Wolfwalkers (2020)

This movie is quite a treat. Cartoon Saloon, as tudio with a solid portfolio of animated films, is responsible for this rousing, lyrical, gorgeous adventure. It is a beautiful piece of work has echoes of other art from classic fairy tales, but also develops its own robust, powerful voice. The movie takes place in 1650 against the backdrop of the English colonization of Ireland. Oliver Cromwell, not sympathetically portrayed here, sends a hunter, an outsider named Bill Goodfellowe to a remote outpost that has seen wolf attacks as the city grows into the woods around it. Bill’s duty is to hunt and kill the wolves, but his daughter Robyn aches to join him in the woods, frustrated by being left behind in a city that doesn’t really want her father or her there. There is magic in the woods, and Robyn ends up playing an integral role in saving the woods, the wolves, and ultimately the town people. The animation and the story is textured in ways that family entertainment is rarely allowed to be and even more visually ambitious, so do not miss it.