‘Wendell & Wild’ Star Sam Zelaya Proves Kids’ Movies Are the Perfect Place for Trans Characters

Jude Dry
·4 min read

Animation, like social progress, takes a long time. It’s been thirteen years since Henry Selick’s last film, “Coraline,” premiered to critical adoration and major box-office success. Despite a few Oscar nominations and becoming the third-highest-grossing stop-motion film of all time, it still took over a decade for Selick to get another movie made.

Thanks to co-writer Jordan Peele and his Monkeypaw Productions, Selick was able to birth another animated fantasy with “Wendell & Wild,” a twisted comedy about the dangers of playing with life and death. Sounds like the perfect topic for a kids’ movie, yeah?

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Drawing on the darker themes that made his first film, “The Nightmare Before Christmas” such a refreshing success, “Wendell & Wild” doesn’t handle its young audience with kid gloves. The film’s plucky protagonist is an orphan with special powers name Kat (voiced by Lyric Ross), and the movie opens with the traumatic scene she witnesses when both her parents die in a car crash. Far less dark but perhaps viewed as equally mature by some, the first friend she makes at school is a trans boy named Raúl (voiced by Sam Zelaya).

“[With] a lot of the pushback against trans representation and trans rights, people frame it as trying to protect kids from something that they won’t or can’t understand,” said Zelaya, who voices Raúl in his first film role. “But a lot of the time I think people don’t give kids enough credit. I’m really glad this movie doesn’t talk down to kids. There are a lot of issues addressed that a lot of people making a movie for kids might shy away from, but they’re all really well handled.”

“Wendell & Wild” - Credit: Courtesy of Netflix
“Wendell & Wild” - Credit: Courtesy of Netflix

Courtesy of Netflix

A trained theater actor who studied in London, Zelaya answered the mysterious casting call for “Wendell & Wild” on Twitter.

“I saw that they were looking for a trans Latino and I went, ‘I’m both of those things.’ It’s pretty rare to see a casting call where being that intersection of two minorities isn’t gonna play against you, because usually they kinda want one or the other,” he said. “Even when people do want to be inclusive and have that representation, there’s always the worry about the optics and what they’re saying about this group of people. I think sometimes people get in their heads about that and find it easier not to say anything.”

Raúl is an integral part of the wide-ranging story, which somehow includes both a fantastical journey through the underworld and a pointed critique of the prison industrial complex. With so much going on, there’s hardly room for Raúl’s trans identity to be anything more than a simple fact about his character. The film mentions it just enough so that it’s clear, but never makes it even a passing plot point. His mother, friends, and classmates (even the mean ones), are all supportive and validating of his identity. The one time Raúl is misgendered, the character quickly corrects herself and moves on. It’s a brief but illustrative teachable moment; one that doesn’t need to call attention to itself.

“It’s always a major plot point in our lives, it affects how we move through the world and how we see things, but we are also just people at the end of the day, and it’s cool to see representation tending towards that more,” Zelaya said. “I like that this is a relatively recent thing for Raul. He has tried to be like the girls at school and obviously something didn’t feel right. … I think that’s just a narrative that you don’t see a lot of. … It’s cool that not just our experiences are getting represented, but now there’s a diversity of experiences as well.”

“Wendell & Wild” actor Sam Zelaya - Credit: Netflix/Yifu Chien
“Wendell & Wild” actor Sam Zelaya - Credit: Netflix/Yifu Chien

Netflix/Yifu Chien

Zelaya grew up watching Selick’s movies as a kid, and counts himself as an animation buff. He mentions both Pixar and Aardman as some of his favorite animation houses, and has a real appreciation for Selick’s unique use of stop-motion.

“It’s amazing, I’m obsessed with the visual and the art style,” he said. “I love stop-motion, especially when it’s not too polished, it’s on purpose a little bit handmade. I think that’s really cool, especially when a lot of animation is being increasingly done on computers, which is cool in itself and is its own thing and its own vibe, but I do really appreciate that there are still films getting made like this.”

“Wendell & Wild” premieres in select theaters on Friday, October 21, and streaming on Netflix on Friday, October 28.

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