'Wolfwalkers' Concept Trailer Released (& Funding Puts Film Officially Into Pre-production)

Things are moving along very well for Wolfwalkers right now! Today a concept trailer, as well as a look behind the scenes of the development to date, was released - take a look:

It was also announced that:

Wolfwalkers has received development funding from the Irish Film Board and Creative Europe MEDIA. Cartoon Saloon are currently in the process of pulling co-producers and financiers together to allow full production to begin in early 2018. (IrishFilm)

Wonderful news! If you missed the pitch trailer released very recently and are wondering what this film is about, you can catch up HERE.

This film harks back to the gorgeous stylings of both Secret of Kells and Song of the Sea, but adds it's own elements and visual language too.

(Co-directors) Moore and Stewart have spent time developing a graphic language that reinforces the themes and values of their story through the visual design of the film. As seen in scenes from the trailer, the Puritans and English army are rendered in an ascetic woodblock style, while the wolfwalkers and wolves exhibit a freer, more expressive line style. 

“When we see the world from the point of view the wolves, it’s animated in charcoal with a very limited palette and color only where there are scents,” Moore said. “In contrast to the block print style in Kilkenny we have a much looser look to the forest — lots of ink splats and loose watercolors and scribbly pencil lines.” (Cartoon Brew)

The film's story takes place in the 1600's, during the English Civil War, in Kilkenny, Ireland, which makes for a unique research opportunity for the crew, as this is also the location of the studio Cartoon Saloon. The folklore and history of the local area have been wonderfully preserved and getting out and about is a great way for the crew to get to know the town, and the production better. They made a behind-the-scenes film of the crew doing just that. (And you get glimpses of even more folkloric, artistic goodness!)

Tomm Moore, part owner of Cartoon Saloon and director of Secret of Kells and Song of the Sea, along with one of the animated short films within The Prophet, has as strong commitment to hand drawn animation, and though, he's open to using technology to enhance production, hand drawn animation will be the medium for this film too.

Drawing isn’t simply a defiant aesthetic choice in our cg times, but integral to how Moore wants to tell his stories. “We are hoping to show how the characters feel with great acting, movement and facial expressions, but also with how they are drawn,” he explained to Cartoon Brew. “As our characters moods and emotions change, the linework can become more expressive.”

Being willing and able to develop a human-driven graphic style that can adapt to the storytelling and characters guarantees a unique look and feel, part of which is 'the human connection behind the pencil', something which audiences today are responding to as strongly as ever.

We know we have a while to wait yet but we'll keep you posted on developments are they happen. We're really looking forward to this one!

Tomm Moore's Next Irish Folklore Film, 'Wolfwalkers' Pitch Trailer Released

In a time of superstition and magic, when wolves are seen as demonic and nature an evil to be tamed, a young apprentice hunter, ROBYN, comes to Ireland with her father to wipe out the last pack. But when Robyn saves a wild native girl, MEBH, their friendship leads her to discover the world of the WOLFWALKERS and transform her into the very thing her father is tasked to destroy.

The third animated feature film from director Tomm Moore and Cartoon Saloon, (Secret of Kells, Song of the Sea) Wolfwalkers has had fans eager to know more ever since the first pieces of concept art and a synopsis were teased, back in 2015. (Click on images for a closer look.)

This week, Tomm Moore (yes, we're spelling his name correctly), and his co-director Ross Stewart pitched Wolfwalkers at the Cartoon Movie Festival - and that meant a 'pitch trailer' with test animation, (different from a regular trailer, since all art was made to pitch the movie, instead of pulled fro the movie to entice you to see it), along with additional concept art.

At Cartoon Movie festival : Wolfwalkers movie by Tomm Moore & Ross Stewart / Cartoon Saloon

You can see the trademark Tomm Moore design sensibility (aka simply beautiful and mythic), along with some possible hints at other aspects in the title text.

Here is the pitch trailer:

Wolfwalkers teaser at Cartoon Movie festival March 9th

From Den of Geek, (Nov 2015):

Cartoon Saloon’s next feature (FTNH Ed: after 'The Breadwinner') is expected to be Tomm Moore’s third, and another piece of Irish folklore. As you can see... Moore is dabbling with lycanthropy, though with a definite twist. According to Moore... the film draws on Oliver Cromwell’s decision to ‘tame Ireland’ by slaughtering their wolves. 

The inclusion of a character called Mebh (pronounced like Maeve) might be an allusion to Táin Bó Cúailnge, the episode of the Ulster cycle that deals with the driving off of the cows of Cooley.

The lead for this film was changed, fairly early on, from a little boy (like the previous two films main protagonists were) to a girl, which means we'll be looking at a 'girl friendship' film - something which is still unusual in animation (and not just there, either). Here's some concept art, the pencil drawings by Moore:

From Tomm Moore (via Animation for Adults):

It's set during the English Civil War in the mid 1600s but Oliver Cromwell decided he was going to symbolically tame Ireland by killing all the Wolves. So he sent all these hunters over, and if they killed a certain amount of wolves they got a bit of land. So the main protagonist is this little boy from England who comes over with his Dad, and he arrives actually near where I live in Killkenny. And he runs up against that around here wolves weren't seen as baddies, they were actually seen as people. The belief was that wolves were people that St Patrick had put a curse on when they wouldn't convert from paganism. So a lot of people believed that wolves.. especially around the Killkenny area.. were people. So that's the kind of premise! I won't tell you any more than that...

