Travis Knight Refused to Water Down WILDWOOD's Dark Story and Intense Violence

Director Travis Knight isn't interested in softening the darker elements of his new stop-motion fantasy adventure, Wildwood, just to make the movie more comfortable for younger audiences.

The film has a PG-13 rating and features some intense violence, including large-scale battles and the consequences of war. According to Knight, those elements were always essential to the story he wanted to tell.

During an interview with /Film, the filmmaker explained why he and his team embraced the more challenging material instead of attempting to make a lighter, less intense version of the film.

He said: “There is violence in the movie, and there are battles in the movie, and there's war in the movie, and the intention was to show the cost of these things. The intention was not to try to fetishize violence.

“The intention was to actually show that violence is terrible and violence is traumatic. And if that's part of the story that you're telling, you have to show it.”

Knight also discussed the film's PG-13 rating and how he views the movie as a family adventure that parents should approach with an understanding of its intensity.

“In terms of the rating, that's something that comes at the end of the process. When you're done making the movie, you submit it to a ratings board, they give you a rating, and then you decide what to do with that.

“Well, we couldn't have changed it anyway because it takes us so long to make our film. But I think it's appropriately rated, actually. I think the film is — PG-13, to me, seems to say that this is a film that is for families, but you just have to be mindful, if you're a parent, that there is some intensity, and if your child is ready for intensity at that level.”

But while Wildwood explores some heavy themes, Knight doesn't see it as a bleak movie. He believes the darker elements are necessary to make its more uplifting moments meaningful.

He continued: “But in my mind, there was never a version where we were going to water this movie down in any way because I wanted us to tell this story sincerely. That meant embracing what the story was asking of us, which is, in times, it is dark, it is intense.

“But I would also say that the cumulative experience is that it is a life-affirming one. There is great light and joy in this movie, but we earn that light and joy honestly by going to some dark places.”

I really appreciate that approach to animated storytelling. Just because a movie is animated doesn't mean it has to shy away from difficult subjects or serious consequences.

Some of the best stories take their characters into dangerous and frightening situations, and that's often what makes their eventual victories feel so rewarding.

Knight clearly wants Wildwood to offer that kind of experience, where the danger feels real and the emotional payoff is earned.

It's also refreshing to see a major stop-motion production willing to embrace a PG-13 rating rather than compromise the story to appeal to the widest possible audience.

Wildwood follows a young girl who journeys into a magical wilderness to rescue her kidnapped younger brother. With Knight drawing inspiration from epic fantasy and refusing to pull punches when it comes to the story's darker material, this sounds like it could be one of Laika's most intense films yet.