Wolf Children is hands down one of the best Japanese animated movies of this generation. Everything about this movie is amazing. The animation, the voice acting, the story; it's just simply beautiful. This movie will make all your emotions pour out. You will both cry and smile and when a movie has the power to push your emotions like that, you know it is a magical movie.
Wolf Children was directed by Mamoru Hosoda (of Summer Wars fame) so I had very high expectations going in. Wolf Children was released November 26, 2013 in Japan and was produced by Nippon Television Network Corporation (NTV). The film goes for 117 minutes which is average movie time. Throughout the movie, there were parts I found extremely slow paced. However, near the middle mark of the movie the pace picked up considerably and I was hooked. It was easy to get invested in the story, and I was glued to the screen until the end.
The film starts out with a narrator telling a story. The Narrator is Yuki, one of the wolf children, and the story being about her life living with her brother Ame and her mother, Hana. She tells the story of how her mother was a college student and how Hana met Ookami (Ame and Yuki's father). As the film continues she narrates how her childhood was, how she went to school, how her ways were different from her brother and completes the film with how the characters are at that moment.
I think the main part of the story that just made me proud and sad at the same time was Hana’s struggles as a single mother. She raised two wolf children on her own despite knowing nothing about half-human and half-wolf necessities. She was completely unaware of how much exercise, food, etc. were needed but she never gave up. She couldn’t take the children to a doctor or the vet because how would they react to half human, half wolf children? I think she was also scared that if the authorities found out about her unique children they would take Ame and Yuki away from her.
I rate this movie, overall 5/5 because this movie makes me feel everything and it's just such a beautiful and magical movie. It is really one of a kind.
Hope ~♡