Did you ever wonder what it might be like to be one of the three pigs of children’s story and animated cartoon fame? Is this a bad time to ask that question? Bear with me.
“The Wolf House,” an astounding new animated film from Chile, has a cheeky meta-film opening that purports to be from “La Colonia” — a slight variant of the very real-life Colonia Dignidad, a German-founded isolated colony in Chile renowned for its honey and disdained for its exploitation of the labor of Chilean natives. The first clever conceit of this movie is that it, too, is a product of that colony, one with a lesson. What follows is the story of Maria, an escapee from there, who finds a house in the forest where she holes up with two pigs who become her adopted children. Together they live in terror of a wolf at the door.
Sounds odd, and it’s odder than that still. The movie is a mix of drawn and stop-motion model animation. And it’s presented in the form of a single unbroken shot. The backgrounds are always in movement. A bathroom changes into a bedroom not through camera movement, but by having the backgrounds painted over to concoct the new background. The characters themselves are constantly broken down and reconfigured. The imagery is often grotesque, the atmosphere claustrophobic.
The co-directors, Joaquín Cociña and Cristobal León, did the ultra-painstaking animation themselves and it’s a wonder they weren’t driven insane in the process (although, come to think of it, one can’t authoritatively say they weren’t). Comparisons with visionary animators like Jan Svankmajer and the Quay Brothers might not be inapt, but they also won’t do the trick — these filmmakers have a perspective and a voice that feels entirely new. The film surprises, with incredible force, in every one of its 75 minutes.
The Wolf House
Not rated. In Spanish and German, with subtitles. Running time: 1 hour 15 minutes. Watch through KimStim Virtual Cinema.
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‘The Wolf House’ Review: A Different Kind of Quarantine - The New York Times
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