Review: Wolfwalkers is an imaginative and beautiful coup for Apple TV+

In a time of superstition and magic, a young apprentice hunter, Robyn (voiced by Honor Kneafsey), journeys to Ireland with her father to wipe out the last wolf pack.APPLE TV+

Wolfwalkers
Directed by Tomm Moore and Ross Stewart
Written by Jerrica Cleland and Will Colins
Classification PG; 103 minutes

Rating:

This beautifully animated feature is the third in a series, from Tomm Moore and Ross Stewart, based on Irish folklore. Robyn is an English girl living in Kilkenny where her father hunts wolves for the evil Lord Protector. In the forest outside town, she discovers a special friend, Mebh – a girl by day and a wolf by night.

The wide-eyed girls owe a lot to animé (while their heroic triumphs often flirt with Disney) but the visual style also includes rich Celtic touches. The particularly imaginative handling of the shifts between the human and the more ethereal animal incarnations represent the film’s most rewarding aspect.

Those who know their history will recognize the Lord Protector as Oliver Cromwell and may wonder if the wolves he is so determined to eradicate are not a metaphor for the Irish themselves. He looms over noisy battle scenes overwrought in the manner of many a cartoon, but Wolfwalkers redeems itself with some lovely final images.