The American studio Laika, known for its stop-motion features, unveiled its new film, The Witch's Forest, at the London Film Festival. The project took 16 years. Director Travis Knight said the studio acquired the rights to adapt the book by Colin Meloy and Carson Ellis when Barack Obama was just beginning his first presidential term. In that time, Knight joked, he could have trained to become a doctor twice, and a child born on the day the project began could already legally drive him to the premiere.
Filming began in 2021. Presenting the film at London's Royal Festival Hall, the director described the difficulty of frame-by-frame animation, in which every frame requires microscopic movements of puppets and sets.
We create thousands of tiny objects, place them in front of the camera, set the lights, take a frame. Move them a microscopic distance, another frame. And so on in a circle, until either the film is finished or society collapses.
— Travis Knight, director
The Witch's Forest is the story of twelve-year-old Prue, whose little brother is abducted by a flock of crows. To save him, the girl sets off into a magical forest hidden behind her hometown of Portland. It is the first film from the studio to receive a PG-13 rating in the United States, meaning children under 13 are not recommended to watch it. The picture will be released in American cinemas on October 23.
Letters