Avis des critiques

It is beautiful, bold, and alive. It is magical, mesmerizing, and magnificent. It is queer, quirky, and unapologetically political, condemning conformity, environmental destruction in the name of progress, and any authority that dares step on the rights of its people.

There’s wit and adventure, and a pair of delightful young friends whose determination saves the day, but there’s also stunning art and cogent observations about colonization, stewarding the environment, ruling through fear and misinformation, the perils of over-protective parenting, and England’s centuries-long effort to control the Irish, both materially and spiritually.

The only thing that can conquer fear is love, and "Wolfwalkers" loves its characters, their world, and the stunning beauty of human life. But most of all, it loves the truth that is buried within the myth.

Every aspect of Wolfwalkers is thoughtfully, beautifully rendered, and the story is full of twists that keep things unpredictable until the finale. It’s one of the most impressive films of the year, and the best animated film of 2020 so far

Every detail here, every flourish, has a purpose, whether splashes of red on flower petals, soft edges around dusk-lit trees, or three-panel split screen sequences that read like the pages of illuminated manuscripts brought to life.

[It] may sound dark — and it is — but aside from younger tots, “Wolfwalkers” is a true family film. It is the type of stirring entertainment that delivers both the thrill of the moment and the kind of sophisticated ideas that can lead to discussion and even debate long after viewing.

"Wolfwalkers" was still in production when the COVID-19 pandemic hit, and Cartoon Saloon’s animators were forced to complete their work remotely. It may have been a blessing in disguise, because in the type of fascinating coincidence we’ve seen with a couple other great works of art this year, "Wolfwalkers" has extra resonance in the time of plague.

Textured in ways that family entertainment is rarely allowed to be and even more visually ambitious that the other Cartoon Saloon films, this is a special movie... You can feel the passion of the art in every frame, some of which are striking enough to hang on a wall.

There’s a powerful sense of the mystical woven through the film, as there is through much of the best art aimed at children, who don’t need to be reminded that there is much of the world that lies outside of their understanding.

There’s no shiny, metallic sense of perfection or — God forbid, realism — to the imagery in this beautiful fable... Instead, it’s the old magic, the one that captivated so many of us when we were kids and continues to do so: genuine drawings (and brushstrokes, and tapestries, and woodcuts) come to life, like an errant act of imagination made real.

As much a joy as this movie... is to behold, its scenario is more than a little overbaked and overdrawn.

[A] vibrant and expressive fantasy, magical and unyoked to realism without pulling any punches about the destructive folly of manifest destiny. It’s singular, even as it nestles nicely with a philosophical big sister, Studio Ghibli’s "Princess Mononoke." And its tumultuous heart beats with the deep-seated unease coloring everything around us right now.