This post is a part of an ongoing project in which I watch one movie from a different country every other week.
PLOT: Brendan (voiced by Evan McGuire) is a young boy living in a remote medieval abbey, which is under siege from barbarians. His life completely changes when a celebrated master illuminator arrives and asks Brendan to help him finish a book brimming with secret wisdom and powers.
MEMORABLE MOMENT: Brendan returns to the den of Crom Cruach, an enormous serpent and a deity of death. The monster pursues the young hero through a watery void until Brendan finds himself caught up in the snake’s mammoth coils.
The flat animation style gives the appearance that Brendan is lost in a maze created by his enemy’s body. Like much of the rest of the film, this sequence appears crude at first, but is far more surreal and dreamlike than anything Pixar has ever done. (No disrespect to Pixar.)
IDEAL AUDIENCE: The Secret of Kells is targeted for kids on the surface. I know that many “children’s films” are filled with beautifully detailed 3-D animation these days but I feel like most kids will get over the unusually “flat” style and find themselves caught up with the film’s fantasy adventure and fun characters (which include a semi-anthropomorphic cat and a monk who sort of reminds me of George Carlin). I should give a heads up that things do get unsettling in the film’s later half. It is implied that a lot of innocent people are slaughtered by Vikings and one of the main characters is severely injured. While the film does have a happy ending (the cat lives!) this character is on his deathbed during the final scene.
Adults could potentially get even more out of the movie. Any grownup who is willing to open themselves up to an unusual fantasy adventure will find themselves drawn into the film. The Secret of Kells will have particular appeal for people who are interested in Celtic mythology or unusual animation styles and techniques.
Like many other recent animated films (Inside Out, Coco and the How to Train Your Dragon series) this movie has fantastic crossover appeal for all ages. Honestly, I could see how some people coming in off the street might be thrown off by the odd style during the first few minutes. However, if you give this movie a chance it will enthrall you.
From IMDB:
- Although the characters, fantasy elements, and plot specifics of this movie are fictional, there is a real “Book of Kells”, an illuminated, heavily illustrated rendering of the Four Gospels of the Christian Bible, that dates from the Early Medieval period (probably the early Eighth Century) in Ireland.
- Some of the design concepts for the movie echo aspects of the original Book of Kells; for instance, the shapes of the repeated tree patterns as Brendan enters the forest are quite similar to the arrangement and shapes of the columns and arches in…. the real book.
- Pangur Ban (the cat) is named for a cat who appears in an 8th Century Old Irish poem written by a monk to his pet cat. Aidan (Mick Lally) can be heard reciting a condensed rendition of the poem in modern Irish in the credits.
- Development on the film began in 1999 when director Tomm Moore and some of his friends first saw a series of animated films: Richard Williams‘s The Thief and the Cobbler (1993), Disney’s Mulan (1998) and Hayao Miyazaki The cultural style and influence of those films (respectively Persia, China and Japan) inspired Moore to make a similarly styled film based on Irish art/culture.
WHERE CAN YOU FIND IT?: The Secret of Kells is available on Netflix DVD. It is also available through Amazon to rent ($3.99) or buy ($9.99). It’s also the sort of movie you could most likely borrow from your local library.
RUNTIME: 71 Minutes
DIRECTOR: Tomm Moore and Nora Twomey
WRITERS: Tomm Moore (original story) and Fabrice Ziolkowski
VOICE CAST:
