Ahoy, squirts! Quint here with a little look at Irish animated flick THE SECRET OF KELLS.
As most of you know by this point this film was a surprise nomination in the Animated Films category of this year’s Oscars. I’m sure most of you were like me when you heard the nominations… Fantastic Mr. Fox! Up! Coraline! The Secret of Kells! Princess and the Fro… wait, go back one… what the hell is a Secret of Kells?
I consider myself fairly up on films and am pretty knowledgeable about what’s been buzzing around even when it comes to foreign flicks, but in all my film festing and movie watching THE SECRET OF KELLS completely flew under my radar.
So when I saw it on the Santa Barbara Film Festival schedule I was very excited to be able to actually give it a watch. I’ve seen all the other nominated movies in that category, so now I can collect the whole set!
Basically THE SECRET OF KELLS is a fantasy retelling of the origin of the legendary Book Of Kells, one of mankind’s best examples of calligraphy and a truly beautiful work of art. Transcribed and illustrated by Celtic monks the writing is the New Testament, but what sets this particular bible apart from the others is its intricate Insular art.
Set in the abbey of Kells the movie focuses on a young Irish boy named Brendan (Evan McGuire), nephew of the strict Abbot Cellach (voiced by the great Brendan Gleeson) who is tutored by the most respected calligrapher Aiden against the wishes of the dickish Abbot. The dude is doing what he thinks best, but becomes overprotective, ditching the illuminating power of art and words for the security of cold, hard stone.
See, the Vikings are tearing up this particular part of the world and the Abbot is bound and determined to keep his village safe by erecting a wall. He leaves the scribes to their work, but everybody else spends all day constructing this giant wall. As usual, the wall proves to be just as much a cage keeping the inhabitants in as it is a protection from those without.
You can’t really blame the Abbot, though. The Vikings are shown to be inhuman behemoths, almost Satanic demons from hell…
Scary fuckers and when they eventually get to Abbey Kells… well, it isn’t exactly kiddie material. I wouldn’t say it’s graphic, but it goes much harsher than I expected.
The style of the movie is something of a mix between Genndy Tartakovsky, Hanna-Barbera and Miyazaki.
Tartakovsky in design, Hanna-Barbera in style and Miyazaki in tone… especially when we get to the section of the movie that has Brendan exploring the woods outside the wall, against his Uncle’s wishes, of course. While out there he meets a white sprite shown as either a white wolf or a little girl who has powers over the forest. Very Miyazaki.
But what I liked the most about the movie was just how fluid this style worked. I don’t think it was hand drawn… it has that Tartakovsky computer animation feel that keeps the flatness of cel animation.
Directors Tomm Moore and Nora Twomey go very stylized with the animation and somehow make it both incredibly complicated and simple. It’s hard to explain, but when you see it you’ll understand.
The Secret of Kells is a beautiful film, especially for animation lovers, and I really enjoyed the fairy tale story aspect of it all, but I wouldn’t say I had the same emotional connection to it that I did with Pixar’s UP or the pure enjoyment of something like FANTASTIC MR. FOX.
But I’m happy the Academy threw it in the mix. This film would have certainly slipped through the cracks if the Oscar spotlight hadn’t been shone on it. Hopefully this means the film will be sought out and enjoyed. It deserves an audience and I think for some viewers it could very well be their favorite of the animated films nominated if for nothing else than the daring and somewhat experimental animation style.
Here’s a look at how varied the animation is in the film… there are scenes that feel like they’re out of Disney’s Donald in Mathmagicland and some that feel like they come right out of the pages of The Book of Kells itself.
The flick hits all points… at times it’s light as a feather, at times it’s dark as night. The real trick is hitting those two extremes without feeling like it’s trying to be too many things at once. The balance is just right, though, so when the tone shifts you’re along for the ride.
I hope this gets out a bit wider than festivals… IMDB lists a March release date from a Distributor called Gkids. Not sure what that’s all about, but it’d be great for this quaint, different, beautiful Irish fairy tale to get in front of some wide-eyed kids.
Tomorrow brings the writer’s panel featuring Hurt Locker’s Mark Boal, Up’s Pete Docter, Precious’ Geoffrey Fletcher, Star Trek’s Alex Kurtzman, It’s Complicated’s Nancy Meyers, 500 Days of Summer’s Scott Neustadter, Up In The Air’s Jason Reitman and Inglourious Basterds’ Quentin Tarantino. Oh, and James Cameron’s big 2 hour spotlight event. Big day!
-Quint
quint@aintitcool.com
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