LAIKAIt’s the age-old question asked by many an animated adventure: how far would you go for somebody you love? Labyrinth answered that question with a twisty, sweeping fairy tale. Finding Nemo turned that hypothetical into an aquatic odyssey. And Wildwood, the latest from stop-motion studio LAIKA, builds a jaw-dropping fantasy epic on that same foundation. When the 14-year-old Prue (voiced by Peyton Elizabeth Lee) witnesses a murder of crows abduct her baby brother and carry him into the Impassable Wilderness — a realm that Portland locals believe is teeming with magic — she drops everything to save him, stumbling into an ancient conflict between the factions that dwell there. Prue’s brother Mac becomes the prisoner of the Dowager Governess, Alexandra (Carey Mulligan), but her interest in the baby remains a hazy mystery for most of the film. In its first half, Wildwood focuses on the ongoing battle between the Governess’ coyote army and the nomadic Bandits descended from the oldest beings in the Wood. At first, Alexandra’s inquisition seems to be all about the pursuit of land — an issue that, today, feels timelier than ever. But as Prue and her pal Curtis (Jacob Tremblay) push further into the drama, Wildwood’s seemingly disparate plots entwine to explore classic themes of grief and sacrifice... and deliver a climactic battle to rival even Lord of the Rings.Spoilers ahead for Wildwood.Wildwood’s ending, explainedMac is taken prisoner. | LAIKAMac’s abduction initially seems random, even when Curtis learns what exactly Alexandra plans to do with the baby. The Governess, still mourning the disappearance of her only son Alexei, has worked tirelessly to bring him back. Her last attempt involved an automaton conjured with black magic and Alexei’s last baby tooth, but failed spectacularly and ousted her from her seat as regent of the Wood. She’s determined that her next attempt won’t: she intends to sacrifice Mac to the Ivy growing wild in the Ancient’s Grove. She claims he’s “a child conceived in magic and born in nature,” meaning his blood is powerful enough to control the Ivy and find Alexei’s remains, which have been lost to the Wood for years. From there, she’ll create her son anew.But what exactly does it mean to be a child conceived in magic, and how does Alexandra even know that’s true? Prue gets that part of the puzzle when she returns back home after trying and failing to rescue Mac from the crows that abducted him. Her parents (Jake Johnson and Maya Erskine) reveal that they met Alexandra long ago, when they were hoping to start a family. They struck a deal with the Governess, who promised to enchant Prue’s mother’s womb so they could have a child. The first would be theirs to keep — but if they had a second, it would belong to Alexandra. Despite assurances that would never happen, along came Mac, and Alexandra promptly came to collect. Cassandra may be “desperate” to recover her son, but Wildwood is sympathetic to her plight. | LAIKAPrue is naturally blindsided and angered by this reveal. “It's loaded with so much,” Lee tells Inverse of this scene. “It’s anger, it’s hurt, it’s this history that feels as though it’s been compromised and this dynamic that she feels she no longer has with her family.”For Wildwood director Travis Knight, it’s scenes like these that make the film feel larger than life. “One of the things I’m most proud of are these quieter moments in the film,” Knight adds. “We have a girl who is talking to her broken parents about this deeply held secret... they’re laying themselves bare.” The filmmaker credits the cast for giving life to their vulnerability using only their voices, but also to LAIKA’s animators, who have to pull a similar feat with “these little puppets that have no life of their own.”How far would you go?Prue heads into the eye of the storm. | LAIKAAfter that revelation, Prue doesn’t hesitate to return to the Wood and rescue her brother before it’s too late. She rallies the Mystics of the North Wood to her aid and even joins forces with the Bandits just as they’re headed to confront Alexandra. At the Ancient’s Grove, they make their final stand, in a battle against Alexandra’s forces that is unlike anything ever depicted in animation — and surprisingly bloody to boot. (You didn’t imagine it: Alexandra definitely beheads a soldier when the skirmish reaches its zenith.)It’s also here that the film’s central theme — How far would you go? — feels the most realized. Both Prue and Curtis are forced to be braver than they ever have, as Prue dives headfirst into the battle to chase Alexandra into the Ancient’s Grove. Curtis, meanwhile, is forced to confront his now-childish desire to be a great warrior when he sees the toll that war actually takes on his allies, like his surprisingly endearing new friend Septima (Awkwafina). When he watches her sacrifice herself to protect Curtis, our reluctant hero is rocked by guilt and a resolution to do the same for Prue, even though he claims to be a pacifist early in the film. Curtis isn’t the only character forced to sacrifice something. | LAIKA“He’s put in a situation where he has to choose [his beliefs] or someone that he loves, and it’s brutal,” Tremblay tells Inverse. “We’re faced with the consequences of our own actions. The film… it doesn’t shy away from that.”While Curtis’ attempt to save his loved one is a noble pursuit, Wildwood immediately explores the other side of that coin — in all its terrifying glory — in Alexandra’s final ploy to bring Alexei back. At the heart of the Grove, she begins to sacrifice Mac to the Ivy; Prue arrives just in time to stall her, but the Governess doesn’t hesitate to fight back. She draws blood to keep Prue at bay, which awakens the Ivy and creates a maelstrom that nearly destroys the entire Wood. “It really is coming from a place where she is desperate to reclaim the one thing that matters more to her than anything in the world,” Knight explains. “Even as terrible as the things that she does in this film, even as bad as those things are — and they are awful — we understand why she’s doing it, and we think maybe we might if we were in that same position.”The Bandit King rallies his troops in battle. | LAIKABroken and sympathetic as Alexandra might be, Prue still does have to stop her. She uses her own blood to wrest control of the Ivy from the Governess, who disappears beneath a sea of vines just before Prue manages to calm the storm. Their battle, and the spectacle of this wild Ivy, represent a major milestone for LAIKA. “It’s sort of the climax of both the visual capabilities of LAIKA and their artists, and also the climax of the story,” Lee explains. “It feels like this huge moment that has so much gravity and tackles both the excitement of it and the horrors of it and the beauty of it.”Wildwood explores the hero’s journey in ways that few modern “family movies” have had the guts to do: this story pushes its protagonists to their moral, physical, and emotional limits. Even if they save the day, they’re irrevocably changed in the end, forcing us all to wonder if we could go to similar lengths to protect what we love.Wildwood is now playing in theaters.