From September 29 through October 5, Laika was in residence at the AIR MAIL Newsstand. The award-winning animation studio took over the space with props and production ephemera from its latest film, Wildwood. Chief among them were the puppets for Prue and Alexandra, the film’s heroine and villain—the very same ones that appear in every frame of the movie’s richly imagined, painstakingly created world.
Seeing them up close offered a rare, intimate look at stop-motion, one of the last forms of animation still made with real puppets and props. Wildwood is based on Colin Meloy’s 2011 fantasy novel and set in a magical forest just past the edge of Portland, Oregon—which happens to be Laika’s real-life backyard.