Starring: Keegan-Michael Key, Jordan Peele, Lyric Ross, Angela Bassett, James Hong, Sam Zelaya, Tamara Smart, Seema Virdi, Ramona Young, Ving Rhames
OUR RATING: ★★★☆☆
Story:
Netflix stop-motion animated horror comedy directed and written by Henry Selick and Jordan Peele. Wendell & Wild (2022) follows two scheming demon brothers, Wendell (Keegan-Michael Key) and Wild (Jordan Peele) who enlist the aid of 13-year-old Kat Elliot (Lyric Ross), a tough teen with a load of guilt, to summon them to the Land of the Living. But what Kat demands in return leads to a brilliantly bizarre and comedic adventure like no other.
Best Quotes
Kat: One scream, and my parents were gone. Figured I’d just hate myself for the rest of my life. But fate had other ideas.
Kat: They say everyone’s got demons, right? My demons have names.
Wendell: [to Wild] As your older brother, I demand you regurgitate that cream!
Wendell: [referring to Kat] Woh. I’m having a vision, Wild!
Wild: A green-headed girl.
Wendell: You see her too?
Wild: I do.
Wendell: She seems so real. Freaky!
Wild: Deaky!
Kat: With my folks dead, the next five years were hell. Yeah, I got into a little trouble. Okay, a lot of trouble But at thirteen, I got a do-over at this fancy girls school, RBC. Only problem, it was back in Rust Bank.
Kat: Good memories, they can hurt the most. But it wasn’t just a do-over. Something else up at that school was pulling me back. Something that knew what I was before I did.
Sloane: There’s holistic goat yoga each noon.
Siobhan: Feed your soul, not your waistline.
Sweetie: Evenings, we meditate for the environment.
Siobhan: The earth resonates beneath our bums.
Kat: [referring to her boom box] Hey, don’t touch!
Siobhan: What is it?
Kat: It’s vintage.
Siobhan: Touched it!
Siobhan: [referring to Kat] I have a feeling Kay-Kay’s the best thing to happen here in a long time.
Kat: I don’t do friends, Raul. Bad things happen to people I’m close to.
Raul: Like what?
Kat: They die.
Sister Helley: [referring to her hand] Well, the mark proves that you’re special, Kat. But it has to be our secret.
Kat: Huh?
Sister Helley: That’s how I can protect you.
Kat: Protect me from what?
Siobhan: So, what do we believe just happened? Sweetie?
Sweetie: Kay-Kay is a sorceress!
Sloane: No. She’s clearly telekinetic. Her mind can move matter.
Siobhan: Well, I would posit that Kay-Kay is an interrupter. A disturber of the status quo.
Wendell: Now, we’re stuck here for life!
Wild: Guess we got what we deserve.
Wendell: We?! You have not begun to get what you deserve.
Wendell: [referring to Kat] I think it’s time to see our Hell Maiden. Got any spare hair cream?
Wild: Let the re-visioning begin.
'Good memories, they can hurt the most.' - Kat (Wendell & Wild) Share on X
Irmgard Klaxon: We need our own council members to win the vote.
Father Bests: Oh, yes. The old-guard members. They would vote for you!
Irmgard Klaxon: Ooh! Where do we find them, Father?
Father Bests: In the finest mausoleums in the cemetery.
Irmgard, Lane: They’re dead?!
Kat: Who are you? What are you doing in my dream?
Wild: Greetings, Hell Maiden!
Kat: Me?
Kat: What do you want?
Wild: We are Wendell and Wild.
Wendell: Your personal demons.
Kat: Who?
Wendell: You can summon us to the Land of the Living.
Kat: Why would I do that?
Wild: Because we’ll give you whatever you want.
Kat: Huh. Only thing I want is my parents. And they’re dead.
Wendell: We can’t raise the dead.
Wild: Well, we do know how to lie.
Wendell: Oh! I like that plan.
'Maybe demons aren't the most trustworthy creatures to make a deal with.' - Raul (Wendell & Wild) Share on X
Buffalo Belzer: Wakey-wakey, souls of the danged! It’s your Scream Faire Daddy! Say my name!
All: Belzer!
Wendell: [referring to Belzer] Can you believe that vainglorious blowhard?
Wild: It’s love him, can’t leave him.
Wendell: Danged souls have to praise him!
Wild: Remember that rich soul of the danged?
Wendell: What, the Nigerian Prince?
Wild: Yeah. He said if we helped him escape, he’d…
Wendell: That’s nothing but a scam, Wild!
Wild: That’s sound financial planning!
Wendell: How about I snap your horns off, rub them together, and make a fire?
Raul: What’s going on, Kat?
Kat: Look, I made a deal. I’m bringing my parents back.
Raul: What?
Kat: [after not being able to raise her parent from the dead] They lied to me!
Wild: [referring to Bests corpse] Ooh, that is one messed-up man of the cloth.
Wendell: [after they raise Bests from the dead] Who did it?
Wild: We did it!
Father Bests: Dear God! I’m in Hell!
Wild: No way, Padre!
Wendell: You’re back in good old Rust Bank, fully alive!
Father Bests: Thank you, Lord, for this miracle!
Wild: Not Him! We brought you back.
Father Bests: What?
Wendell: Wendell and Wild!
Father Bests: You? But you’re demons.
Wendell: Don’t worry, Padre. We are the Magician Morticians.
Wild: The artistes of the afterlife.
