partnering with co-writers and voice cast Peele and Keegan-Michael Key, the veteran animator begins as he means to go on: with the tragic accident that orphans the film’s heroine, Kat (Lyric Ross).

Years later, as a punkish teen — stomping around to Bad Brains and Big Joanie on the soundtrack — Kat is enrolled in a snooty boarding school back in her hometown of Rust Bank. There, she encounters privileged classmates, the shifty Father Bests (James Hong), the no-nonsense Sister Helley (Angela Bassett), trans chum Raul (Sam Zelaya), and the mischievous demons of the title (Peele and Key). Determined to escape the shadow (and clutches) of their overbearing devil dad, Buffalo Belzer (Ving Rhames), Wendell and Wild persuade Kat to summon them to the land of the living. In return, they’ll resurrect her dead parents. Kat, it transpires, is a hell maiden. In a related development, the entire town is soon overrun by the undead, and, worse, the zombies are in league with the prison-industrial complex.

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The plot can be cumbersome. The CG isn’t nearly as pleasing as Selick’s more stop-motion-reliant James and the Giant Peach. Wendell & Wild simultaneously falls short of the earnestness of Coraline and lacks the all-out anarchic spirit of The Nightmare Before Christmas.

Still, the pacy, wacky action ensures that 106 minutes fly by. The ghoulish, greenish palette resembles the devilishly sugary novelty sweets handed out during trick or treating. The cast is fun. And any addition to the Henry Selick canon is a welcome addition indeed. A future Halloween classic.