We have had our eye on Cartoon Saloon’s newest animated film, Wolfwalkers, for some time now. But life has a way of getting so busy that it’s tough to squeeze in a full movie after bedtime. It actually took us three sessions to finish the movie—not because it was too long or because we didn’t like it. We just kept starting it too late to get very far before we had to go to bed.

Wolfwalkers has garnered a fair bit of attention lately. It seems to have been nominated for some sort of award or something…something about best animated film? Whether or not it wins awards, we thought it was a fun movie that is well worth watching.

The movie was released in December 2020, so it’s still pretty new. Accordingly, we’ll keep our comments as spoiler free as possible.

Sniffing Out a Good Story

We open on a 1650’s version of Kilkenny, Ireland. Local residents have been tasked with clearing the nearby forest by the Lord Protector. The problem? The woods are teeming with wolves, and the locals whisper that the wolves are led by a pair of Wolfwalkers (people who can communicate with and transform into wolves…and apparently have other magical healing powers). 

The Lord Protector summons hunter Bill Goodfellowe to come from England to deal with the wolf problem. Goodfellowe’s daughter, Robyn, desperately wants to help him hunt the wolves. But it’s a rather dangerous business for a young girl, so he instructs her to stay in the town while he goes out hunting.

Pffft! Like that’s going to stop her. This is a movie! Ain’t nobody got time for obedient children. Robyn sneaks out of town with her super cool pet falcon, Merlyn, to follow her father on his hunt. 

But things do not go according to plan. Robyn ends up accidentally shooting Merlyn in the wing. And before she can go to collect him and tend to his wounds, a ferocious, weird-looking girl emerges from the trees, takes Merlyn, and retreats. 

Goodfellowe is there by now and furious with his daughter. She is sent back to town to work in the scullery…but again, this is a film so obedient children simply won’t do. Robyn hightails it back to the forest to find Merlyn and the weird girl.

When she finds Merlyn, he has been magically healed. And what’s more, the crazy girl turns out to be a real wolfwalker named Mebh. Robyn and Mebh become fairly fast friends, especially considering Mebh was the one who healed Merlyn. Mebh’s mother has gone missing, and Robyn promises to help find her. 

But now Robyn is in a jam. She has a friend in the forest who needs her help, but her father is under strict orders to find and kill every wolf in the forest. Mebh won’t leave without her mom, and Goodfellowe cannot stop or he will be punished by The Lord Protector. What’s a young girl in the 1650’s to do?

Wolfwalkers in Context

Wolfwalkers is the third movie in Cartoon Saloon’s Irish Folklore Trilogy. The other two films in the series, the Secret of Kells and Song of the Sea (which we have talked about at length here) draw heavy inspiration from local Irish folklore. We love the emphasis on local stories in these films, especially when we don’t already know the stories ourselves.

Wolfwalkers takes its inspiration from the stories about the Man-Wolves of Ossory. It’s okay if you’ve never heard of them. We hadn’t either before watching Wolfwalkers. You can read more about them here and here, but here’s a brief rundown.

Near what is now the Irish town of Kilkenny, there’s a story about a tribe of people who were cursed to live as wolves. I suppose there are different versions. In some stories, the person could transform at will. When they would do so, their human body would lay at home as though dead until they transformed back. 

In other stories, two people from the tribe would live for seven years as wolves. Their human bodies would lay at home lifeless until their sentence was up, at which point another couple would take their places as the designated wolves. Either way, you could always tell if someone was one of these man-wolves because if you happened to wound their wolf form, their human form would take on a corresponding wound. 

Wolfwalkers seems to draw from both sets of stories. The Wolfwalkers in this movie can transform when they sleep, but their human bodies stay wherever they were when they fell asleep. They can only transform back when their wolf form and human form are in the same location. This causes some rather intense moments for the characters as it’s not always easy to get your wolf form back to the human body to effectuate the transformation. It’s a fun narrative device that can be used to cause unique conflicts, but it doesn’t feel contrived. It feels like a part of the lore that makes sense in the world.

The World of Wolfwalkers

Cartoon Saloon has worked very hard to make this 1650’s version of Kilkenny thematically powerful. Forgive me for going all English major on you, but I think the film’s visuals point to more beneath the surface. 