'Friends are like family. We do whatever we can for them.' - Wilma and Delroy (Wendell & Wild) Share on X
Father Bests: [to Wendell and Wild] This is Rust Bank. Take a look. No jobs. No banks. No people. Go ahead, raise all the dead you want, but there’s no one here to pay for this faire.
Wendell: [to Bests] What’s to stop us from putting your janky a** back in the ground?
Wild: Yeah, your janky, stanky a**.
Sister Helley: I know what you are, Kat. You’re a Hell Maiden.
Kat: But how could you know that?
Sister Helley: I’m kind of an expert.
Kat: Why do you care about me?
Sister Helley: I care because I was just like you.
Kat: Oh, so you were stupid too.
Sister Helley: You aren’t stupid, Kat.
Kat: I said they were demons, Raul! My personal demons. And they lied!
Raul: Maybe demons aren’t the most trustworthy creatures to make a deal with.
Kat: They were supposed to bring my parents back, not you!
Father Bests: Oh, my. Really, Miss Elliot? Perhaps, I’m just more important than your parents.
Kat: Oh, you creepy old dude!
Father Bests: Children, life is precious. Right now, you’re wasting mine.
Raul: You’re going alone? They’re demons!
Kat: My demons, Raul, my problem.
Irmgard Klaxon: You’re supposed to be dead!
Lane Klaxon: You look bloody hideous!
Father Bests: I like my new look.
Wendell: Hell Maiden, do you promise to serve us…
Wild, Wendell: For all eternity!
Kat: You’ve got to be kidding me.
Kat: Warned you, Raul, bad things happen to people I’m close to.
Wilma: It’s so wonderful to see you, Kat, but how is this possible?
Delroy: Why are we alive now?
Kat: It doesn’t matter, does it?
Wilma: You’re a lot tougher, aren’t you?
Kat: Had to be, since I killed you.
Delroy: You didn’t kill us, Kat.
Kat: Only reason you crashed is because I screamed.
Wilma: It was an accident, Kat.
Delroy: You were only eight, Kat.
Kat: [referring to Wendell and Wild] They promised to bring you back to life. And they did!
Wilma: It wasn’t demons. It was this kid, Raul.
Kat: Raul?
Wilma: Said he was your friend.
Kat: I don’t have friends.
Wilma: [referring to Raul] If he’s in danger, then we got to go help him.
Kat: But I just got you back!
Wilma: Friends are like family, Kat.
Delroy: We do whatever we can for them.
Wendell: You hear something?
Wild: I smell something. Our falafel dinner?
Wendell: You greedy bug’s turd! You ate our Hell Maiden!
Wild: Oh, and you ate little Raul as well.
Wendell: I am literally traumatized!
Raul: Thanks for saving me.
Kat: We’re still not friends, Raul.
Sister Helley: Demons can’t bring back the dead.
Manberg: [referring to Kat] She has sworn allegiance to her demons. And the fever is spreading.
Sister Helley: My fault.
Manberg: Well, only one thing to do. Full quarantine!
Sister Helley: Kat’s demons are raising an army of the dead!
Manberg: A whole army, you say?
Sister Helley: Yes! And we’ll need two Hell Maidens to stop them!
Sukie Jordan: My Lord, Cassandra, it’s the old-guard members!
Cassandra Jordan: But they died! Years ago!
Dr. Ngo: In my professional opinion, these men are alive.
Fawzi: Come on, Doc. You’re just a foot guy.
Siobhan: You make a pile of money for every prisoner you take. So you pack them in like sardines, provide crap food, crap medical, dangerous conditions, and zero rehabilitation.
Irmgard Klaxon: I am proud of you, dear.
Lane Klaxon: That’s our business model, exactly.
Sister Helley: Kat, your memories are what fuels the fever.
Kat: My memories?
Sister Helley: Yes. Time to face your past. Ready?
Sister Helley: [to Kat] Your memories made this monster!
Kat: Make it stop, Sister Helley, please!
Sister Helley: Only you can do that, Kat.
Kat: It’s too strong.
Sister Helley: You are stronger! Go on now. Own your memories!
Kat: [to her memory monster] You’ve tortured me for years. But you made me a survivor! And crazy powerful! I’m in control of my life now! Not you!
Wendell: Ding-dong!
Wild: Gotcha!
Kat: I’m going to kill Wendell and Wild!
Wilma: [to Wendell and Wild] Kat was scarier when she was three.
Kat: And I’m way scarier now!
Wendell: So, as your masters, we order you to turn around, and…
Kat: You’re tripping! I’m not your puppet anymore.
Sister Helley: Dang right!
Buffalo Belzer: Fee-fi-fo-fum. I smell the blood of two thieving bums!
Buffalo Belzer: There you are, my thieving mutts! Scream Faire Daddy’s going to strum your guts!
Buffalo Belzer: [referring to Raul’s art project painting] A parent protecting their child.
Wilma: What we all try to do.
Delroy: Every parent.
Father Bests: Let me tell you, reports of my death were greatly exaggerated.
Wendell: [as Bests collapses] He dead again?
Delroy: Now we have loved every single second with you, baby, but Rust Bank’s in trouble.
Wilma: What if that last bit of magic could help save our town?
Kat: I already told you it’s too late!
Sister Helley: No, Kat. You can change that future.
Wilma: [as they’re dying again] So proud of you, baby. How much do we love her, Delroy?
Delroy: So, so, so much.
Kat: I love you too.
Kat: I was supposed to hate myself for the rest of my life. But now, I don’t have to. I’m a Hell Maiden with amazing friends. Even you, Wendell and Wild.
Trailer: