Wander to Wonder
2023 · 14m
Directed by Nina Gantz
Genres: animation, dark comedy, fantasy
Tones: contemplative, darkly comic, melancholic
Three miniature actors from an '80s children's TV show keep making episodes in the abandoned studio after their creator dies, as their costumes decay and hunger sets in.
Picked by Felix
The scouts
A children's show becomes a séance—three trapped actors in rotting costumes, hunger and decay as the real plot, dark comedy emerging from existential dread instead of punchlines. Everyone else sees nostalgia; Gantz sees a tomb, and that's exactly the kind of premise that makes consensus taste look cowardly.
Gantz situates this within a lineage of puppet/performer uncanny—from Kaufman to contemporary stop-motion—but the formal risk here is the decay itself as compositional choice, letting material deterioration become the film's visual argument about time and abandonment.
The decision to keep shooting in the same studio set while the costumes genuinely decompose across the film—practical, patient, expensive in patience rather than budget—transforms what could be conceptual into something that *feels* haunted because it technically is.
Reviews
Combining extraordinary craftsmanship with a timeless, deeply relatable story, the film has enjoyed a remarkable festival run, collecting an Annie Award, a BAFTA, a BIFA and countless other accolades. What makes *Wander to Wonder* so affecting is the precision with which it balances its opposing tones.