Finally, some good fucking content

Wendell and Wild could not be more blatant if they tried and I love it. The main villains are CEOs who run a private prison, and their corporation name is one K off from being the name of the most notorious white supremacist group in America. The main heroes are a bunch of black and brown children, used and abused by the school to prison pipeline who come together in solidarity against the greed of KK. The main hero has a panic attack, is bullied, angry, and unapologetically punk, and literally faces down her memories to take control of her life back from both her PTSD and the system that exploited her. Jordan Peele and Henry Selick said fuck subtlety, this movie is going to be unapologetically in your face about its anti-prison and anti-capitalist themes all with a majority POC group of heroes who fight back against the system. Sometimes a movie is served by its subtly, but not this one. Wendell and Wild is as bold and beautiful as it’s animation and it deserves all the praise it’s going to get.

miscellaneous things i appreciate about wendell & wild:

-the nuance built into kat’s punkness. yes, she absolutely is a contrarian rebellious teenager, but it’s also genuinely how she’s always been. it’s not portrayed as rebellion for rebellion’s sake, it’s kat’s way of reasserting her identity and her connection to her parents when she’s spent years having her choices stripped from her.

-how many of the characters like kat. raúl sees a kindred spirit. siobhan wants to be her friend and is being kind in the way she knows how. sister helley reaches out to her even before she becomes a hell maiden. wendell & wild are in awe of her. ms. hunter doesn’t let her position prevent her from treating kat like an individual with agency and importance. it’s heartening that kat, a character defined by guilt both personal and state-issued, is coming into a setting where people genuinely want to see her thrive.

-the future sequence where it’s revealed she stays in rust bank and helps restore it to its former glory made me cry. it’s what they all deserve.

-no one has any “it’s my style” excuses for whitewashing when w&w gave us a litany of black characters with individually distinct features.

-even the demons have more emotional intelligence than your average corporate CEO.

-“you don’t get to smack me”

-when all that’s left of the memory monster is the memory of losing her parents, kat hugs it, letting it dissolve into her. she’s acknowledging that the choices she’s made and the things that’ve happened to her have gotten her to this point, but she’s absolving herself of the guilt — embracing her past instead of hating herself for it.

-raúl’s struggles as a trans boy aren’t framed as oppression porn. siobhan’s accidental deadnaming is just that — an accident— and undoubtedly one she’ll learn from in the future. his mother supports him without reservation. kat doesn’t even make note of it. they could’ve easily added catty smiles, tired sighs and “wait, you’re trans?” moments, but they didn’t. raúl is a human being whose transness informs his life without being crushed by it.

-siobhan’s arc is wonderful. she doesn’t become kat and raúl’s personal savior, she doesn’t angst over what she has to do, the story never becomes about her — but she uses her position (read: her class privilege) to do what she can. she becomes part of the solution.

-i know the last two points read like “duh, everyone should be doing that” but it’s such a relief to have a film get these things right, unapologetically so and without a core of virtue signaling. it’s nice to not have the stories we want told held for ransom, then declawed by producers because pissing off uninspired rich people would be bad for business.

The votes of dead men outweighing the desires of the majority of the living, wonder what that can be a metaphor for

Noo because like okay. It's the black girls making peace with the anger they've used to protect themselves and being happy and finally letting themselves be vulnerable with other people and letting them in and also using that anger to do good and and and and and and

My Black Anarchy babies!

i love them so much. My anarchist soul is eating good.

diversity win! the catholic priest has become distinctly nonbinary!

alternate title: Heartbreaking: The Worst Person You Know Just Made A Great Point (Their Work Is Remarkable)

So happy that we got our short king representation, thank you Mr. Selick for your service

Siobhan's friends, Sweetie and Sloane, were absolutely adorable. I wish they had more lines in the movie :(

FINALLY the black woman grizzled veteran and rebellious black girl* mentorship i needed

If I had a nickel for every time a horror-based stop motion animated kids film unexpectedly included casual but unambiguous queer representation before most other mainstream kids films and a significant portion of films overall, I'd only have two nickels but it's weird that it's happened twice.

"it's fandom you're allowed to dislike whoever you want" WRONG.

no one is allowed to dislike kat elliot

Ideas for a Wendell and Wild tv show

Kat haveing the ability to summon Wendell and Wild with her mark.

Kat discovers this ability after getting harassed by some tourists when the brothers sprang up to protect her.

Lore about Hell maidens and demons.

Kat getting a new roommate and having to hide Wendell and Wild from her.

Every episode starts with Wendell and Wild sneaking out from the underworld to see Kat. and ends with them sneaking back in.

Protective Buffalo Bellzer

Wendell and Wild's siblings.

The brothers messing around with magic and getting human guises.

A plot line of a new Hell maidens finding Bears-a-bub and summoning demons that causes trouble in the living world. Monster of the week style.

Flashback episode to Manburg and Sisters Helly's demon hunting days.

Flashback to younger Kat and Ms Hunter.

RBC getting a new principal.

Episode of Wendell and Wild hanging out with Raul and doing art.

Episode about Raul getting a crush of a girl and going on a date.

Episode where Wendell and Wild have an argument and stop talking to each other.

Wendell & Wild having 6 corpse old men influenciate elections and actively endanger the livehood of an already precarious community just for profit was so.

Kat Elliot