But the film's singular animation style, watercolored, layered, and dreamlike, is its strongest hook, situating Wolfwalkers (2020) far apart from the CGI-heavy ilk and flattened, samey output proliferating in American kids' animation. Co-directors Tomm Moore and Ross Stewart of the Ireland-based studio Cartoon Saloon employed a mix of hand-drawn elements and digital tools to animate Wolfwalkers, pairing blocky city renderings of Kilkenny-inspired by medieval woodcuts-with organic, gestural depictions of the forest outside its stone walls.
A grainy circle flashes on the top-right corner of the screen at the Eagle Theater. The single-screen repertory cinema, run by the nonprofit organization Vidiots, was showing a 35-millimeter print of Paul Thomas Anderson's psychological drama "The Master." The faint warning is easily missed by most viewers, but it appears every 10 minutes, alerting the projectionist to change the reel.