Wolfwalkers 2020 Film Review

 

There are so few animation studios that get me excited for whatever there next film and well one of those very studios has just released a new film. This is a film that i've been excited about for years now and I really do mean it when I say that i've been excited for this film for years because the concept trailer for the film was released on Cartoon Saloon's Youtube channel (also called Cartoon Saloon) all the way back in 2017 and so here is my review of the newest Cartoon Saloon film "Wolfwalkers" enjoy the review everyone.

The plot of the film is a young apprentice hunter and her father journey to Ireland to help wipe out the last wolf pack however everything changes when she befriends a free-spirited girl from a mysterious tribe rumored to transform into wolves by night. Honestly I love the story of this film since it doesn't go to places where you think a story like this would go and as such the story becomes alot more interesting in my opinion.

Starring in the film is Honor Kneafsey as Robyn Goodfellowe , Eva Whittaker as Mebh Óg MacTíre and Simon McBurney as Oliver Cromwell. Also starring in the film is Sean Bean as Bill Goodfellowe , Maria Doyle Kennedy as Moll MacTíre , Tommy Tiernan as Sean Óg Woodcutter . Jon Kenny as Ned Stringy Woodcutter , John Morton as Stumpy Woodcutter , co-director Paul Young as Sheep Farmer , The Breadwinner director and a producer on this film Nora Twomey as Bridget , Oliver McGrath as Padraig and Niamh Moyles as Fishmonger.

Just like with all cartoon Saloon films the acting in this film is freaking fantastic and I cannot think of one single standout performance in this film. Simply because every actor in this film truly brings their  game and that to me is always a great thing , of course helping things is truly wonderful script which here is written by Will Collins since the script fills the characters with such heart and emotion as well as character and personality and so all the actors have to do is say the words as there written and a great performance will come out naturally.

Of course the animation for this film was handled by the greats over at Cartoon Saloon who like PIXAR produce nothing but great animation. With the animation in this film also being freaking fantastic every movement the characters make leaps of the screen , the film makes great use of CGI even tho you wouldn't actually know it since for the vast majority of the film it's it's all done in traditional 2D animation but there are shots in this film that make use of CGI backgrounds and even those shots look stunning and are well animated.

Honestly the guys and girls over at Cartoon Saloon are yet to make a bad film in my opinion since every film they've made from The Secret Of Kells all they way up to this (Wolfwalkers) have all been amazing. I honestly cannot wait for My Father's Dragon to come out on Netflix next year since not only is it the next Cartoon Saloon film but it's also the next film for Nora Twomey who of course directed The Breadwinner for Cartoon Saloon.

As you can see by the above picture this film was released on Apple's streaming service (yes there's another streaming servive) called Apple+. I honestly do feel that releasing the film via a little known streaming service is a bad idea simply because like I said Apple TV+ is a little known streaming service as such I feel that if Cartoon Saloon really wanted to release this film via a streaming service then they should have gone with someone like either Netflix or Amazon just because alot more people have those streaming services and thus are more likely to check this film out where as not that many people have Apple TV+ and thus can't watch this film legally.

Now there are some issues that I had with the film the first of which being that the film is slow in parts which while it's not a major issue does make the film feel alot longer then it actually is. The Second issues that I had with the film is that the film doesn't take the time to fully develop the relationship between Robyn Goodfellowe and her father Bill Goodfellowe nor the relationship between Mebh Óg MacTíre and her mother Moll MacTíre despite both relationships being key to the film and key to the film's actual plot and while the first issue I mentioned isn't a big issue the second one is since we're meant to feel something for those relationship during the third act and yet due to them not being fully developed I was left feeling nothing which in a film like this which does require you to feel something for both relationships should never be the case in my opinion.

This film has a running time of one hour and forty two minuets and thirty two seconds which to me is a little on the long side. I say that because there are scenes that add up to nothing and add nothing to the overall plot of the film as such I don't feel that the film should be one hour and forty two minuets and thirty two seconds if anything the film should and could have been alot closer to an hour and twenty five minuets and you'd honestly loose nothing of importance at least when it comes to either the plot of the characters.

Now then boys and girls i'd say that this is an action film even tho there's very little action in the actual film. Which even tho there's very little action in the film the action that we do get is honestly alot more gruesome then what I was expecting out of a film made for little kids and the action in the film is honestly so well animated that it actually took my breath away because I wasn't expecting to see a wonderfully animated action sequence let alone a wonderfully animated action sequence that takes place in the third act and acts as the final battle between the heroes and villains and if you know your history then you'll know right away that the villain is Oliver Cromwell who as mentioned is wonderfully played by Simon McBurney.

Overall this film is worth watching because I truly do believe that that is the best best film not just best animated film but best film of the year. Granted that's not really saying much this year but I do feel that it's true tho because there are alot of good things about the film and even the bad things that are in the film didn't hinder my enjoyment of the film as such this film gets a 9 out of 10 from me , as for where I got the images that I used in this review well I got them either the official Wolfwalkers fandom wiki page or Google Images and I highly recommend that you use Google Images if you want to use images from this film just because Google Images has more of a verity of images then the official Wolfwalkers fandom wiki page does even tho the official Wolfwalkers fandom wiki page does have alot more higher quality images tho.