The handcrafted stop-motion fantasy epic "Wildwood" is a stunning visual wonder, bringing to life a world of magical forests, dark arts and daring adventure.

Its themes and set pieces — it opens with a young boy, who shows himself to be mechanical, falling from a balcony to his death, and it closes with a violent, "Braveheart"-style multi-species battle — also push the limits of what appears, on the surface, to be a children's film. Be wary of watching it with young ones, and heed the film's PG-13 rating.

Prue McKeel (voiced by Peyton Elizabeth Lee) is a headstrong teenager being raised by a pair of granola hipsters (Jake Johnson and Maya Erskine) in the Pacific Northwest, specifically Portland, Oregon. When she takes her baby brother Mac outdoors against her parents' strict orders, he is kidnapped by a murder of crows and taken deep into a mystical forest known as the Impassable Wilderness, which is lorded over by Alexandra (Carey Mulligan), a dowager governess who keeps an army of coyotes in red military coats at her side.

Alexandra has become enraptured with grief since the disappearance and death of her young son; cue flashbacks to that opening scene, and the mechanical boy with whom she tried to have him replaced. The kidnapping of Mac reveals dark family secrets for Prue, and leads to her journey to try and find him and bring him back from Alexandra's evil clutches.

She's aided by Curtis (Jacob Tremblay), her hapless but well-meaning friend, who is quickly captured himself and finds himself imprisoned with a gang of bandits, led by Brendan, the Bandit King (Mahershala Ali). She teams with a group of enchanting talking animals, including a bucktoothed rat (Awkwafina) and a majestic golden eagle (Angela Bassett), who aids in one of the film's most breathtaking sequences.

"Wildwood," based on the 2011 novel by Carson Ellis and the Decemberists' Colin Meloy, is the latest — and most ambitious to date — project from Laika, the stop-motion animators behind "Coraline" and "Kubo and the Two Strings," among others. Its meticulous detail is gobsmacking, and is enhanced by ace cinematographer (and six-time Oscar nominee) Caleb Deschanel, working for the first time in the field of animation.

Director Travis Knight, who also helmed summer's semi-successful "Masters of the Universe," allows space for humor in the project — there's a great Burning Man joke that will likely fly over youngsters' heads — and the Portland-area specificity is rich. The screenplay by Chris Butler mixes familiar fantasy elements (think C.S. Lewis and J.R.R. Tolkien) with modern sensibilities while brushing up against "Grimms' Fairy Tales," which always had sharp teeth to go along with their considerable bite.

At 130 minutes, "Wildwood" is overstuffed, and a leaner experience would have been more impactful. But this is a gorgeous, lovingly crafted tale made with heart, a keen eye for detail and a mind open to the world's many wonders.

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'WILDWOOD'

Grade: B+

MPA rating: PG-13 (for strong fantasy violence/bloody images, thematic material, suicide-related material, brief partial nudity and language)

Running time: 2:10

How to watch: In theaters Oct. 23

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