The Secret of Kells

Hi, folks. I'm one month into this blog, so I thought I'd throw in a quick status update. This is my 10th movie review. It is the most dedication I have shown to something in ages. I know some of my entries have been a little half-assed, but at least I'm still posting them. There's going to come a time in the future where I need to make this website look a little less skin-and-bones. I have no idea how to do that, so for now, you'll have to settle for this boring old no-frills template.

Okay. Now for the movie.

The Secret of Kells is a fairly recent animated movie directed by Tomm Moore. It's about a young boy in Dark Ages Ireland named Brendan who lives on an abbey, with his uncle as Abbot. Under the looming threat of viking invasion, and against his uncle's wishes, Brendan is tasked to finish writing the story of Aidan, an old master who has taken him under his wing. Along the way, he journeys into the magical forest and meets Aisling, a forest sprite who manifests as a girl Brendan's own age.

The animation is fantastic. It isn't hi-tech CGI, a la Pixar; it isn't fluid, hand-drawn animation, a la Disney. The Secret of Kells is more along the lines of a show from Cartoon Network, pushed to the very boundaries of their capabilities. In fact, I'm sure the animators owe a lot stylistically to Samurai Jack/Sym-Bionic Titan creator Genndy Tartakovsky, and Powerpuff Girls/Foster's creator Craig McCracken. Visually, the movie looks like if Tartakovsky had animated Samurai Jack on a stained glass window. How's that for stylized?

The shot compositions are striking. The backgrounds look a lot like ones you would see in a painting from the era (around 1000 years ago). The character designs are very basic, made of simple, expressive shapes. The colors are vibrant and vivid.

Kells was surprised last year with a Best Animated Picture Oscar nomination. This was deserved. It probably even could have won, if Up hadn't been listed in there as well, because, of course, Up deserved the win. I could go on about how perfect Up was, but you've probably all seen it, and you probably haven't seen The Secret of Kells. Redeem yourselves now. It's an instant watch on Netlix, and it's only 75 minutes long.

The Secret of Kells gets an A from me.