Local News

From Elkins to ‘Wildwood’

Smakula moved from amateur to armature technician

ELKINS – A Randolph County native made a valuable contribution to a new critically acclaimed stop-motion animated film.

For 29-year-old Glen Smakula, who grew up in Elkins, a “life-long fascination” in stop-motion animation became reality during the years he worked on Laika Studios’ new movie, “Wildwood,” which released theatrically in the United States on Oct. 23.

Made completely through stop-motion, Laika Studios’ “Wildwood” follows 13-year-old Prue McKeel, voiced by Peyton Elizabeth Lee, and her classmate Curtis, voiced by Jacob Tremblay, as they try and save McKeel’s infant brother, Mac, after he is kidnapped and taken into the “Impassable Wilderness,” a forbidden, enchanted forest.

The movie has scored a 99% “Certified Fresh” rating from critics on the film review website Rotten Tomatoes. It has also received a 97% “Verified Hot” rating among audience reviews on the site. Smakula said the reviews were blowing his mind.

The son of Bob and Mary Smakula of Leading Creek Road, Glen Smakula said his “life-long fascination” for the animation style began with seeing stop-motion media, such as “Wallace and Gromit,” at an early age. He recalled being in second grade when he and his family visited the West Virginia Division of Culture in Charleston. There, Smakula observed a screening for several stop-motion short films.

“There were a number of shorts by these artists called the Brothers Quay that I didn’t know at the time, and it took me years to figure out what that was after I’d seen it,” Smakula told The Inter-Mountain. “It was only through a ton of deep diving when I got into high school. I did a bunch of research on stop-motion as a whole and I stumbled back across it… they were these shorts that were just traumatic enough, just the right amount of traumatic, to leave an impression like, ‘That was really weird. I want to do that!'”

Throughout his childhood, Smakula would receive stop-motion films or shorts recommendations, leading him to study the works of well-known animators, like Ray Harryhausen, as well as more obscure animators, like Jan Švankmajer. Smakula graduated from Elkins High School in 2015, going on to study Interdisciplinary Sculpture at the Maryland Institute College of Art. While there, Smakula discovered he preferred building the stop-motion pieces rather than animating them.

During this time, a recruiter from Laika Studios would review Smakula’s animation portfolio; however, Smakula admitted “it did not go well,” but it helped him find his niche.

“That was kind of a moment of, like, ‘Well if I want to make it in this industry sooner than later, (I need to) reevaluate some things,'” Smakula said. “‘Because animation itself is very hotly contested. It seems like there’s not a whole lot of people making the armatures,’ which are like the skeletons for the puppets. They’re these metal bone socket and hinge and swivel joints, that all come together. When you put them together in the right order, it makes a pretty anatomically correct range of motion.”

In 2020, Smakula applied for different interning positions at Laika Studios’ armature department, metal fabrication department and rigging department, but the COVID-19 pandemic would delay any work Smakula could do with the studio and led to the internships falling through. Not long after, however, Laika Studios would reach out to Smakula with a full-time job at their location in Portland, Oregon, where Smakula now lives.

For “Wildwood,” which took around 16 years to make from initial development to its release, Smakula spent three years working in the armature department making the puppets’ skeleton. When asked which of the puppets was his favorite, Smakula said he had fun working on the legs and claws of The General, a giant eagle. He described The General as one of the most complex puppets Laika Studios has ever made, with the claws having special parts made specifically for it. Smakula noted that his main tools for the armatures included a metal lathe, a milling machine and a propane soldering torch.

After his time with the armature department, Smakula spent one year in the “puppet hospital,” where puppets and their armatures get repaired.

“Once the puppets are done and they go out to stages, they get broken,” Smakula said. “They’re being used by animators day in and day out… there’s some parts of the armature itself that’s solid metal that, if it’s not built up beefy enough, it’ll snap. Like, I did five hip replacements on the character that’s voiced by Tom Waits. He’s an old man, you know?”

When asked what the hardest part of working on the film was, Smakula said the amount of time put into the work and the lack of instant gratification can take all of one’s creative energy. He also said that, during his time at the “puppet hospital,” it was a challenge at first to get to know the animators’ preferences, as well as their personalities, such as who doesn’t like to talk while working and who likes to ramble and crack jokes. He called it a fascinating part of his experience at Laika Studios.

Smakula said his contributions to the movie wrapped up around a year ago and he is currently working in estate sales.

When asked to describe “Wildwood,” without giving away any movie spoilers, Smakula jokingly said “a lot of work.”

“Vibrant, yet dark is another that’s coming to my mind,” Smakula said. “Because there are a lot of really saturated colors and it looks beautiful, but then there’s also some elements that are like, from the very opening scene, it’s pretty apparent what kind of movie this is going to be.”