There’s a stark contrast between life in the town and life in the woods. The town is typically a bit drab and contained. Everything is grey or brown. There are several layers of security and gates to keep people inside. Even the layout of the town is boring. You see several top-down shots of the town, and it’s laid out in strict rectangles and blocks (which seems anachronistic). It really feels stifling and prison-esque.

Contrast this with the sprawling, mysterious beauty of the forest. Vibrant colors and dense foliage. Divergent paths and wild, untamable landscape. It’s all about freedom and wildness.

The contrast between these two settings furthers what might be called commentary on a variety of tense topics (deforestation, human cruelty, the history of England’s relationship with Ireland back in the day—you know, normal kids’ stuff). It’s fun to be able to see the deeper messages while still enjoying a solid story.

And visually, the movie is just beautiful. Cartoon Saloon’s signature art style matches up beautifully with the story they’re telling. Our only complaint(ish) is that the scene transitions were kind of all over the map. Sometimes, scenes would progress normally, sometimes with a panorama, sometimes with a faded watercolor kind of transition or a comic-book type panel. It was a bit weird, but I won’t begrudge the artists the luxury of not making up their minds.

Quite the Character

Luckily, the characters are not as inconsistent as the transitions. Robyn and Mebh work really well together. Mebh is hilarious, bullheaded, and somewhat ferocious…you know, like a wolf? Robyn is much more levelheaded and quick-witted. She’s a bit unsure of herself at the beginning, particularly after her fiasco of a first wolf hunt. But as she grows throughout the film, she begins to stand up for herself and her friends much more. Her character shifts only subtly throughout the film, which is why it’s so well done.

And as a parent, I can one hundred percent relate to Goodfellowe. I would not want my young kids coming on a wolf hunt, especially if we might get in trouble for them leaving the village. Even if he is sometimes a bit stern, I can understand why he would be. He doesn’t have a lot of arbitrary “because I said so” sorts of moments. Everything he does makes sense, even if Robyn isn’t totally on board.

We really enjoyed watching these characters grow, interact, and develop over the course of the movie. So, well done Cartoon Saloon.

(Except that Lord Protector. He’s a piece of work.)

Into the Woods

For all of its virtues, Wolfwalkers was not a perfect film. The tone bounced around a lot. At one moment, the characters would be somber and sad, and the next they’d by laughing and stealing “town tasties.” I get that there needs to be some range, and I think the movie would have suffered if it were only serious or only lighthearted. It does have a solid balance of different feelings. But the tonal shifts sometimes gave us whiplash. 

Part of the problem may have been the music. There were a few times where I thought, based on what was happening in the scene and all the other visual cues, that a given scene was trying to evoke a certain emotion or experience. But the music did not match what I thought was going on. That fun song from the trailer about running with the wolves was one of the worst offenders in this regard. Maybe I’m bonkers, but I thought it was tonally inconsistent with the scene I was watching when it played. 

Regardless, Wolfwalkers is a beautiful, heartwarming film that we recommend for your family. Hopefully it wins the awards it has been nominated for. Cartoon Saloon definitely deserves it.

Who to Watch With

Wolfwalkers is rated PG, and we think it’s probably best saved for kids roughly 7-8 and up. Some of the scenes, particularly the climax, get a bit intense for small children. Quick spoiler warning (so skip to the next paragraph if you don’t want spoilers). When Goodfellowe fails to kill all the wolves, the Lord Protector goes into the forest with his soldiers to kill them all and burn the forest down. The wolves have to fight back, meaning they have to attack the soldiers. It’s handled quite well—no gore or anything. The wolves just jump on the soldiers, and it’s not even clear they’ve been wounded. But the Lord Protector in general has just sort of a dark, scary presence throughout the film. So this climactic sequence really highlights how ruthless he is, and that might be a bit scary for kids.

Scary bits aside, we didn’t notice much content that would cause us pause. We saw little in the way of swears or sexual content. There were a lot of positives about this film, including great growth for Robyn and themes of compassion and love even for people who are different from you.

You can stream it on Apple TV+ if you have it, and hopefully it will be more widely available soon. 

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