‘Wolfwalkers’ Trailer: What If Hiccup From ‘How To Train Your Dragon’ Actually Turned Into A Dragon?

Depending on who you talk to, hand-drawn animation is either inching toward being an endangered art form in Hollywood, or it’s already reached that point. Major film studios have generally leaned toward CG animation over the past twenty years, leaving streamers like Netflix and to fund the occasional hand-drawn movie and keep the art form on life support.

Now Apple is getting in on the animated action withWolfwalkers, a gorgeous new movie from two-time Oscar nominated directorTomm Moore(Song of the Sea,The Secret of Kells) and directorRoss Stewart(The Secret of Kells). It’s about a young girl who’s raised to hunt and eradicate wolves – but her beliefs are challenged when she meets a tribal girl who has the ability to transform into a wolf. Check out the trailer below.

Wolfwalkers Trailer

Here’s a sweeping generalization for you: most modern animation is kind of ugly. It either looks cheap, or the character designs are hideous. Thankfully, that’s not the case withWolfwalkers, which has a beautiful, painterly vibe to it and visible, shifting pencil marks in the animation which imbue the images with a sense of motion and life that’s often missing in other animated projects.

And you get what I mean about theHow to Train Your Dragoncomparison, right? There’s also a bit of George R.R. Martin’sA Song of Ice and Firein there too. (Plus,Game of ThronesactorSean Beanprovides one of the voices in this film.)

Song of the SeawriterWill Collinswrote the screenplay, and the movie starsHonor Kneafsey,Eva Whitaker,Simon McBurney,Tommy Tiernan,Jon Kenny,John Morton, andMaria Doyle Kennedy.

Here’s the official synopsis:

In a time of superstition and magic, a young apprentice hunter, Robyn Goodfellowe, journeys to Ireland with her father to wipe out the last wolf pack. While exploring the forbidden lands outside the city walls, Robyn befriends a free-spirited girl, Mebh, a member of a mysterious tribe rumored to have the ability to transform into wolves by night. As they search for Mebh’s missing mother, Robyn uncovers a secret that draws her further into the enchanted world of the wolfwalkers and risks turning into the very thing her father is tasked to destroy.

If you’d like to know more, you can watch the full New York Comic Con panel below:

GKIDS will releaseWolfwalkersin theaters onNovember 13,2020, and the film will arrive on the AppleTV+ app onDecember 11,2020.