BEFORE: Now I've got a bad track record with this "Irish legends" trilogy from Cartoon Saloon, because the first two films just put me to sleep, but I'm going to double-up on Monday because I need to reach a certain film on Easter Sunday. If I don't double-up on the shorter animated films, when else am I going to do that? So yeah, it's late on a Monday night and I'm tired but I can sleep late tomorrow, Tuesday's my day off and I'm not scheduled at the second job, either.
Jon Kenny carries over from "Song of the Sea".
THE PLOT: A young apprentice hunter and her father journey to Ireland to help wipe out the last wolf pack. But everything changes when she befriends a free-spirited girl from a mysterious tribe rumored to transform into wolves by night.
AFTER: I think I dozed off for about five minutes but I was able to recover and go splash some water on my face, I drank some Mountain Dew and popped a couple chocolate-covered espresso beans so I could make it to the end. Went to bed at 2 am, which is actually pretty early for me, all things considered. So I guess this one is the winner for me, out of the three Irish animated features that may (or may not) all live in the same universe. My guess is that a lot of people, besides myself, expected "Song of the Sea" to be a direct sequel to "The Secret of Kells", and then when it wasn't, they were disappointed. So it feels like the animation company tried to correct the complaints (?) about the second film and go back to basics, some of the things that people liked about "The Secret of Kells" like the forest setting and the presence of wolves and being set in the past, though the first film was set in the Middle Ages and this one takes place in the 17th century. Still, listening to the fans is a good thing, though with the length of time needed to make a hand-drawn animated feature, it took about 10 years to give people what they said they sort of wanted.
Some things are still unclear here, like how come some humans can turn into wolves when they sleep, but other wolves are just wolves? How did this specific form of lycanthropy come to be the way it is? What is it about being a human/wolf hybrid that gives them the power to heal each other, and with enough wolves giving off the healing energy, does this mean that they are essentially immortal? The injury to Mebh's mother is so severe that it almost seems like it should have been impossible for her to heal from it, of course that would mess with the happy ending, but it also makes that ending feel so very unlikely. And if the main thing the wolfwalkers can do is heal people who have been bitten by wolves, wouldn't it make more sense for them to just not let wolves bite people in the first place? Or is that just not an option?
But yeah, I get it, it's really cool to be able to turn into a wolf, you get wolf vision and you see the world in terms of smells rather than shapes. And you should always be yourself, unless you can be a wolf, in which case you should try to get yourself bitten by one. Wait, what? This feels more like a consolation prize, like maybe it sucks to get bitten by a wolf, but hey, cool powers. There can't possibly be a downside, can there, what with civilization cutting down the forests or just burning them up to make the world safer for people who live in gated communities. But who the hell wants to be able to turn into a seal, because that only gets you the ability to swim in freezing water and eat raw fish. Not seeing the benefits there.
I'm wondering now if I need to add this film to the contenders for "Best Romance - LGBTQ edition" at the end of the year. Or am I reading too much into this? Original the main character here, Robin, was going to be a boy, but then the filmmakers felt that didn't work - probably because that plot would seem like a carbon copy of "The Secret of Kells". Why do all these films feature overbearing parents who won't let their children go out and explore the world because it's "too dangerous", yet the plot can't possibly move forward until the kids do exactly that? God, it's the same conflict over and over, right, with the parents saying "You have to obey and you can't leave the walled fortress!" and the kids then saying, "But DAD you don't understand I have to go outside because that's where everything cool and not boring is!" Nope, sorry kid, you need to stay indoors and learn how to mop floors, because that's safe and honest work and it's going to just occupy the rest of your life from now on.
Something was way off on the art here, or was it just me? Perspective be damned, I couldn't understand how the characters could stand in the forest, miles away from the castle, and somehow get an overhead aerial view of the town. Umm, no, that's just not how optics work, the town would be on the horizon and would appear flat, because they're just not standing above it. In some rooms in the castle, the scene depicted a similar overhead view of some elements, while we saw the characters from the side, and how does that work? Those characters wouldn't be able to walk through that room from the angle they're standing at. Even the dining room table in the Goodfellowe home was some weird blend of 2D and 3D, like that Escher drawing of that structure with the water flowing upward somehow to then cascade down a waterfall and repeat. I guess the art here is supposed to mimic Irish tapestries or woodblock art, but artists back then really didn't have perspective figured out, so why repeat their mistakes?
"Wolfwalkers" got scooped up by Apple TV shortly after its theatrical release in 2020 - that was about the start of films being made "exclusive" for streaming sites, so that you'd have to sign up for Apple TV in order to watch it. Meaning that if the first two films were available on free cable for a while, then you'd have to join a streaming service to watch the third one. Meaning that film distributors have essentially adopted the practices of drug dealers - we'll give you a taste for free, but then once you get hooked it's going to cost you. And if you've just got cable and not high-speed internet and the money to subscribe to six different services, you may be out of luck. Me, I'm tired of joining Apple TV just to watch a specific movie and then canceling (which you can do multiple times, I'm just saying...) so I watched this on a pirate site, which at one point in my life I said I would never, ever do, but still, this is where I find myself. Why is this film on AppleTV but not iTunes? Some of us still use iTunes.
I've got one more Irish-themed film for St. Patrick's week, OK, really I've got two but I'm saving the second one for Easter Sunday because it's all churchy, I think. Brendan Gleeson will be back for both of those.
Also starring the voices of Honor Kneafsey (last seen in "The Bookshop"), Eva Whittaker, Sean Bean (last seen in "Equilibrium"), Simon McBurney (last seen in "The Pale Blue Eye"), Tommy Tiernan, Maria Doyle Kennedy (last seen in "Jupiter Ascending"), John Morton, Nora Twomey, Oliver McGrath, Paul Young (last heard in "The Secret of Kells"), Niamh Moyles.
RATING: 6 out of 10 scullery maids
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