We almost never see Black characters in stop-motion animation. You’d have to go all the way back to 1999’s The PJs – the short-lived crude sitcom about project housing produced by Eddie Murphy – for a memorable example. And that wasn’t even for kids.
That’s what makes Wendell & Wild such a moment, an opportunity for younger audiences to see their communities reimagined with the same stitched-together gothic aesthetic and hands-on care that director Henry Selick brought to The Nightmare Before Christmas and Coraline.
