The Secret of Kells (Tomm Moore, 2009): Ireland, France, Belguim

Reviewed by Khristine Biver.  Viewed at Santa Barbara Film Festival 2010.

In his first feature length animation, The Secret of Kells, director Tom Moore dazzles and delights the audience with the beautifully illustrated story of the value of a good story. 

Brendan is a young boy living in Ireland in the time of Vikings.  In order to protect themselves from the colonizing Vikings, he and his uncle are hard at work building a wall that will protect their Abbey of Kells from the outside world.  (Though we aren’t privy to any information of the rest of his family, one assumes their fates are the real inspiration for the wall.)  Brendan seeks solace in reading and writing, while his uncle is more focused on keeping the outside world out.  As so often happens when family members try to cage each other in, Brendan escapes in a brilliantly beautiful bit of purely inspired animation.  This opportunity for escape comes in the form of Brother Aiden, who is in the process of writing the Book of  Iona.  Brendan ultimately escapes on an adventure through the surrounding forest, helping to write the Book of Iona.

As he evokes various indigenous images while experimenting with CGI and illustration, thus presenting a sort of homage to the history of animated filmmaking, Moore bases the story on various anecdotes from Irish folklore.  The Book of Kells is a real figment of Irish folklore, being the document that survived 1000 years to bring the four gospels of the Old Testament to centuries of people.  This is one of the stories that exists as to how the book managed to survive so long.  Moore specifically avoids getting into the substance of the text of the Book of Kells.  This is not a story about religion; it’s the film of how a story came to be.

Though the story is engaging, it is the animation that truly elevates this 2D film to awe-inspiring.  Utilizing animation techniques that evoke images of, among other pieces of art, stained glass and dreamcatchers, the effect is technically stunning even while lacking in the technology available to the best animated filmmakers. The way the filmmakers layered the images gives the 2D film a sort of physical depth, as in the depiction of the ocean that is reminiscent of a pop-up book.  The 2D animation serves as a reminder that, sometimes, the best techniques are the original techniques, just as the best stories are the ones that have been around for a long time.

This is a film that will be well-received by a wide range of audiences, due to the incredible visual stimulation.  It is a movie that is actually fun to watch, not just to see.

It is worth noting that Moore used amateur actors rather than proper child actors for the voices, to great effect.  He explained he wanted the voices to sound fresh, which they do.  The amateur work does not detract from the experience, but adds a new level of authenticity to the story.  A child’s natural cry of wonderment differs greatly from what an actor thinks an awestruck child sounds like.  Thanks to the voicework, Brendan comes across as an animated child, rather than an animated character.


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