From the Fest: The Making of Laika's Wildwood | Manchester Animation Festival

From the Fest: The Making of Laika’s Wildwood

Available: Fri 13 Nov - Mon 30 Nov 2026

We celebrate Laika’s 6th animated feature film and invite you to join a team of animators as we step into Wildwood for a look behind the scenes at the Portland studios most ambitious feature film to date and discover how Travis Knight’s epic new fantasy adventure was brought to life.

This event was pre-recorded during MAF 2026.

This event is supported by:

Guests

Tom Carey

Tom Carey is a stop motion animator, who grew up in West Sussex, but is originally from New Jersey, USA. He studied Animation Production at Arts University Bournemouth before joining LAIKA in 2021 as a Stop Motion Animation Intern, progressing through the animation department to become a Stop Motion Animator. During more than four years at LAIKA, Tom worked across multiple sequences of Wildwood, developing a passion for emotionally nuanced, truthful character animation, informed by his background in musical theatre and performance. He currently works at 3Mills Studios in London with Starburns Industries, animating on the hybrid live-action stop-motion adaptation of George Saunders’ Lincoln in the Bardo, directed by Duke Johnson.

Amy Greenspan

Amy Greenspan is a stop motion animator whose work has appeared in Henry Selick’s Wendell & Wild (2022), Academy Award-winning Guillermo del Toro's Pinocchio (2022), and LAIKA's most recent film, Wildwood (2026). Currently, she is animating on a film adaptation of George Saunders' novel, Lincoln in the Bardo. Amy grew up in Boston, Massachusetts and studied Film & TV at New York University.