Hopefully you've seen Wildwood already, and if for some reason you haven't, just watch it and come back here.
I was really Wildwood during it's runtime, and whilst I came out positive, in hindsight I recall certain aspects regarding the story and characters that would have improved it had they been changed. Broadly speaking, I think Wildwood doesn't really need the ensemble cast to function, and could have shrunk the notable characters down to just the few that matter. Had it done so, we could have spent more time with the main characters.
For me, Wildwood has good characters, and Alexandra is a fantastic villain, but there's not much time spent fleshing them out or giving them strong arcs. I think this was to either be different to other stories or just to keep them simple to make the story more coherent for younger audiences, but you wouldn't have lost much had you made certain changes. I wanna focus on how Pru, Curtis, Alexandra and the Parents could have been changed specifically.
- Aside from retaining/gaining maturity and independence and respecting Curtis more than she did, Pru doesn't shift very much throughout the story. I think there's actually an easy way to solve this, and it gives Curtis more to do as well.
The baby brother is just the macguffin of the story, he only exists to be something for the characters to fight over and to be cute and cry. You never doubt that Pru cares about him, and whilst saving him is fixing her mistake of disobeying her parents, something about the climax is lacking and I think it's partly because all it is the fulfilment and resolution of the conflict. Also, as someone who is Misophonic (brought on by Autism), by the end I wanted the baby to stop crying.
What if Curtis had that role instead, what if Curtis WAS Pru's younger brother? What if Pru started out disliking him and treating him like a burden, especially with having to prevent him from going outside? Then he gets kidnapped and through this journey Pru has to fight for someone she didn't even think she loved, and grows to properly care about him. Instead of Pru taking him outside when she isn't supposed to, perhaps she just leaves him without caring and then he gets kidnapped by crows.
My mind goes to Song of the Sea, which didn't have the exact same story, but was a fantastic movie partly because main character was a bit of a little shit towards his sister and then grew up, coming to love her like the brother he's supposed to be. Maybe Wildwood would be less original if it pulled from this, or even from Labyrinth, where the sibling doesn't like the other sibling at first, but it would have given the climax more power.
Plus, Curtis himself could have had even more of a loss of innocence by going from a kid that was largely sheltered to someone manipulated by Alexandra, exposed to the horrors of war and even threatened with death. He could have some of the same material as in the final film, and hell, Alexandra sees her son in him anyway. So making him the one who needs to die to bring her actual son back would make sense.
- Alexandra herself has enough material to shine, but I think more scenes would have helped make her be even more of a combination between threatening and tragic. Still, what I think could have been changed was how her character goes out.
Now truthfully, in the moment I liked that her character died without seeing the error of her ways, and liked the final exchange between Pru and her father. However, also in the moment and in hindsight, it again leaves that climax feeling like there's an emotional void. There is tension, no doubt, but Wildwood needed an emotionally powerful climax to cap it off and when Alexandra stays a villain till death, it's hard not to feel like something is missing.
I think a realisation whilst she's dying would have been good, or a much longer and lingering shot of her ending up exactly like her son. If you had to give her one of those classic Redemptive Sacrifices, it could have been done in a way that reminds us of why that trope can be so effective. I almost wonder if they just got afraid about being too sympathetic towards a character who is attempting to murder a baby and wanted to make absolutely sure that she was fully committed to villainy.
That's fine, and maybe what I suggested with Pru would have been enough to give the climax a punch, but I can't deny that Alexandra needed more by the end.
- As for the parents, I think part of the reason why certain Redditors are pretty negative towards them is because they never actually get the chance to correct their mistakes. I did like them as intentionally imperfect people, their emotional states were completely palpable especially thanks to the amazing voice acting and animation.
It's the beat with Pru drugging them and running off that I don't think I'm a fan of. Specifically because I actually preferred the idea of them tagging along with Pru and helping to make up for their deal with Alexandra. Beyond giving more material for their characters and more general complexity, it would have brought the story full circle. Their deal is what started all of this, and they could have played a role in finishing it.
Pru can still do all of what she does, but I'm sure there's something you could have done to incorporate her mother and father into the third act. It also would have developed Pru as a character more, to go from someone disobedient of her parent's wishes to willing to indulge in their demands to help a member of her family.
Having them simply be absent and having Pru just think of a clever way to keep them away felt like the easy way out and it was almost too consistent of a choice for Pru to make. I mean she already rebelled against her parents by bringing her brother outside when she didn't know anyone would come for him, and now that she knows everything, she basically does the same thing again only more extreme.
TL;DR: Wildwood is an impressive film, but the characters needed more dimension and development, and certain aspects of the plot could have been changed to naturally help with this. Curtis could be the one under threat of sacrifice, Pru could dislike her brother and then come around, Alexandra needed one final emotional beat and the parents should have played a role in getting Pru's brother back.
