Tripwire Reviews Taika Waititi’s Hunt For The Wilderpeople 4K Restoration

The Mild Ones?

Tripwire’s editor-in-chief Joel Meadows takes a look over the 4K Restoration of Taika Waititi’s Hunt For The Wilderpeople, celebrating its 10th anniversary this year…

Hunt For The Wilderpeople 4K Restoration
Director: Taka Waititi
Stars: Sam Neill, Julian Dennison, Rima Te Wiata

Celebrating the 10^th birthday of this Taika Waititi odd couple Kiwi drama in the year that we lost one of its stars, Sam Neill, this is a 4K restored version.

Hunt For The Wilderpeople features Julian Dennison who plays orphan Ricky Baker, who is pushed from pillar to post from one set of foster parents to another. He gets adopted by Hector (Neill) and Bella (Rima Te Wiata) but when tragedy strikes one of his new parents, this acts as a catalyst that sees Ricky head off into the New Zealand bush. Both him and Hector become fugitives with a price on their heads.

Waititi has had a strange career so far as a director: his highlights so far are Thor: Ragnarok for Marvel and the idiosyncratic but effective Holocaust black comedy Jojo Rabbit.

Hunt For The Wilderpeople is an odd film as it does have a quirky charm which is held together by the gruff gravitas of Neill and Dennison’s well-meaning lummox. The chemistry between Dennison and Neill is well handled here. Visually it is very well shot, giving us a ruggedly beautiful picture of New Zealand but far more intimate and less epic than what we saw in Jackson’s Lord Of The Rings series. The 4K restoration does bring it to life on the small screen, sharpening details and bringing things into greater clarity.

Like its geographical neighbour, Australia, Hunt For The Wilderpeople definitely feels like a New Zealand production with its own unique quirks. There is a warmth and an emotional core to the film that helps to draw the viewer in. Neill was no question an actor with a rare range and here he displays that.

JOEL MEADOWS

Hunt For The Wilderpeople 4K restoration is out now on Blu-ray and DVD