1. Plot

2. Cast

3. Influences

4. Reception

5. Accolades

6. See also

7. References

8. Literature

9. External links

The Secret of Kells is a 2009 French-Belgian-Irish^[4] animated fantasy film animated by Cartoon Saloon that premiered on 8 February 2009 at the 59th Berlin International Film Festival. It went into wide release in Belgium and France on 11 February, and Ireland on 3 March.

It was directed by Tomm Moore and co-directed by Nora Twomey, produced by Paul Young, Didier Brunner and Vivian Van Fleteren, written by Fabrice Ziolkowski, distributed by Gébéka Films, Kinepolis Film Distribution, StudioCanal and Buena Vista, edited by Fabienne Alvarez-Giro and music composed by Bruno Coulais and Kíla. It stars Evan McGuire, Brendan Gleeson, Christen Mooney, Mick Lally, Michael McGrath, Liam Hourican, Paul Tylak and Paul Young. It was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Animated Feature but it lost to Up.^[5][6]

Plot

Brendan, a young, curious, and idealistic boy living in the tightly knit community at the Abbey of Kells, is under the strict care of his stern uncle, Abbot Cellach. Cellach is obsessed with building a wall around the Abbey, in order to prevent Viking attacks.

Brendan is apprenticed in the scriptorium of the monastery. After listening to the other monks of the monastery talk about Brother Aidan, the creator of the Book of Iona, Brendan is curious about the mysterious illuminator and "the book that turns darkness into light" (the unfinished Book of Kells). Aidan arrives in Kells, accompanied by his white cat, Pangur Bán, after his own monastery is destroyed by a raid. After eavesdropping on a discussion between Cellach and Aidan, Brendan wanders to the scriptorium, where he finds the still-to-be-completed book. Pangur Bán guards the book, but when the cat sees that Brendan means no harm to the book, she accepts him. Aidan arrives and tells Brendan about the book.

Seeing Brendan as a suitable apprentice, Aidan sends Brendan, with Pangur Bán for company, into the woods to obtain gall nuts to make ink for the illumination of the book. However, Brendan is cornered by a hungry pack of wolves. He is saved by Aisling, the faerie from the beginning of the film. Although at first suspicious of Brendan's presence, Aisling slowly comes to accept him after he reveals his intentions of helping to create the book.

After a brief yet scary close encounter with Crom Cruach, a deity of death and destruction, of whom Aisling is deeply afraid, Brendan and Aisling return to the outskirts of the forest. She assures Brendan that he can come back and visit anytime he wants.

Upon his return home, Brendan is reprimanded by Cellach, who forbids him to leave the monastery again. However, Brendan continues to work with Aidan. Brendan learns that Aidan's work is endangered by the loss of the Eye of Colm Cille, a special magnifying lens captured from Crom Cruach. When Brendan tries to leave to visit Crom's cave to obtain another Eye, he is confined to his room by Cellach.

Pangur Bán and Aisling set Brendan free. After running into the heart of the woods, Brendan tells Aisling of his objective. A shocked Aisling begs him not to confront the dark deity, warning that Crom Cruach will kill him just as it killed the rest of her people. But Brendan persuades Aisling to assist him, by stating that if he does not retrieve the Eye, the book will never be completed. Convinced, Aisling helps Brendan enter Crom's cave, nearly getting killed in the process. Brendan duels with Crom and seizes the Eye, blinding Crom and causing the dark deity to consume itself, becoming an ouroboros. Upon returning to the cave entrance, Brendan finds the forest covered in white flowers.

Brendan returns to the abbey and continues to assist Aidan in secret. The brothers of the monastery excitedly watch the two create the book. In a fit of frustration, Cellach locks Brendan and Aidan in the scriptorium, but not before ripping out a page that Brendan had created for the book. Shortly thereafter, the Vikings invade Kells, and Cellach watches in horror as they breach the wooden gate. Brendan and Aidan manage to escape by using smoke from the gall berry ink, confusing the raiders when they burst into the scriptorium. Meanwhile, the wooden staircase to the central tower of the abbey becomes overloaded with panicked villagers and collapses. The village and abbey below is set ablaze.

