Wolf Children

***Wolf Children*** (Japanese: おおかみこどもの雨と雪) is a 2012 Japanese anime film directed and co-written

   by Mamoru Hosoda.The film stars the voices of Aoi Miyazaki, Takao Osawa and Haru Kuroki for the Japanese dub and Collen Clinkenbeard, David Matranga, Jad Saxton, and Micah Solusod for the English Dub.

The story follows a young mother who is left to raise two half-human half-wolf children, Ame and Yuki, after their werewolf father dies.

## Plot

In Tokyo, Japan, college student Hana falls in love with a werewolf and has two half-werewolf children with him: a daughter, Yuki, and a year later a son, Ame. Soon after, their father is killed in an accident while hunting food for the children.

Hana's life as a single mother is difficult; Yuki and Ame constantly switch between their human and wolf forms, and Hana has to hide them from the world. When she is visited by social workers concerned that the children have not had vaccinations, Hana moves the family to the countryside away from prying neighbors. She works hard to repair a dilapidated house and sustain the family on their own crops.

One winter day, Ame almost drowns in a river after trying to hunt a Kingfisher, but Yuki rescues him and Ame becomes more confident. Yuki begs her mother to let her go to school like other children. Hana accepts on the condition that Yuki keeps her wolf nature secret. Though Yuki's classmates find her strange at first, she soon makes friends. However, Ame is more interested in the forest and takes lessons from an elderly fox about survival in the wild.

In fourth grade, Yuki's class receives a new transfer student, Souhei, who realizes something is strange about her. When he pursues her, Yuki transforms into a wolf and inadvertently injures him, leading to a meeting with their parents and teachers. Souhei tells them a wolf attacked him, absolving Yuki of the blame. The two become friends.

Yuki and Ame fight over whether they are human or wolf. Two years later, while Yuki is at school, a storm gathers and Ame disappears into the forest to help his dying fox teacher; Hana follows him. The other children are picked up from school by their parents, leaving Yuki and Souhei alone. Yuki shows Souhei that she can transform into a wolf; he tells her that he already knew, and promises to keep her secret.

As Hana searches the forest for Ame, she slips and falls unconscious. Ame finds her and carries her to safety. She awakens to see Ame transform into an adult wolf and run into the mountains. She realizes he has found his own path and accepts his goodbye.

One year later, Yuki leaves home to move into a dorm in junior high school. Ame's wolf howls are heard far and wide in the forest. Hana, living alone in the house, reflects that raising her wolf children was like a fairy tale, and feels proud to have raised them well.

## Why It Rocks

1. The film, throughout it's runtime, is heartbreaking, emotional, and engaging.
2. The film's English and Japanese cast do a equal and wonderful job of portraying their characters.
3. The film's very memorable opening and ending.
4. Hana is a very sympathtic and worthwhile character.
5. The film's scenery. The use of hand-painted landscapes are gorgeous and aesthetically pleasing.
6. The father's death scene, it was extremely well-done and hits you emotionally.

## Bad Qualities

1. The film's use of CGI can be distracting at times, especially in the backgrounds.

## Reception

### Box Office

*Wolf Children* was the second-highest grossing film in Japan on its debut weekend of 21–22 July 2012, beating Pixar's animation *Brave*, which debuted in Japan on the same weekend. It attracted an audience of 276,326 throughout the weekend, grossing 365.14 million yen.The film subsequently surpassed Hosoda's previous work *Summer Wars'* gross of around 1.6 billion yen during the weekend of 12–13 August 2012. In total, *Wolf Children* grossed 4.2 billion yen, making it the fifth-highest grossing movie in Japan in 2012.

### Critical Reception

The review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes reports a 94% approval rating with an average rating of 8.3/10 based on 15 reviews. On Metacritic, the film has an average score of 71 out of 100, based on five critics, signifying "generally favorable reviews."

Mark Schilling of *The Japan Times* gave the film three out of five and wrote that "The Miyazaki influence on Hosoda's own work seems obvious, from his cute-but-realistic style to his concern with pressing social issues and the messy emotions of actual human beings". He felt the film was "on the conventional and predictable side ... appealing to Jane Eyre fans in one scene, *Call of the Wild* fans in the next" and criticized its "well-worn, stereotypical rails".[19]

Thomas Sotinel of *Le Monde* gave the film five out of five.[Dave Chua of *Mypaper* also praised the film's "magnificent understated eye for detail, from the grain of wood on doors to the lovingly captured forest scenes, that help lift the movie above regular animation fare." Chris Michael of *The Guardian* gave the film four out of five, writing that "telling the story through the eyes of the harried, bereaved but indomitable mother gives this calm, funny, only occasionally schmaltzy family film a maturity *Twilight n*ever reached." Kenneth Turan of the *Los Angeles Times* described it as "an odd story, told in a one-of-a-kind style that feels equal parts sentimental, somber and strange," and felt the English language performances were inappropriately sweet and simplistic. Steven D. Greydanus, writing in the National Catholic Register, named the film a runner-up in its list of the best films of 2013, writing: "Despite brief early problematic content and an ambiguous climactic letdown, the main story is magic."

### Awards

*Wolf Children* won the 2013 Japan Academy Prize for Animation of the Year, the 2012 Mainichi Film Award for Best Animation Film, and the 2013 Animation of the Year award at TAF. It won two awards at the Oslo Films from the South festival in Norway: the main award, the Silver Mirror, and the audience award. It won an Audience Award at 2013 New York International Children's Film Festival and the 2014 Best Anime Disc award from *Home Media Magazine*.