It tells the magical experience of 11-year-old girl Robin. As a young apprentice hunter, Robin travels to Ireland with her father to destroy the last of the wolves there, but when things change for her, she discovers the Wolfwalker, and a series of strange stories follow...
One of the ways in which the English colonists expanded their territory in Ireland was to eliminate wolves. The wolves were terrible, and all the Irish were afraid. Exterminating wolves was a vision that England colonist Lord Protector brought to Ireland. But are wolves really so terrible that they kill and eat people? At least not in the world of the film, on the contrary, the Wolfwalkers, as the leaders of the wolf pack, save a person from the beginning. And if wolves are really so terrible, then it is a more reasonable way to create a barrier between human society and wolf society, not to invade each other, so it is not how terrible the wolves are on the objective level.
As in real-world colonial history, colonizers need to create a high-sounding excuse that mostly conveys god's gospel or helps uncivilized local development. In fact, the two are unified, which is the so-called bringing civilization. As the antithesis of civilization, the wolf pack naturally became a terrible existence, and the fear of the wolf exacerbated the fears of the Irish people, in which case Lord Protector could shape his identity as a colonist but he was also a protector by eliminating the wolf pack, rationalizing colonialism and assimilating Ireland. So it doesn't matter if wolves are really scary, what matters is that wolves are shaped to be terrible in human society and culture.
Robyn and his father, as characters who live in the society in the film, naturally inherit this culture. In contrast, the father as an adult is more socialized, so the horror of the wolf has a deeper impact on him. This is when father and daughter talk about wolves in the beginning, fathers are obviously more afraid of wolves. When a person is afraid of something, the instinctive reaction is to hide from it, but Robyn's father, as a wolf catcher, his job is to catch wolves. Catching wolves was the basis for his livelihood or foothold in the world, and if he did not go to catch wolves because he was afraid, he might be punished more bitterly than the wolf's fears, so he had to go.
Robyn wants to be a wolf catcher, which may be due to character. It may also be an imitation of the father in the absence of a mother. Father went out to hunt wolves during the day, returned at night, and after a few words, the father and daughter rested, repeating this day after day. Robyn doesn't spend much time with her father, and wolf hunting becomes a way for her to spend more time with him and gain his approval. Especially when the mother is missing, the father's companionship and recognition is the only thing she can get. This is in line with what she later said that if it was a mother, she could understand it.
Therefore, wolves are something that Robyn and his father, both socially and personally, are something they fear but must face. So the wolf pack represents the fear of human beings themselves, who are afraid of their own fears but cannot completely cut off from their own fears.
As a wolfwalker, the wolf comes out of the human body and occurs when the person is asleep, which is like a dream in the real world (the essence of daydreaming is not a dream, it is a fantasy). Dreams appear when people are asleep, and the essence of dreams is that when people are asleep, the level of people's consciousness relaxes, and the content of the subconscious runs out on its own. The level of consciousness encompasses the social rules in which people live, and in the film the social rule is that wolves are terrible, wolves are to be killed, or only as human beings are safe. So when the wolfwalker is awake, the role of the consciousness level will not let the wolf out, and when it is asleep, the rules of the consciousness level are relaxed, and the wolf will naturally come out. When Robyn's wolf came out, Dad, as a wolf slayer, naturally wanted to kill the wolf. The last thing Dad accepted was the wolf, and when she became a wolf, Dad couldn't accept her at all. In her mother's absence, her father's disapproval was like being killed by her father. This was actually her fear as a human being in the beginning. The process of wolfwalker's wolf coming out is the process of dreaming in the real world, and the dream, as a reflection of the subconscious, reflects the world that people are in, and the nightmare represents people's fears, and the dream is people's wishes.
When Robyn ran out to meet Mebh, they played together, walking through the mountains and forests, free and happy. At this moment Robyn is still a wolf, but she is not afraid of being a wolf. Because by Mebh's side, she was completely safe. They are also wolves, and the fear of not being accepted by their father is in stark contrast to the freedom to be accepted by Mebh. This freedom echoes the freedom at the beginning of the film when Robyn practices archery at home. So whether it is a man or a wolf, when you can be safe and free to be yourself, the power of fear is weak, and the living life force blooms, which is the power of love. This is the dream.
But when Robyn saw mebh's mother, who was much stronger than herself, arrested and about to be killed that night, and she herself almost died that night, she did not dare to see Mebh, nor did she dare to sleep, and lived as a human being in a disciplined manner, she was actually afraid that her wolf would come out. This is because she, as a wolf, is an alien on a social level, and she will be caught and killed, which is the fear of being rejected by society and unable to exist in the world. Robyn imprisons Mebh in a cage, just as her father imprisoned her at home in the first place, and they feel that it is love, and the other person feels not love, but pain and anger that is not understood and accepted. In fact, they accept the fear that social culture gives them, and they impose this fear on the people they love, and the result is that fear pushes them further.
Mebh has always been a wolfwalker, and her mother is also a wolfwalker. Mom's acceptance of herself as a wolf walker as both a human and a wolf ensures that she will be fully receptive to Mebh, who has the same qualities, so mebh will truly accept herself. Mebh rushed out of the cage and shouted that the wolf was her mother, she was not afraid of being rejected or even killed as an alien, all she had to do was save her mother, this is love. Similarly, when their beloved is in danger, Robyn and Dad let their wolf side come out to protect the person they love, and the power of fear is greater, and as long as the power of love comes out, the bondage of fear is useless. At that time, it does not matter whether people or wolves are, some are the same vivid and vivid blooming life, and only then can people truly feel the integrity of life.
PS1: The externalization of the wolf as the subconscious of man in the film represents the most authentic trait of man. Back in real life, the same traits appear in different people and their reactions are not the same. Some people may want to hide this trait because of their inferiority complex, afraid of being discovered by others. And the same trait in another person he can enjoy himself. The traits are all the same, and their different reactions stem from how their families, especially their parents, and important roles perceive them as such traits.
PS2: In addition, the structure of ancient fairy tales or mythological stories of Eastern and Western cultures is very close to Freud's psychoanalytic principles, and I can write about it when I have time.