When thinking about modern animation studios, not many seem to specialise in 2D / handrawn anymore. Pixar, Dreamworks, and Illumination are all giants thriving off of 3D, Disney have fully made the transition from one to the other, Aardman and Laika are the overlooked masters of stop motion, and Studio Ghibli have gone dormant since 2014. We now seem to get the occassional 2D animated film, and usually from a much smaller animation house - one of these being the Irish group Cartoon Saloon. They have produced only three animated films over the last ten years, and I've unfortunately only seen one, The Breadwinner (2017). I love that film quite a bit, so I've been trying my best to get round to watching their two other films The Secret of Kells (2009) and Song of the Sea (2014), both of which I've heard great things about. However, while I was doing some browsing, I found out a new film of theirs was releasing very soon, and that film was Wolfwalkers.
Going into this film, I was very excited. My love for 2D animation as well as what I'd seen from this studio had me keen that this would be another great film. It was a little tricky to track down a cinema playing it but I was able to eventually see it at the Barbican Centre, a lovely venue I hadn't been to beforehand.
The film centres on Robyn, an English girl living in an Irish town with a vast forest on its doorstep. She desperately wants to go out and hunt the wolves within, but her father refuses to let her. One day, after sneaking out, she comes across a girl in the forest, named Mebh. She isn't a normal girl, as she is a Wolfwalker, someone who is united with the wolves in the forest and able to transform into one while sleeping. Having become friends with Mebh, Robyn must help save her and the pack before the hunters, including her father, destroy their home.
I think it goes without saying that this is a beautiful looking film. As mentioned, it's so lovely to see at least one studio still having faith in 2D, and rightfully so in my opinion. Even though it's clearly more time consuming than other art forms, the end product is completely worth it, because the visuals are just stellar. There's so much vibrancy, so much expression, and simply so much life. You can literally see the lines where the artists have sketched, and there's something so magical about that. It adds the magic of what you see literally being drawings that've come to life. I honestly can't express how much I love 2D animation and just how wonderfully it was utilised in this film. But the beauty of the film doesn't stop there. The music is also really enchanting, with the clear Celtic influence making it so much more unique than many other animated movie scores I hear nowadays.
I also really liked the story here. The two main characters were really endearing and the friendship between them just felt so natural, and the same can be said for the relationship between Robyn and her father. It was also a film that really tugged at the heart-strings, especially in the climax which I thought was rich, powerful, and emotional. One aspect that made the film so compelling was the really strong voice acting, with the two actresses playing the leads in particular feeling so genuine and conveying all the right emotions. The setting and lore of the film was also very well realised, with such a thoughtful world built around the premise. I'd imagine it does take inspiration from Irish folklore, and if so, it used it very well.
The only issue I had with the film wasn't that big a problem but still something I noticed, and that's the slight familiarity of it. If you've seen films like How to Train Your Dragon, Princess Mononoke, Brother Bear, and Brave, you will probably be able to predict where the story goes and what themes will be explored, making it quite predictable. Fortunately, it used a lot of its familiar elements in effective ways, and it never felt directly derivative of the afore mentioned films; it just occurred to me that I had seen a lot of what it was doing elsewhere.
As a whole, there's not too much else to be said; Wolfwalkers is just a terrific film. It's enchanting visuals and music combined with such a heartfelt and genuine story make it something truly special. In spite of a few similarities with other works, this is by far the best animated film I've seen so far this year as well as the best film I've seen so far this year in general. I just loved it.
I'm going to give Wolfwalkers a 9.0/10
It feels so good to finally give that high a rating to a new release in 2020!
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