AFI FEST film review: 'Wolfwalkers'

A young girl finds herself pulled between two worlds in this beautifully animated and heartfelt Irish folk tale 'Wolfwalkers' (screening during AFI FEST 2020 and streaming on Apple TV+ starting Dec. 11).

In short: Young apprentice hunter Robyn (Honor Kneafsey) and her father Bill (Sean Bean) travel to Ireland to help wipe out the last wolf pack. But everything changes when she befriends Mebh, a free-spirited girl from a mysterious tribe rumored to transform into wolves.

In this era of CGI features that all look alike, 'Wolfwalkers' is a refreshing, visually striking animated beauty. Each frame has a stylized, hand-crafted quality. Although the two films have very little in common on the surface, 'Wolfwalkers' is surprisingly reminiscent of Japanese drama 'The Tale of the Princess Kaguya.' Both films boast a breathtaking, unconventional visual beauty and both films are intrinsically rooted in their respective cultures. 'Wolfwalkers' is as unmistakably Irish as 'Princess Kaguya' is distinctly Japanese. And both are infused with an artistic style evocative of old folk tales, making them feel like exquisite and rich works brought to life. There's a beautifully imperfect style within 'Wolfwalkers' that rejects the overly polished finish of modern animation in favor of a more naturalistic, organic texture.

Robyn is a genuine and bold young woman whose heart is the essence of 'Wolfwalkers.' The humans and the wolves existed as they always had - that is, at odds with eachother - until Robyn gets pulled into their world. Mebh is a delightfully feral girl, whose movements as a human are just as uniquely animalistic as she is in her lupine form. The Lord Protector, voiced by Simon McBurney ('Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy') is a perfect zealot of a villain whose sole purpose in life seems to be taming the wild, by any means necessary. But its the brave and bold Robyn who bridges the two worlds, as she tries to reconcile her life in town with her wolf hunting father and her free and energetic friendship with Mebh and the wolf pack.

Final verdict: 'Wolfwalkers' is exactly the reason why animated films were created. This is a perfectly realized ancient fable brought to life, realized in animation and infused with uncommon humanity.

Score: 4/5

'Wolfwalkers' screens at AFI FEST and streams on Apple TV+ starting Dec. 11. This animated adventure is rated PG for sequences of violence and peril, scary images, some thematic elements and brief language and has a running time of 103 minutes.