‘Wildwood’ took 16 years to make; its director sees no high-quality AI shortcut

Gold Derby reports that director Travis Knight said Laika spent years building the stop-motion skills needed for ‘Wildwood,’ and found its large battle sequence particularly difficult. Variety reports Knight said the film took 16 years to complete and that its heartfelt story mattered more to him than its epic scale. He said he isn’t embracing AI and doesn’t believe it could have sped up production while maintaining the highest quality.