“If you want to learn, then go and ask the wild animals and the birds, the flowers and the fish. Any of them can tell you what the Lord has done. Every living creature is in the hands of God.” – Job 12:7-10
Wolfwalkers is a stunningly animated tale of spiritual awakening through a radically transformed perspective on the natural world. In its runtime, we hear a call to honor the intended communion between man and nature and how man’s destructive tendencies all-too-often break that communion.
The fortified 17th-century town of Kilkenny matches the environment viewers would typically associate with order and enlightenment. And yet the townspeople, led by the authoritarian Lord Protector, reject nature, fearing, hunting, and killing wolves in the surrounding forest. Characters repeatedly emphasize the safety of the town, and yet we’re constantly shown violence and cruelty within its walls.
By contrast, the “Wolfwalkers” in the forest (similar to werewolves) are not evil or controlling. They see the value in all aspects of creation and simply seek to live at peace. It’s a shocking new outlook on life for Robyn, the film’s young protagonist, who undergoes an extraordinary transformation when encountering the magical world outside her town’s walls.
This contrast in perspective is never clearer than in the differing visual styles of the town and the forest. The blocky, geometric design and rigid animation in the town conveys its hatred and oppressiveness. When Robyn’s father tells her “you have to follow the Lord Protector’s rules,” that command is reinforced by the cold visuals and muted colors.
On the other hand, the forest’s sense of freedom and awakening is not just narratively supported, but visually enhanced. The pencil work becomes unfinished with flowing curves, communicating how “the entire environment is alive.” Scenes of Robyn rushing through the forest are accompanied by lush guitars and female vocalists, all while a fluid and kinetic animation style overwhelms the senses.
Spiritual awakening has perhaps never been portrayed with such vibrance. Every technical element of the film is working together to show us Robyn’s eye-opening experience, as if to say “this is true freedom and harmony.” God’s essence can be seen in all of His creation, not just within man’s strict confines and flawed character.
And yet, Wolfwalkers doesn’t advocate for a total rejection of one’s “human” side. It recognizes the chaos of nature, full of its own dangers, fears, and flaws. Perhaps, as we see by the film’s end, the best way to live is to embrace both structure and chaos, safety and danger, physical and spiritual, the known and the unknown.
Christian Jessup (A Cloudy Picture)
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