And on that note, here's a little something Tomm tweeted a couple of days ago...

The projected release date for Wolfwalkers is 2018 but that's not firm and without much to go on, it's difficult to know what stage of the production the film is currently in. Whenever that will be, it won't feel soon enough!

An Irish Fairy Tale for St. Patrick's Day: "Jamie Freel & the Young Lady"

Jamie Freel & the Young Lady by Kentaro Kawashima

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

The Irish have so many fun stories and one of the unusual thing about their fairy tales is that they often have actual fairies (or faeries) or Fae in them too.

Another trait I love in Irish stories is of common people using their wits: farm girls become queens (and show their royal husbands how lucky they are) and ordinary boys trick faeries into giving up their secrets...

One of my favorites, which has a mix of other fairy tales I love too, is Jamie Freel & the Young Lady...

(Note: All illustrations shown through the tale are by Nilesh Mistry from The Illustrated Book of Fairy Tales Retold by Neil Philip. Also, I'm typing this up at midnight, which, although is a good time to tell fairy stories, is a little less kind to the quality of typing and writing...)

*******

It begins on Halloween where each year in an abandoned castle lights are seen dancing about and music of "the Wee Folk" is heard - something most people try to avoid as it rarely turns out well if one invites themselves to a faeries party.

But Jamie Freel, a poor widow's son, one Halloween decided tonight was the night he was going to go seek his fortune there. His mother wasn't too happy about it but Jamie was brave and determined and approached the castle in the moonlight.

When he finally got the courage to peer in, all the Wee Folk were wee indeed, with not one of them over the size of a child of five. Before long he was spotted and hailed with welcomes: "Jamie Freel, Jamie Freel! Welcome, welcome! We go tonight to Dublin to steal a young lady - will you ride with us?" Swallowing his nerves, Jamie boldly replied, "Yes, I will," and was mounted on a fairy horse that rode with great strides through and through the air.

His hosts whooped and swooped about him on their flying steeds, and they rode and rode over thatched roofs and hills, over dales and towns until the shining, shimmering Fae hoard stopped by a fine window of a fine house, where, there, a beautiful girl lay.

Jamie's eyes grew wide, then wider still as Folk swept into the room and stole her right from her bed. In her place they left a stick, which at once took her shape yet remained still, still as death, while the party galloped home through the air with their fair prize.

Tossed was she from rider to rider as they galloped and galloped until Jamie, once again seeing his mother's roof below, gathered his courage and boldly cried, "Do I not get a turn?" Laughing they gave her to him, but at once he leapt from his faery horse, and did his best to flee, girl in his arms, to the safety of his own threshold.

Before he could reach it, the Faeries, no longer laughing but yelling in a rage, turned the poor girl into a black dog, snarling and snapping, into a bar of hot iron, glowing and burning, into a sack of wool, loose and tangled, but Jamie held on and wouldn't let go. Finally, the smallest of the Folk cried, "Let him have her - I will make her no good. I will make her deaf and I will make her dumb!" and she threw some dust at the girl before the host rushed away into the darkness of the rest of the night.

Jamie, tired, took the girl inside but there was nought they could do but watch her cry. She could not hear and she could not speak and now there was one more mouth to feed...

A year passed and Jamie determined he'd pay another visit to the Fae to see what he might do. Just as he was about to enter the castle hall he heard the familiar voice of the smallest Fae say"If only Jamie Freel knew, three drops of my cup would unstop her ears and loosen her tongue!" Thinking fast, Jamie entered and, as before, was bid, "welcome, welcome!" when quick as a blink, he snatched the fairy glass and fled. By the time he reached home, only three drops left, but it was enough. He gave them to the girl and she was restored.

You might guess what happened next. The girl took Jamie to meet her mother and father, who, once they got over the shock of having buried a stick instead of a daughter, gave the young couple their blessing and brought Jamie and his mother into their fine home, where they all celebrated a very fine wedding.

And, I would like to think, that Jamie Freel never visited that castle again...

******

This story has much in common with Tam Lin, including  Halloween, the amount of time passing, and the rescuer having to hold on despite their intended changing from difficult form to difficult form. It also reminds me of Hans Andersen's The Tinder Box in which a sleeping girl is carried off by magical animals in the middle of the night. The changeling aspect is very fairy-like although this changeling is put in place of a grown girl and has no life except to replicate her form completely. As in Tam Lin, again, messing with the Fair Folk is akin to risking a curse of serious illness, possibly death, so all Jamie does is not done lightly. Irish people have traditionally been so seriously superstitious about this aspect of the Fae that it was considered unlucky to even tell stories about fairies during the daytime...

And there I will leave you.

Why don't you pop a saucer of milk outside the door, just in case, and may the luck of the Irish be there with you!

Note: My version is told between memory, a storybook and a glance or three at this text HERE. I have tried to condense my telling and even so a little Irish seems to ha' crept in, as it is wont to do...
My apologies for the low quality images. I couldn't find any from this story in this book online and my scanner isn't working at the moment so pictures it is - but I do love these illustrations by Nilesh Mistry - wonderful story-flowing images..