LAIKA presents Wildwood The Exhibition
at the Design Museum, Kensington, London, to tie in with the release of their new film Wildwood
Like previous Laika offerings, latest production Wildwood (Travis Knight, 2026) is highly innovative, inventive and imaginative, pushing the boundaries of the cinematic and stop-frame mediums into places audiences haven’t seen them go before. It sounds an unlikely proposition, but if you were to remove the magical spectacle of stop-frame animation from Wildwood – or for that matter from any of Laika’s films – you would potentially have an incredible exhibition of small scale sets, puppets and models.
You could augment this using a series of explanatory videos talking about the various processes involved In the filmmaking. In terms of stop-frame, you could show animators at work, bringing puppets into life.
The legendary stop-frame animation company have done exactly that. have done exactly that. Following in the footsteps of the LAIKA Frame x Frame exhibition covering Laika’s first five films at BFI Southbank in 2024, the company have now partnered with Kensington’s Design Museum to put together a fascinating exhibition about the film.
I should declare at this point that I was lucky enough to see the exhibition having viewed the film a few days previously. So, I was looking at all the various bits and pieces in the exhibition, knowing how they fitted together in the film. However, to be honest, one could equally well view this exhibition the other way around – one could see it before seeing the film, and I think one would get just as much out of it as if one had already seen the film.
I say this having viewed the excellent Wildwood exhibition that was staged at this year’s Annecy animation festival, which was completely different from the current Design Museum exhibition. Some of this has to do with tailoring the exhibition for the specific space in which the exhibition is put on. In both cases, the show was designed around a specific space.
There’s a lot in the Design Museum show explaining elements as to how the film was made and Laika’s various processes and techniques, Not just stop-frame, but also some of the detail in model making, lighting and various other aspects of production – covered not only by physical 3D and 2D exhibits, augmented by excellent explanatory videos. In short, if you go and visit before you go and see the film, you will marvel at the level of technical artistry. Just as, if you go and see the film before you visit the show, you will be completely hooked by the characters and performances within the narrative storytelling.
Yet, the exhibition is a completely different experience from the film. It’s like a series of snapshots if we redefine a snapshot as a physical 3D model in a glass case that one can look at and move around. And while it doesn’t reveal the Wildwood story – although it certainly introduces the characters and their surrounding environments – it takes the exhibition-goer on a compelling journey through the film and all the work that goes into it.
For Londoners, whether you see the film or you view the exhibition first, either way both shows add to the total experience. Each one complements the other.
The exhibition is highly recommended. As, indeed, is the film itself.
LAIKA presents Wildwood: The Exhibition at the Design Museum, Kensington from Thursday, 15th October 2026 to Sunday, 10th January 2027 (booking essential – click here). Wildwood is out in UK cinemas from Wednesday, October 23rd 2026.
Film trailer: