Wolves, Wonder and a Friendship That Breaks Every Barrier

Wolfwalkers (2020) is a breathtaking animated adventure about two young girls, a forbidden forest and a friendship that changes everything. Set in seventeenth-century Ireland, this enchanting film explores nature, freedom, courage and the dangers of judging what we do not understand. Beneath its magical wolf mythology lies a deeply moving story about choosing compassion over fear.

Imagine a world where a
girl can fall asleep as a
human and awaken as a wolf, free to run through forests, leap over streams and experience nature without the limitations of her human body. This is the magical premise of Wolfwalkers, directed by Tomm Moore and Ross Stewart.
The story unfolds in Kilkenny, Ireland, around 1650, during a period of English rule. Robyn Goodfellowe, a spirited young English girl, arrives in the town with her father, Bill, a wolf hunter. His mission is to eliminate the wolves living in the surrounding forests so that the land can be cleared and brought under human control.
Robyn wants to become a hunter like her father. She is brave, curious and impatient with the restrictions imposed on her. But her father, concerned for her safety, insists that she stay within the town walls.
Naturally, Robyn does not obey.
Venturing into the forbidden forest, she encounters Mebh Óg MacTíre, a wild, red-haired Irish girl who lives among wolves. Mebh belongs to a mysterious community of Wolfwalkers - people whose spirits can leave their sleeping bodies and take the form of wolves. While their human bodies rest, their wolf selves roam freely through the wilderness.
Initially, the girls come from completely different worlds. Robyn has been raised within a rigid human society; Mebh belongs to a world governed by nature, instinct and freedom. Yet an extraordinary friendship develops between them.
When Robyn herself acquires the ability to become a Wolfwalker, her understanding of the world changes dramatically. The creatures she has been taught to fear become companions. The forest she has been warned against becomes a place of wonder. And the mission her father has devoted himself to begins to look terribly wrong.
The central conflict is no longer simply about humans versus wolves. It is about two ways of looking at the world: one based on domination and control, the other on coexistence and respect.
The film also introduces the Lord Protector, an authoritarian figure representing the forces seeking to control both the land and its people. What makes Wolfwalkers special is that it never reduces its characters to simple heroes and villains. Robyn loves her father even as she begins to question his beliefs. Bill is not merely a hunter; he is a father trying to protect his daughter in a dangerous world. Mebh, meanwhile, is fierce and independent, but her courage is driven by love for her mother and her wolf family.
At its heart, this is a story about growing up: discovering that the adults we love can be mistaken, that the world is more complicated than we were taught, and that doing the right thing sometimes means challenging the very people we trust.
How was this extraordinary film made?
Wolfwalkers was produced by the Irish animation studio Cartoon Saloon, in collaboration with Melusine Productions. It was written by Will Collins and directed by Tomm Moore and Ross Stewart, filmmakers deeply interested in Irish folklore, hand-drawn animation and stories that connect the past with contemporary concerns.
The project took approximately seven years to develop. The filmmakers built the story and its visual style together, allowing the drawings to influence the narrative from the earliest stages.
Unlike computer-generated animation designed to imitate the physical world, Wolfwalkers embraces the expressive possibilities of traditional two-dimensional drawing. Its lines are deliberately loose, energetic and sometimes almost unfinished. The town looks rigid and geometric, reflecting authority and confinement, while the forest bursts with swirling shapes, flowing lines and vibrant movement.
This contrast is not merely decorative. It makes the film's central conflict visible even before the characters speak. In discussing their creative ambition, Moore emphasised the importance of making the film's images contribute to its emotional storytelling. He identified friendship across borders, environmentalism and the dangers of a colonial mindset as central themes. Rather than treating these subjects as separate messages, the filmmakers wove them into the characters' experiences and choices.
One of the film's most remarkable sequences occurs when Robyn experiences life as a wolf for the first time. The forest seems to open up around her, and the animation becomes an exhilarating sensory experience.
Creating such sequences demanded enormous effort. Artists had to draw intricate backgrounds, trees, branches and leaves while conveying the sensation of racing through a living forest. The result is an extraordinary sense of movement and freedom.
The filmmakers also studied real wolves, including footage from conservation centres, to capture their playful, social behaviour. This helped them portray the animals as more than frightening predators.
What should children learn from Wolfwalkers?
Friendship can cross every boundary. Robyn and Mebh come from different cultures and live by different rules. Their friendship shows children that differences need not become divisions. Curiosity and kindness can accomplish what suspicion cannot.
Nature is not our enemy. Wolves are labelled dangerous because the townspeople fear them. But when Robyn gets to know them, she discovers a more complicated truth. Children learn that wild animals have their own place in the natural world and deserve understanding rather than indiscriminate destruction.
Question rules that cause harm. Not every instruction from an authority figure is automatically right. The film encourages children to think critically, recognise injustice and understand that courage sometimes means standing up against accepted beliefs.
Empathy changes our perspective. Robyn's transformation allows her to experience the world differently. Before judging someone, the film suggests, try to understand their experience.
Love and disagreement can coexist. Robyn continues to love her father even when she challenges his beliefs. Children can learn that disagreeing with someone does not necessarily mean rejecting them.
Parents should note that some scenes contain danger and emotional intensity, making the film particularly rewarding when younger viewers can discuss it with an adult.
Final words
Wolfwalkers is a reminder that children's cinema can be adventurous without being shallow, magical without abandoning meaning, and beautiful without relying on photorealistic spectacle.
For children, it is a story about friendship and courage. For adults, it is also a reflection on prejudice, colonial power, environmental destruction and the temptation to control everything we do not understand.
Ultimately, Wolfwalkers leaves us with a question worth carrying beyond the screen: What if the world became better not when we learned to control nature, but when we learned to live alongside it?
That is the film's enduring magic. Sometimes, the bravest thing a child can do is refuse to be afraid of what the world has taught everyone else to fear.

Interesting titbits

• Wolfwalkers received a nomination for Best Animated Feature at the 93rd Academy Awards in 2021. The award went to Soul.
• At the 2021 Annie Awards, the film won five prizes, including Best Independent Feature, Best Direction, Best Character Design, Best Production Design and Best Voice Acting.
• Part of a celebrated trilogy: It is the third film in Cartoon Saloon's loosely connected Irish folklore trilogy, following The Secret of Kells (2009) and Song of the Sea (2014). The three films share an interest in mythology and distinctive hand-drawn artistry, but have separate stories and characters.
• The film was nominated for Best Motion Picture – Animated at the 2021 Golden Globes and for Animated Film at the 2021 BAFTA Film Awards.
• A long creative partnership: Moore and Stewart had known each other since they were eleven. Their longstanding creative relationship helped shape the film's unified artistic identity.