Secret of Kells

I am a HUGE fan of animation as a medium. I love to soak in all sorts of it and see what innovative artsits are doing.
That said it is INCREDIBLY difficult to find any animation that is not either Japanese or American. Both of which I am an avid pursuer, though perhapes moreso towards the Japanese, since the Japanese animation is much more often aimed at older audiances and with more mature themes, but I digress. I am always delighted to come across anything from somewhere else.

Secret of Kells is an enchanting little tale of magic, but before discussing the storyline I want to focus on the artisty because thats really much more impacting, simply because it is in a style that is rarely seen. The film is an Irish-French-Belgian production which means that the art style is in a distinct European flavour and they went with a rather folkish look. While character designs are simple, backgrounds are lush and intricate. The contrast works very well, as well as how scenes of a violent nature are charicatured in more storybook manor, that still manages to convey the terror the characters are feeling, while feeling more poetic.

As for the storyline, its a mixed bag. Its a fun film, with a relatable and sympathetic main character. The problem lies in the strange paganism meets christianity infusion of religion. Obviously for a non-religious viewer, this isnt really a problem, but from a christian persective, it is a little strange. Incorperating a girl who is apparently from some race of nymphs or magic users who controls the forest, a strange fight sequence with some olde worlde snake god, so that they can use his crystal eye to write a great "holy book"? The whole thing feels like an ambiguous, surreal religion mash up with no real idea what it is, even though it is asserted that it takes place in an abbey, and has christian iconography throughout the backgrounds. Although a Christian viewer may find these elements at odds with each other, it is worth mentioning that this is actually a rather accurate portrayal of of the ecclectic nature of medieval european belifes. So while not really a comfortable view of christianity from a modern perspective, its an interesting picture of how christianity did in fact merge with various other ideas at the time in eurpoean minds.

Once again however the characters are engaging, and you can really feel their emotional journeys. They are played very well, top notch voice acting that really comes accross. I dont really like the religous chaos of the film, but the production is solid and it was an entertaining enough movie, and I do recommend it for those of you who, like me, like to get their hands on more obscure animations.