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Hand-drawn animation doesn’t appear nearly often enough for my liking. But the few recent hand-drawn films have done unique and bold things with the genre. There’s Studio Ghibli, who continually produces smart, adult-orientated features, and foreign films like Peresepolis and The Secret of Kells which expand the look and language of the medium.
The Secret of Kells, with its bold lines, matte surfaces and distinct lack of perspective and background, is a wondrous and beautiful film to absorb yourself into. It looks like an illuminated manuscript given life. And, much like Studio Ghibli and Persepolis, has a much calmer, quieter pace and tone than the frantic American offerings. Since it’s based on Irish mythology and folklore, which I know very little about, some of the symbols and story beats are vague and elliptical to me, but it’s a gorgeous place to get a little lost in.
I’ve said this before about both animated and foreign films, they can give us a window into other cultures, give us faces and voices we wouldn’t dream of utilizing in American films, and this film is a prime example of my point. Learning about Aisling, a woodland fairy who can take the form of a white wolf, was fascinating to me. I still have numerous questions about them, but the film was a unique introduction to a new variant of a well-known mythological figure. And I knew close to nothing of the Book of Kells other than it was an illuminated manuscript. What makes this book so mystical and magical is something that I’m still unsure of, but I found not knowing every detail to be no hindrance to my enjoyment.
I still have questions about Crom Cruach, a pagan deity whom much of the surrounding plot revolves around and seems to require a basic understanding of to get the deeper symbolic meaning. If nothing else, I walked away with a vast interest in Celtic mythology, and if this literate, intricately animated film can make me, a full-grown adult, interested in reading up more on the subject, I hope it could do the same for younger viewers. But with so many of the DreamWorks, Blue Sky and other animated studios popping out pop-culture heavy, sardonic, ADHD joyless, soulless animated vehicles, I’m not sure this quiet film will entice them enough to make it all the way through.
The only true problem with the film is the rushed ending. No sooner do the Vikings attack the abbey and surrounding village then we’re rushed into a montage of years, decades possibly, zipping past us as the manuscript is finished, our young hero grows up, wanders through the woods and returns to the abbey. This lone sequence breaks the steady, majestic pace of the film, preferring to wrap things up quickly instead of letting it unfold gently. Being an independent production, maybe there wasn’t enough resources to fully conclude the film and this rushed ending was necessary. No matter, the old/new world culture clash, visual originality and constant inventiveness strengthen it. Add in the Celtic, Biblical and pagan mythologies comingling and clashing and you’ve got a boldly original animated film that puts the Shrek franchise and any of the recent Disney princess crop to shame.
