Creepy, angsty stop-motion animation from the director of _Coraline_ and the writer of _Get Out_. _Wendell & Wild_ tells the story of Kat, a gloomy orphaned adolescent still coming to terms with the sudden loss of her parents. Prickly and angry, she’s burnt bridges at a long string of foster homes and now lands in a failing religious school on the outskirts of her once-happy hometown. It’s her last chance to get right, but the opportunity is immediately complicated by a preppy gang of well-intentioned girls, a murderous private prison conglomerate and a pair of pushy, rebellious demons with plans to turn the fading village into an undead amusement park.

Kat’s world is overly busy, a million unrelated threads tangled in the dark, and only half-resolved when the credits roll. Its characters are fresh and diverse, vibrant in spirit as well as appearance, and the soundtrack (a distinct mix of killer afro-punk jams) is outta sight. Everything looks great, the humor mostly works, there’s plenty of heart... but something’s missing. With so many competing subplots and narrative wrinkles, we rarely get a chance to dwell on a single subject for more than a few beats, making even the primary threads seem superficial and unimportant. There’s an awkward lack of polish, which makes it feel swollen and unfinished. And the twin title characters, a happy reunion of the _Key & Peele_ comedy team, never evolve beyond simple, irritating sideshows. In scattered isolation, there’s a lot to like. As a collective whole, nothing really fits together. It tries to do too much, without understanding what to do with the pile of mismatched pieces it’s already got.