Ominous October - Wendell & Wild (2022)

Streaming Service: Netflix
Movie Name/Year: Wendell & Wild (2022)
Genre: Animation, Adventure, Comedy
Length: 1h 45min
Rating: PG-13
Production/Distribution: Artists First, Gotham Group, Monkeypaw Productions, Netflix Animation, Netflix, SIF 309 Film Music
Director: Henry Selick
Writer: Henry Selick, Jordan Peele, Clay McLeod Chapman
Actors: Lyric Ross, Keegan-Michael Key, Jordan Peele, Angela Bassett, James Hong, Sam Zelaya, Tamara Smart, Seema Virdi, Ramona Young, Ving Rhames, Michele Mariana
 
Blurb from IMDb: Two scheming demon brothers, Wendell and Wild, enlist the aid of 13-year-old Kat Elliot to summon them to the Land of the Living.
 

Selina’s Point of View:
For some strange reason, I saw Jordan Peele (Us, Get Out, Nope) credited as a writer for Wendell & Wild and still thought it was just going to be a cute, spooky, Halloween flick. Although it had some of that, it was also a gut punch that hit way too close to home for me.
 
Wendell & Wild followed the tale of a girl named Kat who lost her parents at an early age. As a result of that trauma, she got angry and started acting out. Adults wrote her off as a lost cause (for the most part), which made things worse for her. I suffered my own trauma at an early age and fell into a very similar cycle of acting out and being written off – which just made me angrier.
 
I don’t know the history of writers Peele, Henry Selick (Coraline, The Nightmare Before Christmas, James and the Giant Peach), or Clay McLeod Chapman (The Boy, Beyond the White Space, Late Bloomer) – but someone went through something as a kid because they got it exactly right.
 

You do get a lot of that goofy Key & Peele type of humor, but when the scenes really get into what’s at the heart of Kat’s anger the mood changes. I can’t really go into it without spoilers, but I will say that there’s a part near the end that hits so close to home that I straight-up ugly cried. Anyone labeled a ‘lost cause’ as a kid because they were forced to deal with trauma that adults struggle with, is likely going to feel the same way that I did.
 
I loved it. Even with the gut punches, I’d watch Wendell & Wild over and over again. It’s just not the turn-your-brain-off flick that I thought it would be. It’s extremely poignant and insightful.
 
It was also gorgeous. Every scene embodied the exact feel it was going for. Whether it was meant to be gross or heartfelt, the animation gave 100%.
 
Wendell & Wild is a film I would recommend to everyone. Not just teens, but to parents as well. I wish my mom had a flick like this to watch when I was younger. It could have made a huge difference.
 

Rotten Tomatoes Critic Score – 81%
Rotten Tomatoes Audience Score – 86%
Metascore – 72%
Metacritic User Score – N/A
IMDB Score – 6.8/10
 
Trust the Dice: Selina’s Rating – 5/5
 
P.S. Short after credits scene.
 
Movie Trailer: