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Wolf Children Movie Review

Wolf Children is a 2012 fantasy drama anime film directed by Mamoru Hosoda. It’s one of the director’s best movies.

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“Live your life!“

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After her werewolf lover unexpectedly dies in an accident while hunting for food for their children, a young woman must find ways to raise the werewolf son and daughter that she had with him while keeping their trait hidden from society. We have seen werewolf stories so many times before in movies, but none quite like this one. Functioning as this potent mixture of fairy tale and family drama, the film humanizes these creatures while empathizing with the plight of mothers everywhere.

Nobody can do slice-of-life storytelling quite like the Japanese. The movie felt so lived-in, cozy and grounded in reality that it reached Studio Ghibli quality levels at times with Hayao Miyazaki himself being the most prominent influence on Hosoda. A director that always does something new, Wolf Children made for his most familial and dramatic story to date, which made it unique.

Apparently, the director’s friends started having children around this time and they described the experience of parenthood as like having a little monster or animal in the house. This inspired him to make a film about little werewolf children, which was a brilliant idea as it must be relatable to parents, but still heightened in emotions and fantastical, which makes it intriguing for genre fans.

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Creating a different path for each child was another clever choice as it made sense that they could and would be different. Ame’s arc of learning how to be a wolf is very poetic, moving and grandiose in its powerful, touching ending. As for Yuki, she chose the human side of herself and her story was also sweet and so well told. The highlight was her wonderful relationship with her best friend in school.

But the heart of the story lies in Hana’s journey of motherhood. Yes, the ending is very sad, but also emotionally fulfilling as she knows that she did a great job raising her kids. This movie is inspirational for parents as it should teach them to persevere no matter how hard it might be. The movie went into so many lived-in details of what it must be like to be a mother, but with that added fantastical element that were also wonderfully thought out and observational in nature.

If there is one thing that I found to be somewhat flawed is the first act that rushed the romance and the overly mysterious death of the father werewolf. It was tender and well done, but it could have been even more emotionally powerful had it developed his character and their romance a bit more before killing him off so quickly.

Wolf Children is gorgeously animated in beautiful hand-drawn animation with only a couple of more action-oriented sequences being complemented with well used CGI. The character design on every character was excellent and the backgrounds were stunning, especially the natural landscapes. The elements were particularly well executed with the rain scenes being evocative and the snowscape moments being astonishing.

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The score is also lovely and fittingly tender for that very charming tone. The movie can be both cute and fun as well as realistic and dealing with harsh realities of growing up, the responsibilities of parenthood and the difficulties of fitting in society. Its two-hour runtime was never felt and it’s such a cozy, detailed and enjoyable movie that it flew by for me. The pacing was just right and every single detail was interesting and important in the characters’ journeys.