History WesternAnimation / WendellAndWild

* AnAesop: It's not always your fault when bad things happen, but it's your duty to try and make things better.

** All Father Bests wanted was to keep his school running. While he is willing to do charitable things in exchange for funding (like accepting money from the "Break the Cycle" Program in exchange for letting Kat stay there), he's also willing to do less than morally dubious things too including working with the Klaxons (before and after they murder him) and raising the dead to override an election.

''Wendell & Wild'' is a 2022 StopMotion animated fantasy HorrorComedy film directed by Creator/HenrySelick (''WesternAnimation/TheNightmareBeforeChristmas'', ''WesternAnimation/{{Coraline}}''), written by Selick and Creator/JordanPeele (''[[Film/GetOut2017 Get Out]]'', ''Film/{{Us}}'', ''Film/{{Nope}}''), and based upon an unpublished book by Selick and Clay [=McLeod=] Chapman. Peele also stars in the film along with his regular collaborator Creator/KeeganMichaelKey.

[[caption-width-right:349:''"Everybody's got demons. My demons have names."'']]

* VillainousGentrification: The [[BigBadDuumvirate Klaxons]] are a [[UnholyMatrimony couple]] of private prison owners who wish to develop on the DyingTown that is the setting so that, paired with the nearby school for troubled young girls, they'll have a school-to-prison pipeline set up to line their pockets. The climax involves collecting irrefutable evidence that they're the reason the town is dying in the first place just to facilitate their plans.

Wendell and Wild (voiced by Key and Peele respectively) are a pair of scheming demon brothers who strike a deal with a troubled teenager named Kat Elliot (Creator/LyricRoss) to escape the underworld to the Land of the Living. Along the way, the group will have to contend with a nun by the name of Sister Helley (Creator/AngelaBassett) as Kat comes face-to-face with her past.

* BigBad: The Klaxons. They want to demolish the town for their private prison and are willing to kill to get it done.

* SurvivorsGuilt: Kat struggles with blaming herself for her dad driving into the river, but her inability to save them from drowning, and loathing herself for surviving when they didn't.

* TheStinger: The post-credits seen is a cell phone video by one of the film's animators, showing that a puppet of Kat has managed to follow him home.

* TakeThat: Due to Creator/JordanPeele co-writing the film, it would make sense that it includes some of his trademark social commentary with the main focus of attack being [[https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Private_prison Private Prisons]] and the demolition of small towns to built said prisons.
* TalkingInYourDreams: Wendell and Wild have the power to communicate with Kat. They manage to appear in her dream as floating heads in the teaser trailer.

* AlmightyJanitor: Manberg, the wheelchair-using janitor at RBC, is also secretly a demon Hunter who collects demons in jars.

* HumansAreTheRealMonsters: Mr. and Mrs. Klaxon, and Father Bests as well, prove to be far more despicable and villainous than any of the demons seen in this film.

* OneGenderSchool: RBC is an all-girls school. The only boy in their curriculum is Raul, and he was a female-presenting like the rest before coming out as trans.

* SharpDressedMan: In the teaser and trailer, Wendell and Wild dress in fine top hats and vintage suits when in the cemetery.

* SicklyGreenGlow: Several characters' [[GlowingEyes eyes glow green]] in the trailers; Kat, Wendell, Wild, and Sister Helley.

* WingdingEyes: In the trailer, the old woman in charge of the orphanage in Kat's flashback gets dollar-sign eyes when she sees her.

* WormInAnApple: During the prologue, young Kat finds a strange two-headed worm in a candy apple she was eating while in the car with her parents. Her scream briefly distracted her father, leading to the car crash that killed them both. [[spoiler:Being able to see slightly into the future, this worm may have been a vision foretelling their deaths (they became worm food), her eventual interaction with Wendell and Wild (who the worms vaguely resemble), and warning of the Klaxon's true nature]].

* RevenantZombie: Wendell and Wild use the magic hair cream to bring back Father Bests and The Old Guard back from the dead as these. [[spoiler: Raul later uses it to bring Kat's parents back as these, too]].

** Sister Helley and Manberg [[spoiler: we’re formerly a demon-hunting duo, but went their separate ways when the former realized that the latter was only interested in collecting the demons as trophies instead of sending them back to their native realm]].
** The Klaxons [[spoiler: we’re responsible for the brewery fire. Deliberately causing Rust Bank to nosedive into poverty]].
** [[spoiler: The demons that Manberg had trapped in jars are Buffalo Belzer’s missing children. Thus, making them Wendell and Wild’s siblings]].

** Buffalo Belzar has imprisoned his two sons Wendell and Wild "for life" due to their theme park idea, forced them to wear InstitutionalApparel and makes them continually regrow his hair, which is framed as prison labor. They understandably chafe under his yolk and wish to leave. [[spoiler:Only after he has a HeelRealization and agrees to respect their ideas do they decide to go home.]]

** [[spoiler: The ending implies that both parties have somewhat [[SubvertedTrope reconciled]].

* ShoutOut:
** While driving through Kat's hometown, the young girl spots an old, ruined movie theater with the slogan: [[Franchise/LooneyTunes "That's All Folks"]]
** The ornament on the radio antennae of the Juvenile Justice van that drives Kat back into Rust Bank is [[WesternAnimation/TheNightmareBeforeChristmas Jack Skellington's head]][[note]]Both films are directed by Creator/HenrySelick.[[/note]]. The same head can be glimpsed in the end credits as well.

* LogoGag: