Into the Wonderwoods, from Vincent Paronnaud

It is another environmental fairy tale for kids, but this time, it is like Gru and the Minions are trying to burn down Fern Gully. Obviously, the evil alien calling himself “Ultra” is a lot meaner than Gru—and he originally sounded much more French. He has been razing the forest in search of the fabled springs of immortality. Litle lost Angelo could use some of those waters too, for his beloved ailing grandmother in Vincent Paronnaud & Alexis Ducord’s Into the Wonderwoods, adapted from Paronnaud’s graphic novel (written under his Winshluss pen-name), which releases tomorrow on VOD.

Angelo is also a lot like the Home Alone kid, because his family never notices when they leave him behind at a rest stop. In their defense, they are concerned about Grandma—and his father is also busy quarreling with the GPS AI. (It should be further stipulated, his jazz-listening dad deserves credit for his better taste in music). Angelo always imagines himself a brave explorer, in heroic 2D animated interludes, so this is his chance to prove his resourcefulness. He will simply cut straight through the forest to reach grandmother’s house.

Frankly, he barely survives the ants. Nevertheless, he starts to meet various forest dwellers who are willing to stand up to Ultra’s terror and destruction. Angelo might be the catalyst the “Resistance” needs. That is why Ultra takes an unwelcome interest in him.

Arguably, Into the Wonderwoods represents a cornucopia of borrowed genre elements, even including the character of Goouh, a hulking embodiment of vegetation, who is sort of like “The Green” in Swamp Thing comics, but more anthropomorphic. (In fact, the “Goo” character design work is rather cool). Regardless, the overall fusion is sufficiently weird to keep animation fans tuned in.

Great artists steal, right? And Paronnaud has made several great films, especially Persepolis, in collaboration with Marjane Satrapi. Along with Ducord (who co-helmed Zombillenium), Paronnaud creates an offbeat fantastical world, beneath the forest’s natural surface level. Indeed, zigging in a science fiction direction instead of zagging towards fantasy represents a shrewd strategy.

The result is a nice film, but not a major work on the level of Paronnaud’s collabs with Satrapi. The environmental talking points are rather obvious, but to their credit, the filmmakers somehow never let the storytelling descend into didactic lows. Plus, there is something nostalgically archetypal about building a boy’s trip to grandma’s house into a hero’s journey.

The variety of animation styles used to differentiate fantasy and flashback segments, also greatly distinguish Wonderwoods. Honestly, it is such a polished production, it is strange it never had an American theatrical life to speak of. Enthusiastically recommended for the animation (and moderately recommended for the story), Into the Wonderwoods releases tomorrow (6/24) on demand and digital.