Wolfwalkers Review
Wolfwalkers is the new Cartoon Saloon film from Tomm Moore and Ross Stewart that caps off the Irish Folklore trilogy along with The Secret of Kells, and the very much beloved Song of the Sea. It has a very different art style and an intentionally rough, sketchy look to it with great uses of edges, curves and drawing outlines to express the distinct varieties of locations (the oppressive, angular, authoritarian town that contrasts with the loose and winding woods where wolves run free). We follow Robyn, a young aspiring hunter who wants to follow in her father's footsteps to rid of the wolves outside of the town, and Mebh, a wild badass wolf girl who's out to track down her mother. It's a story about two different worlds crossing paths with a loving message about understanding and accepting other people and animals, embracing each other's differences, and taking down the repressive, religious patriarchy!
There seems to be a lot of big inspirations from Miyazaki films, Disney animated films like The Hunchback of Notre Dame, and has visual beats that feel like they were ripped from Pan's Labyrinth. Characters have cool astral projecting wolf powers (you'll get it when you see it) and it's used to add a sense of spectacle and urgency especially when you see it rotoscoped in POV with characters running away and dodging gunfire. It's very intense but it's a highly effective way of communicating the idea of being in someone else's shoes. It's one thing to be a human hunting down an animal and it's something entirely different to be the animal being hunted.
Besides the big bad guy played by Simon McBurney (which is kind of a simple and plain villain), I fell in love with the friendship between Mebh and Robyn (played by Eva Whittaker and Honor Kneafsey respectively) as two very different people who are quick to become friends shortly after meeting each other. We understand their circumstances and how the powers that be affect their lives -Mebh having her family hunted and captured, and Robyn and her father (Sean Bean) forced to do their duties under a cruel and crappy government. All this reaches a climax in a gorgeously conceived scene in the city center at a point of no return. This scene in particular is one of the most beautifully animated scenes ever and I was left speechless.
Wolfwalkers is a great time for those who like complicated family movies that tackles some serious subject matter with themes of racism, government oppression, and the effects of colonialism on Indigenous culture and its people. It's Princess Mononoke with Wolf stands. A must watch if any of those words make you happy.