We couldn't wait to get the latest film from Cartoon Saloon, an Irish studio which still uses (basically) hand-drawn animation, after I heard about it through the academy award nomination. WolfWalkers oddly took a very long time to be released on blu ray in the USA, and when it finally was, it was only available through a package with other films from the same studio. But in our book, Cartoon Saloon is so good--right up there with Studio Ghibli, and, yes, Disney/Pixar--that I got the package anyway, even if it meant duplicates in our collection. Despite the academy award consideration, it's not quite as good as its predecessors The Secret of Kells, Song of the Sea, or the Breadwinner. Still excellent, however, and notable for its very specific and detailed historical fiction, which seems rare in children's animation or literature. Baked into the portrayal of the Cromwellian occupation of Ireland is the fantasy plot of WolfWalkers--Irish lycanthropes who release their wolf-spirit during sleep--and the daughter of an English general who befriends them, gets bitten, and turns into one herself. The allusions to Ghibli's Princess Mononoke are plentiful, but well considered, and creatively blended with Irish folklore; in this case it's the English occupiers who are destroying and de-enchanting the forest-the Irish primeval wood-for the sake of pre-industrialization. In short: worth the hype, even if the hype should have come sooner for Cartoon Saloon.
Review of Wolfwalkers
