If you like "Song of the Sea" and "The Breadwinner", you must not miss this work. Cartoon Salon, an Irish animation studio, has been nominated for an Oscar for every film since its inception, including Wolf Walker. As far as this one is concerned, the hand-painted picture style is beautiful, the music arrangement is gentle and pleasant, and the author has an excellent audio-visual experience.
For children, "Wolf Walker" shows the devastation brought by civilization and industry to primitive nature. The iron hoof of machinery attempts to calm down the harmonious and abundant natural environment. The insatiable greed of human beings drives out the homes of animals, drives out the primitive wildness, and drives out the inner peace. The two girls met and got to know each other because of the differences between them. The heroine Robin also awakened her independent personality in getting along with her friends, and launched a rebellion against the patriarchal high-pressure rule.
But from another point of view, the plot shown in "Wolf Walker" is not very similar to "the protector of the country" Cromwell's expedition to Ireland, it can only be said to be exactly the same.
During the British bourgeois revolution, Cromwell personally led an expedition to Ireland in 1649. The film is set in the second half of the 17th century, when Cromwell had triumphed and was launching his bloody rule in Ireland. The story is then shrouded in a shadow of smoke and fire.
England and Ireland have been in love with each other for a long time, and one of the important reasons is religious issues. The Irish belong to the Celtic nation, and most of them believe in Roman Catholicism. After the Reformation in the 16th century, the whole country believed in the Church of England. Therefore, the then powerful England persecuted Catholics in Ireland. This contradictory relationship is also reflected in the movie: the heroine Robin was forcibly sent to the church to participate in the heavy training of maids; on the other hand, Miba's primitive totem beliefs pointed out the belief conflict between "man and wolf".
Cromwell brought blood and disaster to Ireland. On August 15, 1649, Cromwell landed in Dublin, then led his troops northward, and on September 3 surrounded the port city of Drogheda in eastern Ireland. After the fall of the city, Cromwell ordered the massacre, which lasted for two days and killed 3,500 people. The massacre planted the seeds of hatred in the hearts of the Irish people. After the three-year war, Duke Protector implemented a repressive rule in order to destroy the resistance of the Irish people, from massacres, destroying villages and burning houses, to playing politics, sowing discord, and concocting conspiracies.
The failure of Ireland made them suffer the fate of being slaughtered. In the movie, we can see from the so-called "wolf hunting game" of English children, at that time England's rejection and malice towards Ireland. Under the rule of power, the Irish people, whose livelihood was poor, were not fully clothed, and hated and feared the guards and soldiers, and dared to be angry but did not dare to speak. The two peasants were asked by the guards to hunt down the heroine. They seemed to be submissive. They yelled at the soldiers as soon as they took two steps, and sat down for a picnic. The uncle of the woodcutter at the beginning was ordered by the Duke Protector to be held in the shackles because of his blunder. "Wolf Walker" uses a more lighthearted, fairy-tale-like way to unveil the veil of the miserable life of the Irish people under the rule.
In the movie, the family migration that Miba's mother often mentioned is also traceable in reality. On July 2, 1653, the British government issued a decree for the forced migration of the Irish. While the government confiscated the Irish's land, they were forcibly moved out, not allowed to return to the city or the fortress, or they were sentenced to death. This policy actually reflects England's idea of ruling Ireland. Because two hundred years later, there was a great famine in Ireland, the British government was still indifferent to the Irish refugees. Ireland has seen a mass migration of refugees moving overseas, resulting in the Irish becoming the second largest white immigrant group in the United States. For example, in "Gangs of New York" by Xiao Lizi and Daniel Day-Lewis, Xiao Lizi plays the son of the leader of the Irish gangster "Dead Rabbit Gang".
The surface plot of "Wolf Walker" is relatively simple, and children can clearly understand the pure themes about freedom, about nature, and about the connection between people. But in addition, the film also includes the confrontation between industrial civilization and nature, the awakening and independence of feminism, and the history of conquest and conquest that Celtic and England have to say is unceasingly chaotic. Suitable for all ages, it is worth a visit.
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