100% Wolf: a werepoodle with a big heart

REVIEW by Drew Rowsome

7 Oct 2019

He's SMALL
He's PINK
He's GROOMED
But he's . . .
100% WOLF

Thus reads the tagline of the young adult novel by Jane Lyons that the animated film 100% Wolf is based on. I have no idea if it is an accurate or reverential adaptation, but I have my suspicions. The film is fun, fast and packed with action but it also blatantly steals, occasionally with a wink, from The Lion King, Lady and the Tramp, Goldfinger, Betty White in The Lorax (or maybe it's Maude in Harold and Maude), Mr Mercedes, The Bad Seed, Frozen, Puss in Boots from Shrek, and many others. Are children - and this is emphatically an animated film for the whole family with lots of bodily function jokes and slapstick - cinema savants or is this homage/theft gone wild?

The opening is Marvel meets Underworld as a pack of werewolves race through the town rescuing people from burning buildings and babies from ledges. They are trailed by Freddy, a nerdy little boy who it turns out is a pre-pubescent werewolf. He is also the son of the pack leader, the 'High Howler,' Flasheart who is a big, butch hairy and hot beast. The father is seemingly killed when the pair encounter an ice cream truck proprietor and his sidekick: a stuffed monkey who may or may not be possessed and/or actually alive. When he comes of age, Freddy steps into the moonlight to transform and take his rightful place as the High Howler but instead of a werewolf, he is a werepoodle.

Of course he sets off on a quest and there are multiple sub-plots that kick in to lead to a chaotic climax. It isn't a spoiler to reveal that Flasheart's words to Freddy - "The best wolves don't have the sharpest claws or teeth, they have the biggest hearts. You just have to be the best you can be" - prove true. There is an abundance of villains from Freddy's usurping uncle to The Commander (voiced by Jane Lynch of Glee, The Marvelous Mrs Maisel and assorted tragic game shows) who is involved in a sinister, dastardly plot that involves feeding dogs into a nasty machine for nefarious reasons. Dogs and werewolves loathe each other for unexplained reasons, but Freddy must cross that species divide in order to escape the dogcatchers, the pound, the Wolf-a-torium and recover the moonstone ring. Yes, there is a surfeit of plot and not all of it makes sense.

Alongside the believe in yourself thematic emphasis, there is a subtler and slightly muddled LGBTQ theme (100% Wolf would have played well at Inside Out). Poodles have always been seen as effeminate, a fallacy that General Idea subverted brilliantly, and throughout the film The Commander and the other villains mis-gender Freddy in poodle form, referring to him as 'she' and 'her.' As the quest hits its final phase and Freddy the poodle comes into his own, he is hit by a patch of sunlight and transforms back into a boy. A post-pubescent boy, or, a man. A nude man and no longer pink-haired. At this point there is 'weiner' joke and his love interest, a scrappy street dog named Batty and voiced by Samara Weaving reprising her The Babysitter role as the Artful Dodger, stares on in awe. It is an interesting moment, quickly sped past after the unseen sight gag, but it resonates for any queer or nascent queer.

If 100% Wolf is successful enough to warrant merchandising - not even amazon.com.au where the film was produced appears to have swag yet - I want a plush Twisty, the chihuahua with anger management issues. Their entire sub-plot reduced me to helpless laughter even though it was predictable. That is the sly charm of 100% Wolf, though we've seen most of it before, if you splash it with bright colours, reasonable animation (the transformations make one long for The Howling and An American Werewolf in London), a lot of frenetic energy and, as Flasheart said, "The biggest heart," it all works and entertains. It also helps to have werewolves with their sensual appeal that cannot be denied (there is a blond mutton-chopped werewolf who could give any Disney prince a run for his money. He can't help it, he was drawn that homoerotic way). And one darn cute werepoodle.