The final film in Tomm Moore and Ross Stewart’s informal Irish folklore trilogy (following The Secret of Kells and Song of the Sea), Wolfwalkers is also arguably their most gorgeous effort to date. Set during Oliver Cromwell’s barbarous colonization of Ireland (obvious subject matter for a kids’ film), Wolfwalkers establishes its primary conflict through a narrative dripping in Lycan lore and the tension that results when it comes into contact with the kind of crazed mania that captures small-minded communities across any number of fairy tales (certain images here easily recall Beauty and the Beast’s flambeau-and-pitchfork climax). [...]