Mamoru Hosoda’s animated film “Wolf Children” is now playing at the Laemmle Town Center 5, 17200 Ventura Blvd. in Encino, at 10 p.m. daily until Thursday, Oct. 3.
Hana is a bright and pretty student whose future holds endless possibilities. Then she meets a man who turns out to be a wolf, and together they build a family. Hana loves her mate fiercely, but fate takes him from her, leaving her alone with two unusual kids that she doesn’t know how to raise.
Frightened of being discovered, Hana and her wolf children — daughter Yuki (Snow) and son Ame (Rain) — flee to the countryside to build a new life. Raising her little wild things is an adventure. It leaves Hana bruised, scratched, exhausted, and joyously overwhelmed as her pups grow stronger and wander further every day.
The film’s message is to teach your children to chase their dreams – and smile through the tears as they disappear into the world in search of who they will become.
Brian Camp of Otaku USA Magazine called Hosoda “the pre-eminent director of theatrical animation in Japan today, the obvious spiritual heir to Hayao Miyazaki.”
Trained as an oil painter at Kanazawa University of Arts and Crafts, Hosoda honed his skills working at famed anime production houses such as Toei and Miyazaki’s Studio Ghibli, as well as a celebrated collaboration on a Louis Vuitton exclusive, Superflat Monogram, with prolific contemporary artist Takashi Murakami.
Hosoda’s directorial credits include “Summer Wars” (2006) and “The Girl Who Leapt Through Time” (2009), both of which received the Japan Academy Prize for Best Animation of the Year.
Character designer Yoshiyuki Sadamoto is a renowned illustrator, manga artist, animator, and founding member of the prestigious Gainax anime studio. He is famous for his work as a character designer on “Neon Genesis Evangelion,” “Summer Wars,” and “The Girl Who Leapt Through Time.”
More recently, he has focused his efforts on comic and illustration work, but he remains heavily in demand as a character designer and animator thanks to his work on series such “FLCL,” “.hack//Sign,” and “Evangelion 1.0: You Are (Not) Alone.”
At the request of the distributor, Laemmle Theaters will be screening the dubbed version of the movie, known in Japan as “Ookami Kodomo no Ame to Yuki” (The Wolf Children Ame and Yuki).
The English voice cast includes Colleen Clinkenbeard as Hana, David Matranga as Wolf Man, Lara Woodhull as younger Yuki, Jad Saxton as older Yuki, Alison Viktorin as younger Ame, and Micah Solusod as older Ame. The Japanese voice actors are, respectively, Aoi Miyazaki, Takao Osawa, Momoka Ono, Haru Kuroki, Amon Kabe and Yukito Nishii.
The theater can be reached at (310) 478-3836. To order tickets online, go to www.laemmle.com/theaters/7.
The movie’s official website is at http://wolfchildrenmovie.com.