Wolf Children is the story of Hana, a young girl studying in an university in Tokyo with a bright future ahead of her. Until she met a man who's not part of the university and Hana decides to spent time with him because the man wants to live life with someone that would care for who he is rather than leaving alone and not only that but the man reveals to Hana that he is, in fact, a wolf-man but strangely enough, Hana doesn't care if he is a wolf-man and wants to live with him forever. Through a montage, Hana and the wolf-man spend their days living together and moving forward with their life. Later, Hana gives birth to Yuki and Ame in the apartment but Hana discovers that the wolf-man is dead and with no choice but to raise the kids on her own in the apartment. Fearing that the secret of the wolf in the kids being exposed to the city, Hana decides to move from the city into the country because it will allow her children to learn not only about their new home but about themselves too and what they want to be when they grow up as adults.
Everything about the story just screams "brilliant" to me, Sure, it's a really simple story but Mamoru Hosoda went to great lengths into telling a story about the challenges of being a single parent raising 2 kids and how rewarding it is because it gives us the chance to prepare them for their future This may sound very "meh" to some but really, it is a wonderful message about parenting and how to help our children face the challenges from the world on their own. I love the characters in Wolf Children including Hana and she is, without a doubt, the best strong female character I ever seen in an animated film. Hana is a strong, confident and bright young woman that faces every mundane and challenging task in raising two children that are half-human, half-wolves. When she is feeling down, she doesn't whine about it, she cries for a while and the moment she smiles, she's back at her feet and doing her best to give her kids a happy childhood. The best thing about Hana is that no matter how hard the situation is, she laughs and smiles about it as she moves forward to face more obstacles in her way. Honestly, It makes me wish that more "teen moms" can be like Hana as hard-working, kind loving and cheerful young parents that have a positive outlook on raising children. Sadly, I doubt it will happen cause the "Teen Moms" of today are just ignorant and bitchy as they rely on being whinny, obnoxious and have their douchebag boyfriends to take care of the kids. Oh, how much I despise these sh*tty reality series of young dumb pregant bimbos of today. I love the kids Ame and Yuki as they feel, act, speak and react like actual kids. They play, explore their home together, help their mother, discover things together and even fight each other over dumb things. Yuki is the girl that loves to be wild while Ame is the shy boy that hates his wolf heritage but as they grow up, they change and both the kids realize that they must choose their own paths on what will they want to do in their future and when that moment comes, the kids will be on their own, in which results in one of the most tear jerking moments of happiness you will ever witness in an animated movie period. As for the side characters like the old grumpy man and the neighbors, I really enjoyed them too as all these people felt like a big huge community of earnest and hard-working people living a great life.
The animation by Studio Chizu with help from MADHOUSE is stunning with backgrounds being extremely colorful and life-like with great care put into the details and the moving motion of the characters is impressive. The character designs of the wolf children is really cool and I like the designs that the animators came up with the wolves as the wolves look very majestic and with a lot of spirituality in their looks alone. The music by Takagi Masakatsu is just wonderful and easily, the best OST I've listened alongside Hans Zimmer's score in Man Of Steel. It's calm, majestic, atmospheric and very peaceful in it's musical tone. The Japanese audio track is well acted and once again, Funimation delivers a strong acted dub that exceeds my expectations extremely high. Collen Clickenbeard (AKA: the voice actress who voices Riza Hawkeye in FMA) was a perfect choice a Hana and since Collen was well-known for playing strong female anime characters, she has no problem giving depth to her Hana character. David Matranga voices the wolfman with a lot of heart and soul put into the role while Lara Woodhull and Alison Viktorin were wonderfully casted as Ame and Yuki as they nail the energy and excitement of being kids. Micah Solusod and Jad Saxton were pretty good as the older version of Ame and Yuki with some fine execution on the emotional moments that the film offers in the end.
Well, we are here in 2014 and this is the season for film companies and audiences to throw in the obvious contenders for The Academy Awards. I know that the "Best Animated Feature" segment will be bullsh*t like always with Wolf Children and The Wind Rises not getting nominations because "they don't get anime" and instead, the nominees will be the same and the obvious will be FROZEN winning the category (it will happen, believe me. The Oscars, Academy Awards and the Golden Globes are pointless popularity movie contests after all) and once again, I need to flip my table in pure rage as I am waiting for the day that The Oscars get cancelled and I unleash pure wrath on their asses for their excuse of their so-called "nominations". Wolf Children is a MUST-SEE animated film for all adults and kids to see because I want families to take their kids to see animated movies that are made with care, patience and love put into the animated project for all families to see and witness for themselves. We need animated movies that not only we can have fun with but allow us to experience the wonders of storytelling in animated films like the good old days when Disney or Don Bluth use to make fun and deep animated films for all audiences. Wolf Children is just pure goodness and once again, Mamoru Hosoda gives us another winner with this moving film that will stay with you forever. It's a film that I'll happily revisit for a long time.
