If you were waiting for Netflix to call your attention to the premiere of Wendell & Wild, you’d be waiting a long time. There’s been an astonishing lack of ballyhoo celebrating the return of Henry Selick, stop-motion animation genius of The Nightmare Before Christmas (1993) fame, and whose last film was the masterpiece Coraline in 2009. And returning in such a spectacular fashion, in a daring creative collaboration, cowriting and coproducing with Jordan Peele, which is surely newsworthy.

This odd lack of publicity has been resentfully noted:

When a film like Wendell & Wild is released theatrically through a traditional studio, we expect to see an extensive advertising campaign and promotional tour. With Netflix though, new releases often seem to arrive without warning and then vanish within a week, failing to find their audience. . . .  There’s also a widespread belief that this is particularly true for projects by nonwhite or otherwise marginalized creative teams — and, indeed, for animation. Unlike Henry Selick’s previous films, Wendell & Wild stars a majority-Black cast, leading some fans to wonder if this played into its seemingly low-profile release.