Film

Wolfwalkers

Name: Wolfwalkers
Genre: Animation, Family, Adventure, Fantasy
Released: 2020
Cast: Honor Kneafsey, Eva Whittaker, Sean Bean, Simon McBurney, Tommy Tiernan

A gorgeous hand-drawn fable from Cartoon Saloon, set in 17th-century Ireland where wolves are heresy and the forest is the enemy. It's a story about a hunter's daughter who befriends a wild girl who can become a wolf, and about two ways of seeing the world colliding. Visually inventive, emotionally direct, made for kids but never condescending to them.

TMDb rating

8.2

If you liked this

Song of the Sea2014

Same studio, same director's obsession with Irish myth, and arguably the more heartbreaking of the two — a story about a selkie girl and the brother who doesn't understand her.

But Slower and sadder than Wolfwalkers; grief sits at its centre rather than adventure.

The Secret of Kells2009

The first of Cartoon Saloon's Irish folklore trilogy, with the same illuminated-manuscript visual DNA and a monk-boy hero facing down invaders and demons.

But Rougher edges than the later films — the studio's style was still finding its feet here.

Princess Mononoke1997

Miyazaki's own wolves-versus-humans epic, with a girl raised by wolves and a forest under siege from industry — bigger, bloodier, and morally messier.

But More violent and ambiguous; it doesn't offer Wolfwalkers' warmth or clean resolution.

The wildcard

Something you would not have found on your own.

Never Cry Wolf1983

It's the hunter's side of Wolfwalkers played straight, live-action, and decades earlier — the exact same reversal of who's really the wild one, minus the animation and the child's-eye wonder.

A government biologist is sent into the Arctic to document wolves so they can be exterminated — and ends up living among them, undone by the same encounter that undoes Robyn's father.

But A slow, meditative adult drama with long stretches of near-silent wilderness footage; no fantasy, no magic.

My Neighbor Totoro1988

If you loved the sense of a hidden, benevolent wild world just past the treeline, this is the gentlest possible version of that feeling.

But Almost no plot by comparison — it's mood and childhood wonder, not conflict.

Brave2012

Another headstrong girl, another mother-daughter bond complicated by transformation into something wild, set against a similarly rugged Celtic landscape.

But Pixar polish instead of hand-drawn texture, and a much broader, brasher sense of humour.

The Iron Giant1999

A kid befriends the exact thing the adults around her fear and want destroyed — same emotional architecture, different monster, same aching ending.

But American Cold War paranoia instead of Irish colonial history; a different kind of allegory entirely.

How to Train Your Dragon2010

A hunting culture, a father-son rift, and a kid who'd rather understand the creature than kill it — the beats will feel very familiar, just with dragons instead of wolves.

But Slicker CG spectacle over hand-drawn craft, and considerably more jokes per minute.

Klaus2019

Not thematically close, but if it was the hand-drawn richness and lighting you fell for, this is 2D animation at its most painterly and warm-hearted.

But A Christmas film with none of the folklore-versus-empire stakes — pure comfort, not tension.

The Secret of Roan Inish1994no page yet

A live-action cousin: a child on the Irish coast uncovers her family's selkie bloodline, told with the same patient, myth-soaked hush.

But No animation, minimal action, and a pace so gentle it can feel like nothing's happening.

The Company of Wolves1984no page yet

Same core image — a girl transforming into wolf, blurring the line between predator and self — pushed into adult, erotic, nightmare territory instead of family adventure.

Neil Jordan's fever-dream fairy tale, from Angela Carter's stories, where a girl on the edge of womanhood dreams her way through wolves-in-disguise and the terror and thrill of becoming one herself.

But Genuinely creepy, sexually charged, and very much not for children — a hard swing into gothic horror.

Alpha2018no page yet

It imagines the exact historical hinge Wolfwalkers mourns the loss of — the moment humans and wolves became companions rather than enemies — from the other end of history.

Set 20,000 years ago, a wounded Cro-Magnon boy and an injured wolf slowly learn to trust each other, in what's essentially a silent-film account of the first domestication of a wolf into a dog.

But Sparse dialogue and a deliberately primitive, near-wordless storytelling style some will find beautiful and others will find dull.