Wildwood opens on a dark and stormy night. A young boy, presumably the prince of the vast kingdom atop which his castle sits, makes his way onto the balcony outside his room. His mother, the queen, pounds on the door, begging him to let her in. He doesn't listen. Instead, he stands on the guardrail as tears and blood run from his eyes. Just as his mother bursts through the door, he rips out his own heart and plummets to his death. How's that for the notion that animated movies are only for children?

As much as that argument has gained traction online, and with Guillermo del Toro championing it, it's not quite as true as one might think. Films catering to more niche, older audiences have performed exponentially better this decade. Demon Slayer: Infinity Castle and The Boy and the Heron topped their respective box office weekends, while Flow took home the Oscar for Best Animated Feature over expected frontrunners Inside Out 2 and The Wild Robot. However, the common link between those examples is that they all came from outside the United States, where animation is treated as a more serious art form. Mario and Minions movies remain our primary export, largely confirming the stereotype that our interpretation of the medium is juvenile.

Running independently, largely on funds provided by Nike co-founder Phil Knight and director Travis Knight, Laika has never been a studio that talks down to its audience. As expensive as its hand-crafted creations may be, with this one costing nearly $100 million and becoming the studio's most expensive production, there is no pandering to the lowest common denominator. There's a respect for the emotional and intellectual intelligence of every age group... although I'd probably keep smaller children away from this one. It is rated PG-13, after all, for sequences of violence, strong language, and dark material.

That material won't be unfamiliar to children who have seen Star Wars or, for that matter, any popular fantasy or sci-fi story. Prue McKeel (Peyton Elizabeth Lee) is our protagonist, entering her rebellious teenage years complete with eye rolls directed at her parents' warnings about the evil magic lurking in the woods just outside their home in Portland. Those stories of magic and otherworldly forces are probably what attracted so many weirdos to the city, which has embraced that identity through the "Keep Portland Weird" slogan. That quirkiness comes to life in an early scene in which Prue takes her baby brother, Mac, on a bike ride through the city streets, passing offbeat record stores, coffee shops, and every type of cyclist imaginable.

Weird, though in a far less charming way, is when a murder of crows surrounds Prue, Mac, and Prue's nerdy classmate Curtis (Jacob Tremblay, sporting a much higher-pitched voice since his lines were recorded years ago) at a playground. The birds fix their eyes on Mac before eventually carrying him deep into the forbidden woods. Venturing where no person has gone before, Prue and Curtis stumble upon a land populated by talking animals, an evil queen (an exceptional Carey Mulligan) intent on controlling everything through her vast empire, and a band of rebellious outlaws determined to stop her.

From here, Prue and Curtis's paths diverge. The former is shuffled from one location to the next, as a string of famous voices (Angela Bassett, Mahershala Ali, Richard E. Grant, and others) explain the backstory of this enchanted land. Repetitive as it may be, the design of these settings is jaw-droppingly beautiful. Hundreds of extras populate scenes set within bureaucratic offices, each styled with their own distinct face, posture, and costume. It's crazy to imagine how much work went into creations that couldn't possibly be fully appreciated in real time during a first viewing. Like a Wes Anderson film (also the work of an ardent stop-motion supporter), repeat watches will be necessary to absorb every detail.

It is that attention to detail that makes Wildwood feel so lived-in. It's also what keeps the audience engaged throughout an otherwise slightly generic story about a reluctant chosen one being thrust into a world beyond their wildest imagination. Fans of lines like "We did it to protect you" and "There's something I need to tell you" will have a ball with Chris Butler's script, adapted from the novel by Colin Meloy and Carson Ellis. The humor and tone are often mismatched with the epic scale, relying on run-of-the-mill one-liners and puns to undercut tension. The sequence in which Mac is carried away by the crows is genuinely terrifying, only for a pump-up rock song to kick in the moment Prue begins chasing after them.

That sense of seriousness returns in a major way during the climax: a good-versus-evil confrontation staged like a battle from The Lord of the Rings. However much computer effects assist in rendering the explosions and flames, I have never seen hand-crafted carnage depicted so viscerally. Characters are shot, stabbed, and beaten, while Caleb Deschanel's swooping camera captures it all without regard for the perceived limitations of the medium. Everything is pushed beyond its boundaries, establishing a new benchmark that will likely stand the test of time. That's the magic of cinema, baby.

Fathom Entertainment will release Wildwood in theaters nationwide on October 23rd.