“Wolfwalkers”
4.5/5 ****-
“Wolfwalkers,” directed by Tomm Moore and Ross Stewart, is a 2020 animated film produced by Irish animation company Cartoon Saloon. It tells the story of an English girl named Robyn (Honor Kneafsey) who meets an Irish girl named Mebh (Eva Whittaker), who is also a Wolfwalker, a human who can turn into a wolf while they are asleep. Robyn and Mebh (pronounced Maeve) form an unlikely friendship, and Robyn, who Mebh accidentally bites and turns into a Wolfwalker, helps the wild child find her mother and protect the pack from the English settlers. The film is the third and final part of Cartoon Saloon’s “Irish Folklore Trilogy,” being preceded by “Song of the Sea” (2014) and “The Secret of Kells” (2009).
The Wolfwalkers in the film are inspired by the Werewolves of Ossory, where the descendants of Laignech Fáelad gained the ability to project their soul out while they sleep and turn into a wolf. While the film took some creative liberties by giving the Wolfwalkers the ability to heal as well as turn other people into Wolfwalkers, it is clear that the filmmakers were basing the concept off this part of Irish folklore.
The film is absolutely beautiful. For starters, it is animated in a very stylized way. The way the film is animated, everything looks extremely flat with simple character designs. While it is clear that the characters on screen are drawn—some scenes show the sketch lines or are just a sketch—the style does not take the viewer out of the movie. In fact, the animation helps immerse the viewer in this beautiful world. This style makes the film feel like a living storybook. The scenes involving the Wolfwalkers are so creatively animated. The magic of the Wolfwalkers is stunning; with the use of beautiful gold linework and Celtic imagery, the world comes to life. Also, during the scenes in Robyn’s perspective when she is a wolf, the world around her is colorless with just gray-shaded-with-black sketch lines. The only colors are of the things she can smell or hear. It is a very creative way to display to the viewer the abilities of the Wolfwalkers.
The film also does a wonderful job at addressing the English colonization of Ireland. The story takes place in Ireland in 1650, during the Cromwell Conquest of Ireland, where Oliver Cromwell re-conquered the kingdom, confiscated Irish land for English settlers and barred Irish Catholics from Parliament. The Conquest resulted in the deaths of many Irish people from plague and famine—as well as the extinction of wolves in Ireland. In the film, Robyn’s father, Bill Goodfellowe (Sean Bean) is a hunter for the Lord Protector (Simon McBurney), a clear reference to Oliver Cromwell. The Lord Protector’s campaign to expel the wolves is a direct parallel to the English forcing the Irish people to assimilate and stop their pagan practices. In the film, when Robyn is trying to tell her father about the Wolfwalkers, the Lord Protector tells her to “never speak of such pagan nonsense.”
Overall, “Wolfwalkers” is an incredible film that really allows Irish culture and history to shine and thrive. The film is able to mix the long history of England’s oppression of Ireland as well as Irish culture and fantasy in an incredibly powerful way. The friendship that Robyn and Mebh share, as well as their relationships with their respective parents, are incredibly deep and emotional. Go watch “Wolfwalkers” and thank me later.