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Wendell & Wild is a Demonic Delight

A pair of quirky demons exit the underworld in Wendell & Wild, a new stop-motion animated comedy from the director of A Nightmare Before Christmas

A pair of quirky demons exit the underworld in Wendell & Wild, a new stop-motion animated comedy from the director of A Nightmare Before Christmas

Two Hollywood heavyweights from very different genres have joined forces for Wendell & Wild, a stop-motion animated comedy from director Henry Selick (The Nightmare Before Christmas, Coraline) starring horror hitmaker Jordan Peele (Get Out, Nope). The film follows the adventures of the titular Wendell and Wild, two mischievous demon brothers, and the havoc they wreak in the Land of the Living. 

Voiced by Peele and his Key & Peele sketch partner Keegan-Michael Key, these are not your typical demons, as they dream of defying their demon dad Buffalo Belzer (Ving Rhames) by redesigning their grim afterlife from a realm of perpetual shrieking into a brighter, happier underworld.  

Before that can happen, however, the demons are summoned into the Land of the Living by 13-year-old Kat Elliot (Lyric Ross), a troubled goth kid with latent supernatural abilities, where they find themselves facing off against their greatest foe, demon-busting nun Sister Helley (Angela Bassett).Wendell &WildNetflixInterviewed by Screen Rant, Selick described walking the fine line between making an animated horror comedy that will scare viewers but not outright terrify them. 

“My plan is to scare but not scar. But there’s no formula for that,” the director explained. “But I’d say that dramatically, this is darker than anything I’ve done… This has more comedy to balance with the darker aspects.” 

In that respect, he credited the improvisation skills of Key and Peele for offsetting the horror with hilarity.  Wendell & WildNetflix“It’s magic. I mean, I’ve got hours of material of them just riffing,” said Selick. “They hadn’t worked together in a while, and they got right in tune in 20 minutes. I feel really privileged to… you know, I would just give them a lot of room, and then sometimes rein them in. But, man, they’re so great together. It’s just phenomenal.”  

Wendell & Wild premieres Friday, October 28 on Netflix