Deconstructing Gender Expectations in Cartoon Saloon’s Wolfwalkers

MOVIE SCREENING & DISCUSSION

WITH A HISTORICAL INTRODUCTION BY LISABETH BUCHELT, PH.D.

Wolfwalkers (2020) is a critically acclaimed movie about two young girls from different backgrounds who find common ground. Set in 1650 during the English colonization of Ireland, the story follows a young English girl named Robyn and her encounters with the Irish shapeshifting wolfwalker, Medb. Against the tyranny of the authoritarian Lord Protector, the movie highlights the polarization and loss of empathy seen in society. It also explores the need for balance between nature’s wild elements and society’s rigid confines. The 17th-century boiling point in Irish history is a perfect backdrop for the story.

Buchelt is an English and Irish Literature professor and Medieval and Renaissance Studies at the University of Nebraska at Omaha. On the relationship between Cartoon Saloon’s animated film The Secret of Kells and the 1,200-year-old masterpiece of Celtic art that inspired it, she has published in 2022 the study “‘One Beetle Recognizes Another’: Translation, Transformation, Transgression in Cartoon Saloon’s Film The Secret of Kells.” View Buchelt’s profile.

For more information, email lbuchelt@unomaha.edu.