Warm reviews, Oscar buzz, awards for best animated feature from the New York Film Critics Circle and Los Angeles Film Critics Association:
Wolfwalkers has been on a roll since its release last month. Yet its greatest distinction so far may be that it has sparked a
New Yorker profile of its director Tomm Moore and Cartoon Saloon, the Irish studio that produced it (and which Moore co-founded).
The New Yorker rarely goes long on animation; we can count the number of industry figures it has profiled in the last decade on one hand. We look forward to the day when that changes. In the meantime, here are ten takeaways from Mark O’Connell’s article “Cartoon Saloon and the New Golden Age of Animation”:
The small Irish animation studio that keeps getting Oscars attention
Tomm Moore, an Irish filmmaker and animator, next to drawings from the film, Wolfwalkers, a film from Moores studio, Cartoon Saloon, being exhibited at the Butler Gallery in Kilkenny, Ireland, Nov. 30, 2020. With Wolfwalkers, Cartoon Saloon completes a hand-drawn trilogy based on Celtic mythology. Paulo Nunes dos Santos/The New York Times.
by Carlos Aguilar
(NYT NEWS SERVICE)
.- When Tomm Moore and 11 friends in the small city of Kilkenny, Ireland, set out to make an animated movie in 1999 based on Celtic mythology, they could hardly imagine their labor of love would become a studio that would revolutionize the animation industry in Ireland, revitalize interest in folklore at home and connect with a global audience.
Meet Tomm Moore, co-founder of Cartoon Saloon, Irish animation studio behind Wolfwakers and multiple Oscar nominees Cartoon Studio has received Oscar nomination for every feature release. Wolfwakers, its latest offering on Apple TV+, has also created similar stir.
When Tomm Moore and 11 friends in the small city of Kilkenny, Ireland, set out to make an animated movie in 1999, based on Celtic mythology, they could hardly imagine their labour of love would become a studio that would revolutionise the animation industry in Ireland, revitalise interest in folklore at home, and connect with a global audience.
Nor could they envision that their studio, Cartoon Saloon, would go on to earn an Oscar nomination with every feature release, an impressive accomplishment for a relatively young outfit. And yet now, with their fourth feature,
The Small Irish Animation Studio That Keeps Getting the Oscarsâ Attention
With âWolfwalkers,â Cartoon Saloon completes a hand-drawn trilogy based on Celtic mythology. The film epitomizes everything the studio stands for.
Tomm Moore next to drawings from âWolfwalkersâ being exhibited at the Butler Gallery in Kilkenny, Ireland.Credit.Paulo Nunes dos Santos for The New York Times
By Carlos Aguilar
Published Dec. 16, 2020Updated Dec. 21, 2020
When Tomm Moore and 11 friends in the small city of Kilkenny, Ireland, set out to make an animated movie in 1999 based on Celtic mythology, they could hardly imagine their labor of love would become a studio that would revolutionize the animation industry in Ireland, revitalize interest in folklore at home and connect with a global audience.
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In the seventeenth century, after wolves were hunted to extinction in most of the British Isles, Ireland was sometimes referred to as Wolf-Land. The implication, perhaps, was that it needed to be tamed. In 1649, Oliver Cromwell’s New Model Army invaded Ireland on behalf of the Commonwealth of England, leading to the deaths of hundreds of thousands of Irish people. The Army also appointed professional hunters to cull the country’s wolves. Cromwell’s men captured the walled city of Kilkenny, which was surrounded by forests full of wolves and was home to as many superstitions about them. One myth held that certain natives of the region could transform into wolves, roaming the land while their ordinary bodies lay in a kind of trance. If they were injured in the course of this lupine marauding, the wounds would appear on their human flesh. The meat of their animal prey could be found in their teeth.