This is a deleted scene from Cartoon Saloon’s Wolfwalkers. It hinted at the backstory between Bill the hunter and Lord Protector Oliver Cromwell as they discussed a deal for a safe haven in town. The interesting part was making sure young Robyn remained the main character, playing the scene through her eyes, despite her not really taking part in the conversation.
Concerns about cut length and a simplified take on Cromwell’s character ultimately led to the removal of the scene.
Saloon’s films are very designy, heavily inspired by works like Richard Williams’ The Thief and the Cobbler and Marcell Jankovics’ Hungarian Folk Tales. When working on a project like this, the first challenge is learning the visual language.
Once that becomes second nature, my day to day revolved around planning sequences from a cinematic point of view, then figuring out with the art director how to best translate each shot to images that both feel like a movie yet look right out of a Medieval tapestry.
More on the making of this film can be read here.
This is the town chase that kickstarts the third act. Wolf Moll used to blast through the main town gates as the English soldiers tried to raise the entrance drawbridge. The influence of Hayao Miyazaki’s Princess Mononoke that permeates the whole movie is probably at the strongest here. But I mean, if you have a giant supernatural wolf in the story somebody’s gotta ride it at some point, right?
