The Secret of Kells

This Irish/French/Belgian co-production was nominated for the Best Animated Feature at the 2009 Academy Awards, unsurprisingly losing out to the brilliant Pixar film Up and was a film that I was only aware of because my brother saw it at a film festival in New Zealand. Drawing on Irish mythology and including a great deal of Celtic language and history, The Secret of Kells is set in the 9th century where the Irish monastery in Kells, Ireland is preparing itself for the inevitable Viking raid which has already destroyed other monasteries.

A young monk, Brendan, lives a quiet existence where he does pretty much what his uncle, Cellach, the Abbott of the Kells monastery, tells him to do. He has heard great things of a monk called Brother Aidan of Iona who has been hard at work on the Book of Iona but had to flee (along with his cat, Pangur) when the Vikings sacked his monastery. When Brother Aidan seeks refuge in the Kells monastery, the Book of Iona becomes the Book of Kells. Legend has it that this book will save Ireland from the Viking invaders but it is an unfinished piece and Brother Aidan's eyesight is diminishing, as are his fine motor skills so he takes Brendan under his wing as his protégé, telling him all about the art of illumination. Abbott Cellach, a former illuminator, doesn't take kindly to Brendan being taken away from his duties of helping the other monks to reinforce the walls in order to repel the coming invasion.

When Brother Aidan runs out of one of his inks, he asks Brendan to go into the woods and find an oak tree and gather some of the berries that grow there and from which the ink is made. Disobeying the Abbott, who has forbidden him to leave the monastery, Brendan plucks up the courage to venture outside the monastery walls for the first time in his life and help out Brother Aidan rather than obey his uncle.

Finding the woods to be a dark and scary place, full of wolves and with menacing dark birds flying overhead, Brendan soon finds himself surrounded by ravenous lupines, but then a mysterious white wolf comes to his aid before disappearing and a young faerie called Aisling appears in its place. She takes an immediate interest in Brendan and helps him find the berries, taking great enjoyment in his clumsiness and, compared to her, slowness when it comes to climbing and descending the tree.

Returning to the monastery to the delight of Brother Aidan but to the dismay of the Abbott, Brendan is chastised and, because he disobeyed the Abbott, is locked up in a high tower with no way of escape. Because Brother Aidan needs a special crystal to help him with the close up work on the book, Aisling and Pangur help him escape, but he must venture into an area of forest that even Aisling can't go and battle a huge dragon.


The voice casting is spot on and the only name that I recognise is Brendan Gleeson who does a tremendous job as the Abbott but everyone else is extremely convincing and their voices fit the characters perfectly. I think it helps somewhat that I don't know who the voice actors are as it means I can accept their characters for who they are, rather than spend 10 minutes figuring out who the actor is and then picturing them rather than the character.

The Secret of Kells is an utterly enchanting film that, like the work of Hayao Miyazaki, shows you that hand drawn animation has a place in a world dominated by computer animation (more often than not in 3-D) as long as the story and characters are strong enough which, in this case, they are. (It comes as no surprise to discover that this is produced by the same people who were behind the wonderful Belleville Rendezvous as they are similar in style.) There is something very special about a form of mysticism about which I know absolutely nothing and its place in contemporary Irish culture means that something from hundreds of years ago can influence and even drive a film made in the 21st century.


The Disc

Extra Features
The commentary by directors Tomm Moore and Nora Twomey along with art director Ross Stewart is informative, well delivered and reasonably easy to listen to with all of the participants chipping in with their own opinions and stories from the shoot. It does take a little while to use to the fairly thick Irish accents from Moore and Twomey but, once you are 'tuned in', the accents aren't really a problem.

The rest of the bonus material is a case of quantity over quality with a trailer, some storyboard comparisons, a couple of deleted scenes and some before and after shots showing you how the shots were developed. Additionally, there is a short film called Cuilin Dualach which (I think) is delivered entirely in Gaelic but it does sound extremely Scandinavian and there aren't any subtitles but you can more or less get the gist of what is going on by the character's actions.


The Picture
For something that is as beautifully animated as The Secret of Kells, you really need the disc to contain the best possible transfer and this is fortunately the case for the 1080p picture on this Blu-ray Disc. The colours are vibrant and bright, the contrast levels are dark so that things that should be black are very inky and the scenes in which the action moves very quickly have absolutely no signs of blurring, aliasing or any other detritus to detract from the action.

The characters are beautifully designed and, although they aren't lifelike, with square fingers and slightly strange physiognomies, they are utterly believable and you even buy into the whole idea of the faerie being able to change into a wolf and back again. This is the sort of animated film where you can pause it at just about any point and have a beautiful image on the screen.


The Sound
You have the choice of a DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 track (although PowerDVD says that it is a DTS High Resolution track) or LPCM 2.0 stereo and, though they both do a tremendous job with the dialogue and score, the DTS track, whichever one it is, really is at its best when it comes to the action sequences where you are fully immersed with things flying around the room, coming from behind you to one of the front surrounds and back again.

There are extremely clear and well written English HoH subtitles available which I found to be helpful when it came to figuring out how some of the character's names were spelled; otherwise, it won't really be applicable.


Final Thoughts
I really didn't know what to expect from The Secret of Kells but was drawn in almost immediately and enthralled for the entire running time. It is the sort of film that deserves a wider audience than in its host countries of Ireland, France and Belgium and, if you like animated films, this is certainly one to consider adding to your collection.

There are some scenes that are appropriately dark and will be scary for a younger audience, hence the PG certificate, but it is a sort of fairy tale and younger viewers will know that there will be something bright at the end of the darkness.