Movie Reviews: Deadly gangster priests and a 'boatload' of MDMA
— Pixie stars Colm Meaney; plus Wolfwalkers, The Racer; and Kajillionaire
Wolfwalkers is another triumph for Cartoon Saloon
Sat, 12 Dec, 2020 - 08:00
Declan Burke
Set in 15th century Ireland, Wolfwalkers (PG) opens in the English garrison of Kilkenny, where young Robyn Goodfellowe (voiced by Honor Kneafsey) has ambitions of following in the footsteps of her father, Bill (Sean Bean), to become a wolf-killer in the service of the Lord Protector (Simon McBurney). When Robyn sneaks out into the surrounding forest, however, she meets the feral Mebh Óg (Eva Whittaker), a young girl with the magical power of transforming herself into a wolf. This latest offering from Cartoon Saloon (Song of the Sea, The Secret of Kells), Wolfwalkers is another epic animation steeped in Irish history that employs a blend of angular, hand-drawn animation and a more impressionistic style akin to the mystical elements of the original Watership Down. ‘What cannot be tamed must be destroyed,’ the Cromwellian Lord Protector informs Bill, and the writer-directors Tomm Moore and Ross Stewart devise a number of intersecting sub-plots that pit the English against the Irish, civilisation against Nature, and man against women. Central to it all, of course, is the charming friendship between Robyn and Mebh, which contrasts sharply with the fraught relationship between Robyn and her father. Vividly drawn and wonderfully cinematic, Wolfwalkers is another triumph for Cartoon Saloon. (cinema release)