Wildwood: parents' guide
Best for ages 12 and up. Rated PG-13 for strong fantasy violence/bloody images, thematic material, suicide-related material, brief partial nudity and language.
A gorgeous but very dark stop-motion fantasy from Laika that suits older kids and teens more than young children. A girl follows the crows who stole her baby brother into a magical forest, where a grieving witch plans to sacrifice him. The film opens with a childlike figure taking his own life by leaping from a balcony, later shows a dead child's decaying body, threatens the baby with a knife, and builds to a long battle with a beheading, stabbings and shootings. Language and nudity are minor. The suicide, child-death grief and bloody battles make 12 our youngest suggestion.
What's in it
Violence
StrongA long climactic battle has characters shot, stabbed, burned, blown up and one beheaded, with occasional bursts of blood and bloodied bodies left afterward. A wounded man is run through with a sword, caged prisoners are shot, and someone tries to gouge out another's eyes.
Language
MildMild: one "son of a bitch," plus "hell," "damn," "screw" and about eight uses of God's name as an exclamation, along with insults such as "coward" and "psycho."
Sex and nudity
MildNo sexual content. A childlike boy is naked in the opening scene, with his backside shown but no genitals; there are a few brief kisses, including two characters before a battle, and a coyote licks himself.
Drinking, drugs and smoking
MildCommon Sense reports coyote soldiers drinking and one holding an empty wine bottle, though two other guides saw no alcohol. Prue secretly slips a sleeping powder into other characters' tea. No drug use or smoking.
Scary or intense scenes
StrongThe opening shows a childlike figure with a cracked chest leaping to his death, then his mother holding the body. Crows snatch a baby who is later threatened with a knife, a dead child's body is briefly shown decaying, and chases and jump scares recur.
Sensitive topics
- Suicide
- Death of a child
- Animal death
Worth talking about
How different characters cope with grief, and why Alexandra's loss leads her somewhere so dangerous. The opening also opens the door to talking about suicide and where to turn when someone feels hopeless.
Similar picks around 12+
Checked October 29th, 2026 against Wikipedia, Common Sense Media, Plugged In, bbfc.co.uk, movieguide.org, darkhorizons.com, seattleschild.com. The age is our judgment, not an official rating, and every family draws its lines differently: read the notes, not just the number. Spotted something we missed? Tell us. How we rate.