The Secret of Kells: Artful, Soulful Indie Animation

When watching an animated movie, it's never hard for me to tell whether the animators were working for the love of it or only for a paycheck. Flashback to 2009, and the extremely well-known Up has beaten out the significantly less recognizable The Secret of Kells to win the Academy Award for Best Animated Feature. One movie went on to become legendary; the other was unfairly forgotten. I had never even heard of it before I walked into the classroom for another session of a film analysis class, but after I walked out, I don't think I'll ever forget The Secret of Kells. This is a stunningly beautiful and imaginatively poetic work of art, and its blatant eccentricity makes it clear that the team behind it thoroughly enjoyed pretty much every second of making it, much like I enjoyed pretty much every second of watching it. The movie follows Brendan, a boy raised by his monk uncle in a walled-off abbey and forbidden from entering the mysterious forest surrounding the monastery. His uncle's fist has only tightened under the threat of an impending attack by Vikings, but Brendan is young and curious; the mysterious, white-haired girl in the forest hasn't helped matters. Use your imagination. These movie-makers certainly did.

The Secret of Kells takes its mythology very seriously, and the thickly mythical, eccentric tone, paired with an unusually artistic animation style, makes this passion evident. Animated movies love including magic, but rarely has an animated feature felt as magical as Kells did. This movie stands head and shoulders above others like it that try and fail to capture a transcendental tone as ethereal as the one on display here. Even so, it's far from a one-trick pony magic show. Kells can be astonishingly bewitching one moment, cheerily mischievous the next. Its playful animation can be very amusing, managing to strike a balance between genuine lightheartedness and honest weight. The two moods are perfectly complementary, each making the other seem all the more impactful. The story is one of adventure in the Celtic world - think Brave crossed with Moana, created by a group of animation interns with time to spare and more creativity than big studios encourage or even allow today. The magic and music are out from under the thumb of bureaucracy and playing at full volume.

Kells brilliantly captures both the wonder and the darkness of the world outside the monastery walls. I understood equally both why Brendan wanted to leave and why his uncle wanted him to stay. The forest is dark and treacherous, but it also houses sparks of undeniable beauty. Look no further than Aisling, a young forest fairy, whose incredibly well-realized magical powers make for many moments of awe-inspiring wonder - maybe too many such moments. Her abilities are mysterious and, therefore, unestablished, often used only once. And because these abilities aren't clearly defined, I sometimes felt as though they were used as a cover for a lack of imagination on the part of the filmmakers when they couldn't think of any solution to the problems they put their characters in outside of magic.

Still, this magic lands on two feet far more often than not. The Secret of Kells does a fantastic job of capturing mystery and wonder, suspense and danger. It's patient and methodical, ever-willing to rest and meditate on any given emotion and tone. You feel this movie in your bones, and you always feel it for what seems to be the perfect amount of time - not too long, but not too short, either. Time matters a lot to Kells. It brilliantly captures the passing of it in such an artful and meaningful way. It is both inevitable and layered, brilliantly fundamental and yet ever so soulful.

The Secret of Kells is the type of movie whose magic will appeal to children and whose subtlety will appeal to older generations. It is both whimsical enough to amaze and restrained enough to impress, and it is most exciting precisely because it was made by people who were evidently excited to make it.

The Secret of Kells - 9/10

Matthew 15:1-9