Delayed Reaction: Wolfwalkers

Premise: An Irish girl in magical medieval times discovers a pack of wolves in which some members have both wolf and human bodies.

 

I've come to appreciate the annual tradition of the animated movie that people champion because they are tired of Disney always winning the Oscar. Your Klauses, Anomalisas, and Kubo and the Two Strings-s. To date, only Spider-Man: Into the Spiderverse has successfully ridden that support to an Oscar win over Disney. I get it. It's boring that Disney (and Pixar in particular) wins so reflexively. If I'm being honest though, more often than not, I like the Frozen over The Wind Rises. Preferring ParaNorman to Brave is pretty uncommon. I do still like the movies though. So, don't draw the wrong conclusion when I say that I think it's no competition between Wolfwalkers and Soul this year. I've got Soul easily ahead. Wolfwalkers is still good too.

 

It's surprising that I didn't get in earlier on Tomm Moore's "Irish Folklore trilogy" earlier. I'm a huge fan of Celtic music and Irish accents. You'd think The Secret of Kells or Song of the Sea would've caught my attention earlier. I'm definitely more motivated to check them out now. Wolfwalkers is a distinctly beautiful movie. One thing I can say against the Pixar catalog is that they all look the same. The same computers and technology went into all of them. Wolfwalkers looks very different. Chaotic but crisp. The detail doesn't go into looking realistic. I really enjoyed that. I miss proper 2-D animation sometimes.

 

The story is a slant on something I've seen a dozen times before. It's an Irish Brave of sorts with the young huntress female lead and animal transformations. It's got a nice message though, so I'm not complaining.

 

The danger of these movies that people champion is that they're often talked up too much. People get so excited about a good non-Disney animated movie and have to work so hard to be heard over all the Disney noise, that by the time I get around to seeing them, I'm disappointed that they aren't game changers. Wolfwalkers is a really good little movie. I imagine parents (or childless adults) tired of watching the same Disney animated movies over and over will appreciate the change or pace.

 

Verdict: Weakly Recommend