WolfWalkers (PG)
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streaming sites: Apple TV+
Caution: potential spoilers.
This is the third and final film in the "Irish Folklore Trilogy", the movies of which are not really related to each other except thematically. It was released theatrically in 2020, and later that year began streaming exclusively on Apple TV+. In 2021, the movie was released on Blu-ray as part of a three-movie set; unlike the first two movies, it was not released separately. I first watched it on Blu-ray in 2024, and it became my favorite movie in the trilogy.
Set in Kilkenny in 1650, when Ireland is under English occupation. The town is ruled by the Lord Protector (apparently based on Oliver Cromwell), who has promised to eliminate all the wolves from the woods outside the town. There's at least one hunter setting traps for wolves; there may be more than one, but the only one we see is an Englishman named Bill Goodfellowe (Sean Bean). He's a widower raising a daughter named Robyn, who wants to become a hunter like her father, but the Lord Protector has a rule that no children are allowed outside the gates of the town. And Bill doesn't want her coming along anyway, for her own safety. But one day, Robyn secretly follows her father, along with her pet falcon, Merlyn. At one point, she accidentally shoots Merlyn in the wing with her crossbow, and before she can get to him, he is taken away by a strange girl. She follows after them, and soon finds Merlyn has been healed. But she gets caught in a trap. A wolf tries to free her, but she thinks it's attacking her, and she fights back, causing the wolf to bite her. Once she's finally freed, she follows Merlyn and the wolf to a hidden den of wolves, where the wolf turns into a spirit that returns to the body of a sleeping girl, the same one she'd seen earlier. The girl wakes up, and Robyn learns that she's a wolfwalker, and her name is Mebh (which I think is pronounced like "Maeve"). Wolfwalkers are people who can communicate with wolves, and their spirits leave their bodies and turn into wolves while they're sleeping. Mebh was with her mother, who has been sleeping for a long time, ever since she set out to find a safe place for her pack to move to. Mebh heals the bite wound she had given Robyn, but it later turns out she hadn't done it in time to prevent Robyn from turning into a wolfwalker, herself.
Well, lots more stuff happens that I don't want to spoil. But it all culminates in the Lord Protector taking his army to burn down the woods and kill all the wolves. And Robyn finds Mebh's mother, Moll, who had been captured some time ago by the Lord Protector. So Robyn defies her father by freeing Moll. And Robyn helps lead the wolves in fighting back against the humans. And ultimately there is a happy ending. I've surely gotten some details out of order, and left a lot out, but that's pretty much the gist of the story. Oh, and there's a neat parallel at one point between Bill stifling Robyn's adventurous spirit for her protection, and Robyn doing something similar to Mebh. Maybe in a larger sense, one could also compare that to what the English have done to Ireland as a whole. Not that their motives are as pure as wanting to protect the Irish people, but the Lord Protector certainly believes he's doing God's will. (I'm sure he's wrong, of course.)
The movie has some really good music, including Running With the Wolves by AURORA (a re-recording of her 2015 song). And of course the animation is beautiful. And it's just a great story with great characters. I feel like I should be saying so much more to praise the movie, and describe the reasons I love it, but as usual, my mind's a virtual blank. Maybe I've said enough, though.