DVD Review: Wolfy, The Incredible Secret

Wolfy, The Incredible Secret is an animated film about friendship and identity, in which two companions – a wolf named Wolfy and a rabbit named Tom – travel to Wolfenberg to find Wolfy’s mother. I don’t watch a lot of animated films because I don’t care much for computer animation and I can’t stand Disney, but this wonderful movie is drawn by hand and, as a result, has its own style and beauty which set it apart from other animated fare, and it is far from the sterile Disney output.

When the film opens, Wolfy and Tom are asleep together in a row boat, their fishing lines ignored by the fish, even laughed at. The boat drifts down river while they sleep. The colors are absolutely beautiful, particularly the sunlight hitting the grass and trees. I could happily get lost in those colors. Soon the boat reaches a bank, and Wolfy walks as if in a trance, answering a siren call which leads them both to a mysterious gypsy woman. She reads Wolfy’s future, showing him his mother in a distant land. Wolfy asks Tom to accompany him to Wolfenberg, as in the vision, and off they go on an adventure to find Wolfy’s mother and learn something about Wolfy’s identity.

Wolfenberg is located on a hilltop, shaped like a wolf’s head, and Wolfy and Tom’s approach does not go unnoticed. Their arrival happens to coincide with the beginning of the Wolfenberg carnivore festival, which includes a grand hunt and which understandably frightens Tom. The city poses a clear danger and threat to Tom, but perhaps the larger threat is against Wolfy, who, with his innocent and optimistic nature, is slow to recognize it.

The film has something of a delightful and slightly twisted sense of humor. For example, when the two go to an inn run by Rosetta, a pig, they notice the head of a boar mounted on the wall. Rosetta tells them the head is that of her late husband. She also tells them, “He loved rabbits a lot.” The way a message is passed in one scene is funny and adorable. The character of Scarlett, a singer in a club with hopeful ties to the corrupt authoritarian government, has her own unusual humor. “Everybody knows everybody else in this lovely, dirty little town,” she tells Wolfy and Tom. But can they trust her? She says, “You must trust unpredictable Scarlett,” perhaps my favorite line from the film.

At night, Scarlett sneaks them into a gallery of portraits of famous wolves, where they eventually find a portrait of Wolfy’s mother. Wolfy and Tom are caught and tossed into prison, but that’s just the beginning. This film is a delight, with its own style, its own sense of humor, and plenty of charm. Sure, the ending comes perhaps a bit too easily and conveniently, but the film is enjoyable and a welcome change of pace from the Disney films.

Wolfy, The Incredible Secret was released on March 17, 2015 through Cinedigm and Random Media. The film is presented in English. The DVD contains no special features.