Colin Meloy and Carson Ellis reflect on the long-awaited release of Wildwood

If you can draw a distinct line between fantasy lit and fairy tales — and why not try! — it might be in the world-building. Fantasy writers typically build universes from scratch. Fairy tales, on the other hand, have one foot plant in the familiar: the woods beyond the village, the strange creature at the edge of the road, the crow that steals a baby. At least that’s what The Decemberists frontman Colin Meloy and artist Carson Ellis tell me when I attempt to draw a distinction. Bless smart, creative people.

For the husband-and-wife creative team behind Wildwood, the distinction matters. Their story, adapted from Meloy’s novel and Ellis’ illustrations into a new animated film from stop-motion studio Laika, sets a fantastical adventure in the Pacific Northwest they call home. But on the other side of a nearby bridge, an otherworldly wilderness awaits those who possess the right spirit.

“I feel like when we were first coming up with the story, we were trying to really go for the early stuff — pull from folktale and fair ytale tropes,” Meloy tells Polygon. “I think there’s so many things in the movie that, because that was really the intent from the outset, was to create a fairy tale. Inevitably, it ends up like fantasy in the context of 2026, but that’s what we were shooting for.”

For Meloy, fairy tales are the roots from which modern fantasy grew.

Source link