Kings of Irish animation Cartoon Saloon bring their Irish Folklore Trilogy to a close with Wolfwalkers, a rousing big finish after The Secret of Kells (2009) and Song of the Sea (2014).
Itâs closer in spirit to Song of the Sea, which was about a shapeshifting sea creature known as a selkie, than Kells, which was set in an Irish monastery where enthusiasm, bizarrely, was shown to trump actual craft and learning when it came to illuminating ancient manuscripts.
This time, co-writer/director duo Tomm Moore and Ross Stewart have repurposed an old legend about âwolf menâ from Kilkenny, where their studio is based, to tell the story of human beings who release their inner wolf to walk at night while they sleep. And lying under that dual relationship is another, of the tortured past of the Irish and the English: colonisers, settlers, disrupters, oppressors. Ireland was the country where England learned how to become an imperial power.
Oliver Cromwell â scourge of Ireland â is never named but is clearly referenced in the character of the Lord Protector (voiced by Simon McBurney, a master at playing the snide bully), whose underling Bill Goodfellowe (Sean Bean) has been brought over from England to wipe out the wolf population. His daughter, Robyn (Honor Kneafsey), like many a heroine before her in the recent animationsphere, bridles at being ordered to stay indoors and do household chores rather than run free. She wants to do boy stuff.
And so Robyn disobeys, which throws her into the realm of the wolves, just as her father is setting traps and organising their mass extinction. But Bill has not reckoned on the power of the supernatural. Nor has Robyn, who accidentally strikes up a friendship with a wolfwalker called Mebh (the Irish spelling of Maeve).
Though the Irish are the oppressed in this story, itâs the wolves who are on the receiving end of the violence. In the classic âdivide and ruleâ tactic the English would deploy throughout their eventual empire, suddenly itâs the wolves who are the problem for the local folk, rather than the massive system of oppression put in place by the Lord Protector.
Moore and Stewart tread carefully here, not wishing to open old wounds. There is nothing now to be gained in any case.
Most eyes, in any case will be drawn to the glories of the hand-drawn animation, which is really what all this Irish Folklore series is about. Again, whatâs on offer is an eclectic mix of styles, with Richard Williamsâs The Thief and the Cobbler the most immediate source of inspiration, though Disneyâs Snow White, any number of Studio Ghibliâs stories about imperilled youngsters and the blocky characters of Halas and Bachelorâs Animal Farm are also sources of inspiration, while Moore and Stewartâs experiments in flattened perspective recall pre-Renaissance painting (an influence on Richard Williams also).
The style is deceptively simple but the technique is not. Thatâs what makes the Cartoon Saloonâs output so distinctive. While characters in the foreground, people and animals mostly, are bold and simple, the backgrounds are almost insanely detailed â the further back you go, the busier it gets. It makes for a viewing experience that will withstand, and reward, repeated watching.
My personal favourite of this trio is Song of Sea, which shared Wolfwalkersâ enthusiasm for shapes reminiscent of an Irish harp, then this, and trailing quite a way behind The Secret of Kells, whose animation was glorious but its story about young women bucking the system (also echoed in Wolfwalkers) would have been more exhilarating if it hadnât been the go-to narrative for too many animations. Brave, Mulan, Pocahontas, and so on.
Wolfwalkers: the Graphic Novel (by Tomm Moore and Ross Stewart â Buy it at Amazon
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Š Steve Morrissey 2021
