|
By: Mary Ellen Holden
Powerful and empowering, the folk animated feature film Wolfwalkers, seven years in the making, is nominated for Best Animated Feature for the upcoming Oscars and EE British Academy Film Award (BAFTA). The co-production between Irish studio Cartoon Saloon, and Melusine Productions has been widely recognized and celebrated throughout the awards season. This thematically rich and visually arresting film has received 65 nominations across all key industry guilds, and critics groups with 20 wins to date. Accolades also go to the film distributors, GKIDS in theaters and via Apple TV+ worldwide, competing in the Animated Features race for the first time.
Wolfwalkers, set in 1650, is an animated fantasy adventure film that follows Robyn Goodfellowe, a young apprentice hunter from England who arrives in Ireland with her father during a time of superstition and magic to wipe out the last wolf pack. Robyn befriends a free-spirited girl, Mebh, a member of a mysterious tribe rumored to have the ability to transform into wolves by night. This unlikely duo forms a deep friendship that facilitates a new storytelling style that transcends societal boundaries, personal circumstances, environmental challenges (including extinction), and time.
In mid-March, the Geena Davis Institute on Gender in Media hosted an Influencer Screening of the film, followed by a panel featuring Director/Producer Tomm Moore, Director Ross Stewart, and Producer Nora Twomey. Madeline Di Nonno, President and CEO of the Institute, moderated the discussion, which provided a rare inside look at the film’s central themes that resonate today. Excerpts follow:
Madeline Di Nonno: Let’s talk about Gender Equality at the heart of the Institute and your two ferocious female leads.
Tomm Moore: In our original draft, Robyn was a little boy who wants to be a hunter, but that would have been too easy a transition, so we flipped the script and made the character a little girl. Our lead heroines come from vastly different backgrounds and societies that are antagonistic towards each other. Still, we wanted them to become friends. The thematic story that we kept coming back to is about empathy between humans and humans and animals. Sometimes we ascribe negative human attributes to an animal, like a wolf, and then these attributes become used as weapons against humans.
Ross Stewart: We’re becoming aware that gender is quite fluid nowadays. Boys are more feminine, and young girls sound more like boys. We didn’t have to change much of Robyn’s conversation as it was applicable for either gender.
|
--