A section of Forest Park in Portland, Oregon, featuring 5,100 acres of old- and second-growth temperate forest residing within city limits<\/span> (Photo: Zeb Andrews \/ Getty)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\nWhen I visited Portland for the first time in 2015, I stepped into Forest Park with a sense of awe. The park made no sense<\/i>. I had been in the grungy, forever-1990s streets of downtown moments ago, and now I was\u2026where exactly? Hiking a trail overlooking canyons of ferns, small creeks, lush green so dense it\u2019s nearly suffocating until you take a giant inhale and say thank you?<\/p>\n
Later, I moved to Portland in 2023 and walked to Powell\u2019s Books on Hawthorne and bought a copy of Wildwood<\/i>. It felt like a rite of passage.<\/p>\n
Wildwood<\/i> follows Portland teen Prue as she enters the Impassable Wilderness\u2014the story\u2019s reimagining of Forest Park\u2014to rescue her baby brother after he is abducted by a murder of crows. Now, with Portland-based stop-motion studio LAIKA\u2019s release of Wildwood<\/i> on October 23, audiences are given a virtual pass to the forest\u2014and, in turn, to the weird wilds of the PNW.<\/p>\n
We talked to author Meloy, illustrator Carson Ellis, and LAIKA production designer Nelson Lowry about the book, film, and seeing familiar spaces with new eyes.<\/p>\nA still from \u2018Wildwood\u2019<\/span> (Photo: Courtesy LAIKA)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\nThe Magic of Real Places<\/h2>\n Meloy\u2019s appreciation of what he calls \u201cmythogeography\u201d\u2014mapping stories and ideas onto an existing place\u2014began when he was a kid.<\/p>\n
\u201cGrowing up in Montana, I remember going out into the woods in our backyard, or into the mountains, and being like, \u2018Oh my god, there\u2019s nobody here,\u2019\u201d he says. \u201c\u2018I can populate this area. Me and my friends, we can create whatever landscape, whatever country, whatever stories we want to in this place.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n
When he and illustrator of the Wildwood<\/i> books, Caron Ellis (who also happens to be Meloy\u2019s wife), began working on the series in the 2000s, the couple was living in the Forest Park neighborhood and spent a lot of time walking the area trails. The surrounding landscape, along with Celtic, British, and Scottish mythology, inspired the story.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen you fly over Portland in an airplane, and you see Forest Park, it looks<\/i> enchanted, because it\u2019s surrounded by such dense human development,\u201d says Ellis. \u201cLike, what\u2019s going on in that giant forest in the middle of a city?\u201d Meloy adds that the park feels wild and unspoiled, despite the fact that it, like many forests in Oregon, was clear-cut less than a century ago<\/p>\n
Setting a story in a real place, and then sharing that story, also offers an additional layer of meaning for the people who live there. Pittock Mansion, a real historic home with trails that connect to Forest Park, serves in Wildwood<\/i> as a government building for the creatures of the South Wood. Portlanders can stand in the playground where Prue\u2019s baby brother is taken and look across the river at the mysterious urban wilderness, joining the Ellis in wondering WTF is going on in there.<\/p>\n
And recently, that wonder has bled out into real life. LAIKA\u2019s promotion of Wildwood<\/i> has consisted of 30 large, hand-painted crows perched throughout the city, copies of the book (and tickets to the movie) tucked in neighborhood Little Free Libraries, themed hikes through Forest Park, partnerships with popular area businesses like Voodoo Donuts, Powell\u2019s Books, and Stumptown Coffee (I can vouch for Prue\u2019s Blackberry Maple Fog Latte), and more.<\/p>\n
I have friends who are reading the book to each other at night, others who have tickets to the midnight showing. The giant cloud of crows that swirls around the city at sunset before nesting downtown comes with a new sort of significance. All around Portland, already known for its whimsy, the community is celebrating this modern mythos.<\/p>\nMuch of the landscape in the new film was created by hand<\/span> (Photo: Courtesy LAIKA)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\nLet\u2019s Go to the Park<\/h2>\n Wildwood<\/i>\u2019s title comes from the Wildwood Trail, the longest urban forest trail in the country. Wildwood spans 30.2 miles and the entire length of Forest Park, from a trailhead on Newberry Road all the way to Washington Park. On any given day, you\u2019ll find runners, hikers, and casual wanderers enjoying the metropolitan woods.<\/p>\n
You may also cross paths with LAIKA and Wildwood<\/i> production designer Nelson Lowry. He lives in Linnton, just below Forest Park and near St. John\u2019s Bridge (another visual landmark of the book and film).<\/p>\n
\u201cForest Park is literally like my backyard,\u201d he says, adding that this is the first time he\u2019s ever designed a film that takes place where he lives. \u201cI had great access to the reference. I just went up into the woods a lot.\u201d<\/p>\n
LAIKA\u2019s interpretation of Wildwood t<\/i>akes the story beyond the Impassable Wilderness to include other iconic outdoor spaces throughout Oregon. A flight atop a giant eagle takes Prue past the Painted Hills, Haystack Rock, Mount Hood, the Columbia River Gorge, and more. But the heart of the story (and the bulk of the visuals) remains in the woods.<\/p>\nLeft: Creating the \u2018Wildwood\u2019 set; right: the final product<\/span> (Photo: Courtesy LAIKA)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\nThe forest animations throughout LAIKA\u2019s Wildwood<\/i> are breathtaking to begin with, mind-boggling when you remember that the landscape was created largely by hand. Lowry says that building a stop-motion version of the woods is notoriously difficult, not so much in terms of making it look beautiful, but in capturing the feeling of a forest.<\/p>\n
To keep the woods from falling flat, Lowry created a topography that represents the centuries of detritus that make up a forest floor. The team laid sonotubes to represent fallen trees, added chunks of material, and covered everything with a blanket to help envision the shapes of a natural landscape.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe woods really feel like they were there before us in the film, and they\u2019ll be there after,\u201d he says. \u201cThere\u2019s a history to them. I\u2019m super proud of that.\u201d<\/p>\n
The meticulously rendered trees and plants are representative of Oregon\u2019s native flora, which Lowry studied throughout the film\u2019s creation. The movie\u2019s Elder Tree is modeled after a real oak near Lowry\u2019s home.<\/p>\n
But even with countless hours clocked in the Forest Park, Lowry says that he keeps finding surprises there. \u201cI think that\u2019s one of the wonderful things about nature,\u201d he says. \u201cWhen you do a hike, go somewhere and come back again, you\u2019re going to the exact same place, but it\u2019s really two different woods that you\u2019re experiencing. It\u2019s the way in and the way out, and everything looks different.\u201d<\/p>\n
The story is a reminder of what happens when you let your imagination run wild in wild places. If nothing else, giving your mind permission to wander encourages you to slow down and notice the world around you.<\/p>\n
\u201cClose your eyes, listen to the noises\u2014there will be a plethora of noises that you might not have noticed yet\u2014the smells,\u201d says Lowry. \u201cLook around and see things without having a goal in mind. Just to be there.\u201d Who knows what stories you might discover.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
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