4.5 stars

STARRING: Peyton Elizabeth Lee, Carey Mulligan, Jacob Tremblay, Mahershala Ali

RATING: M

IN CINEMAS: Now

On one end of the artistic spectrum are people who ask ChatGPT to reimagine what they looked like in the 1980s. At the other end is Wildwood, one of the most impressive animated films ever created in the history of cinema.

A bold claim, to be sure, but you honestly have to see this film to appreciate the scale of the achievement. No words from yours truly could do it justice.

Based on the 2011 novel of the same name by Colin Meloy, which was illustrated by his wife Carson Ellis, Wildwood comes from Laika, the stop-motion animation studio that previously gave us Coraline and Kubo And The Two Strings.

Kubo director Travis Knight, who is also CEO of Laika, has spent the past 16 years trying to bring Meloy’s book to life, which is no small feat if you want to do it in stop-motion.

Think The Lion, The Witch And The Wardrobe and Alice’s Adventures In Wonderland, only with the added epic battle scenes from Lord Of The Rings.

Creating what is nothing short of a masterpiece required four and a half years of production and over 140,000 faces for characters to give them lifelike facial expressions.

The 12-minute battle sequence at the climax of Wildwood is the most ambitious stop-motion sequence ever captured on film.

But the technical achievement means little if the movie doesn’t make you feel anything.

It tells the story of headstrong teenager Prue (voiced by Peyton Elizabeth Lee), who disobeys a direct order from her parents and takes her baby brother outside the house on an adventure.

Things take a turn for the bizarre when a murder of crows snatch the baby and carry him into the impassable woods on the outskirts of town, sending Prue on an ill-advised rescue mission accompanied by the besotted, wimpy Curtis (Jacob Tremblay).

Turns out these woods harbour an entire hidden civilisation of talking animals, bandit kings and the Dowager Governess (Carey Mulligan), each with their own motivations Prue must contend with.

The animation pays homage to Ellis’ illustrations, and is frequently so beautiful it’ll take your breath away.

Mostly, though, you’ll be wondering how on earth it’s possible to create such a rich and exciting world from puppets, captured one still frame at a time and stitched together to make a moving image.

Even having seen behind-the-scenes vignettes, this critic still can’t get his head around it. Somewhere in Hollywood an engraver is etching Wildwood on an Oscar.

Be aware some scenes might be too intense for small kids.

Wildwood is in cinemas now.