Completing a Celtic trilogy with Tomm Moore's first two features, The Secret Of Kells (’09) and Song Of The Sea (’14), the latter co-directed with Nora Twomey, Wolfwalkers, co-directed Ross Stewart, who worked as an art director on Kells and as a concept artist on Song, is very recognisable as a stablemate of Moore’s other films. the hand-painted art style, a mixture of naive and sophisticated design and surprisingly big-eyed, sharply angular-featured characters, being called ‘Irish manga’ by some critics, and a style which contributed to Moore’s first two films both being nominated for the Oscar for the Best Animated Feature.

Critics noted that there was a lot of ‘influences’ which were not so apparent in the earlier films, with elements of both Avatar and Pixar’s Brave with references to everything from colonialism, care of the environment, ruling a populace through fear and lies, and the dangers of over-protective parenting, in the script by Will Collins, also responsible for Song Of The Sea, with the main themes being the need for loyalty and friendship, keeping an open mind and having a respect for nature, all good and worthy ideals. Interestingly for an Irish-led co-production there are surprisingly serious examinations of faith, especially for what is ostensibly a children’s animation, Cromwell’s ‘faith-based’ doctrine being used to crush generations-old ancient Pagan traditions and legends, becoming a global tactic by dictators and leading to the famous quote that religion is the ‘battle armour of frightened men’.

On a lighter note the film, also art-directed by Moore and Stewart with Maria Pareja, is very cleverly designed, the inside of people’s homes being tight and claustrophobic compared to the vast wild vistas outside, looking deliberately cramped and flat, and some noting that the flat, grey geometric planes of the Lord Protector’s fortified enclave seemed to have been based on an M.C. Escher design, while the scenes in the forest are green, verdant and mysterious with shadow and shade.

The Wolfwalkers themselves, in vulpine form, are also visually inventive, looking not unlike close cousins of Wile E. Coyote. but moving in their four-legged form like a united, undulating wave through the forest, almost washing around the trees and obstacles.

There are a couple of distinctly non-Irish voices in the well chosen cast, most obviously the gravelly Yorkshire tones of Sean Bean (Possessor / TV’s Sharpe) as hunter and father Bill Goodefellow and the excellent Simon McBurney (The Conjuring 2 / TV’s Rev) as the seriously villainous Lord Protector, as well as fourteen-year-old Honor Kneafsey (Crooked House) as Robyn, Eva Whittaker as Mebh, and veteran Maria Doyle Kennedy (The Commitments / TV’s Outander) as Moll, and while it was noted that the score by French composer Bruno Coulais, who has scored all three, determinedly avoids overused Irish music tropes such as Uilleann pipes, there are additional folk tunes and a song, Howls The Wolf, from Dublin folk band Kila.

Critics absolutely raved over Moore and Stewart’s work, The Hollywood Reporter believing ‘The beautifully rendered result proves to be even more than one had hoped for: a visually dazzling, richly imaginative, emotionally resonant production that taps into contemporary concerns while being true to its distant origins’, as Variety thought ‘In the decade since Kells, it’s not just the technological advances that make Moore’s latest so impressive, but the rapidly changing cultural conversations as well. He brings everything together by borrowing from timeless visual influences, leaving audiences with another stunning artwork for the ages’. The Playlist gushed ‘Not only is Wolfwalkers easily the best animated film of the year, but a stirring masterwork, as stunningly gorgeous as it’s philosophically profound’, joined by IndieWire, calling it ‘Far and away the best animated film of the year so far (one worthy of such hosannas no matter how limited the competition has been), this heartfelt tale of love and loss is the most visually enchanting feature its studio has made thus far, as well as the most poignant’. CineEuropa believed ‘Wolfwalkers speaks to children and adults, and does it incredibly well’.