Listen, the “best” of anything is always subjective, but when it comes to the best traditional animation studio in the world today, there’s a serious argument to made for Cartoon Saloon. Disney abandoned traditional, 2D animation (for its feature films, at least) back in 2009 with The Princess and the Frog. And as legendary as it is, Studio Ghibli’s best days, sadly, seem to be behind us.

There are oodles of smaller studios putting out some stellar animation, but Cartoon Saloon, based in Kilkenny, Ireland, is only a shade over 10 years old. And its four films make them the envy of any animation studio. The Secret of Kells (2010), Song of the Sea (2014), and The Breadwinner (2017) are three of the most beautiful, emotionally affecting, and amazing animated films I’ve ever seen. Yes, ever. And I’ve seen a LOT of animation.

Therefore, there was perhaps no other film in recent memory I’d been anticipating more than WolfWalkers, Cartoon Saloon’s fourth film and Tomm Moore’s third as director. (Listen to my conversation with Moore from a few years ago here.)

WolfWalkers is set in a “long ago” Ireland filled with superstition and magic and centers on a young apprentice hunter, Robyn Goodfellowe (Honor Kneafsey), and her father (Sean Bean), who is tasked with protecting a walled village and wiping out the last wolf pack. While exploring the forbidden lands outside the city walls, Robyn befriends Mebh (Eva Whittaker), a young girl with the ability to transform into a wolf.

Like most films scheduled for release during the pandemic, WolfWalkers had a bumpy road to distribution. Though it had a limited theatrical release around the world, the film landed on AppleTV+ back in December. If you have access or are a subscriber to the platform, I certainly hope you’ve made the time to watch the film.

It’s a masterpiece. And it’s made the pandemic slightly more bearable.

I had the opportunity to see a bit of the WIP film and attend a press conference with Moore at last year’s Annecy Film Festival, which only ramped up my excitement. So I didn’t even hesitate when offered the chance recently to sit in on a press conference featuring the artists who brought the film to life.

Though the film features Cartoon Saloon’s “signature look,” and elements might be familiar to fans of Moore’s The Secret of Kells and Song of the Sea, WolfWalkers has taken all the lessons learned on those previous films and refined them.

Why continue with hand-drawn animation when the industry as a whole seems to have moved in a different direction? According to Svende Rothmann Bonde (rough animation supervisor), there’s both a creative reason, “You can push the style more. I think there is something unique and organic about the hand-drawn style,” and a practical reason: “And I also think that if you’re working with a budget that is a certain size, I think you can get more with the hand-drawn style.”

Though the film is brilliantly animated with vibrant colors, unique textures, and phenomenal character designs, one thing that stood out to me – technically – was the preservation of the “roots” of the art. Rather than present a totally clean and “polished” look in the final film, the team made a conscious decision to retain some of the pencilwork on certain characters.

This is most noticeable on the wolves, and it lends them a somewhat ethereal look – as if they’re not quite complete or “of this world”… which they’re not. According to Federico Pirovano (character designer), that decision came from directors Tomm Moore and Ross Stewart.

“They wanted to embrace what it is. They didn’t want to hide the fact that it’s 2D and hand-drawn. A lot of people spent a lot of time [making the movie],” and they wanted to honor that.

However, WolfWalkers effectively blurs the lines between 2D and 3D animation. A huge technical advance in this film is what the creators call “Wolfvision,” the computerized sequences that show the world through Robyn and Mebh’s eyes while they’re wolves.

The Wolfvision sequences are intended to convey what a wolf might see and feel while running through the forest, and Moore and Stewart really wanted those scenes to feel different from the rest of the movie.

“The movie – the backgrounds – are really flat in general,” explains Maria Pareja (production designer/co-art director). “So they wanted a three-dimensional space for the wolves” to represent the wolves’ heightened senses. “They wanted to create something more atmospheric for the wolves.”

In addition, they experimented with different colors for different scents. Pareja continues, “We studied the spectrum of colors and used the lower colors for the townspeople and the more vibrant and passionate colors for the forest. But in the end it was just this idea of having something completely different that we cannot experience as humans.”

Despite the computerized effects and technical leaps, “What we wanted to see represented on screen was drawings,” says Eimhin McNamara (Wolfvision supervisor). “It was more about the mark-making on paper than about it being very precise or clean. I was operating with a very clean output in terms of a 3D build. Every step I did afterwards was about muddying it up – adding more grime and smudging and grease.”

“It might seem like a backwards mentality, but it’s about making people feel something more than just describing something absolutely. Being less precise but more emotional.”

Frankly, that could be a tagline for Cartoon Saloon: Less Precise but More Emotional. It’s been a hallmark of all four of their films, and I, for one, cannot wait to see what comes next.

Watch WolfWalkers on AppleTV+ now, and if you haven’t seen them, be sure to make time for The Secret of Kells, Song of the Sea, and The Breadwinner. You won’t be sorry.