Cellach is wounded by an arrow, and stabbed by a Viking raider; Brendan is dragged away by the frantic Aidan, who tells him that there is nothing that he can do. After they leave, Cellach, having survived the attack, sees the burning remains of the scriptorium. The central tower of the abbey is left untouched by the Vikings, leaving the few villagers and Brother Tang to survive the carnage. Thinking that his nephew has perished, Cellach falls into a deep despair.

While running through the woods, Brendan and Aidan are confronted by the raiders, and the Viking leader takes the book's bejeweled cover and scatters the pages. Before two Viking raiders can kill Brendan and Aidan, Aisling's black wolves attack the Vikings, saving the two refugees. Brendan and Aidan gather the pages and depart. Cellach and the remaining villagers take refuge in the monastery.

Brendan and Aidan travel across Ireland, and, after many years, complete the book. Aidan, after entrusting the book to Brendan, dies. The now-adult Brendan returns to Kells with Pangur Bán, guided by Aisling (in wolf form). The aged guilt-ridden Cellach is nearing death. Brendan and the abbot happily reunite, and Brendan displays the complete Book of Kells to his uncle. The film closes with an animation rendition of some of the illuminated pages of the book.

Cast

• Evan McGuire as Brendan, a bright, imaginative and curious 12-year-old who leads a sheltered life.
• Brendan Gleeson as Abbot Cellach, a former illuminator who now superintends a wall to protect the Abbey of Kells from invasion.
• Christen Mooney as Aisling, a forest fairy, related to the Tuatha De Danann, living in the woods outside of Kells.
• Mick Lally as Brother Aidan, a master illuminator
• Michael McGrath as Adult Brendan
• Liam Hourican as Brothers Tang and Leonardo, two illuminators from Asia and Italy, respectively.
• Paul Tylak as Brother Assoua, an illuminator from Africa.
• Paul Young as Brother Square, an illuminator from England.

Influences

The film is based on the story of the origin of the Book of Kells, an illuminated manuscript Gospel book in Latin, containing the four Gospels of the New Testament located in Dublin, Ireland. It also draws upon Celtic mythology;^[7] examples include its inclusion of Crom Cruach, a pre-Christian Irish deity^[8] and the reference to the poetic genre of Aislings, in which a poet is confronted by a dream or vision of a seeress, in the naming of the forest sprite encountered by Brendan. Wider mythological similarities have also been commented upon, such as parallels between Brendan's metaphysical battle with Crom Cruach and Beowulf's underwater encounter with Grendel's mother.^[9] The Secret of Kells began development in 1999, when Tomm Moore and several of his friends were inspired by Richard Williams's The Thief and the Cobbler, Disney's Mulan and the works of Hayao Miyazaki, which based their visual style on the respective traditional art of the cultures featured in each film. They decided to do something similar to Studio Ghibli's films but with Irish art.^[10] Tomm Moore explained that the visual style was inspired by Celtic and medieval art, being 'flat, with false perspective and lots of colour'. Even the clean up was planned to 'obtain the stained glass effect of thicker outer lines'.^[11]

Reception

The film was very well received; it holds a 91% overall approval rating on Rotten Tomatoes based on 78 reviews with an average rating of 7.6/10^[12] with the critical consensus that "Beautifully drawn and refreshingly calm, The Secret of Kells hearkens back to animation's golden age with an enchanting tale inspired by Irish mythology."^[12] On Metacritic, which assigns a normalized rating out of 100 based on reviews from critics, the film has a score of 81 (indicating "universal acclaim") based on 20 reviews.

Some critics compared the film to Hayao Miyazaki's works such as Princess Mononoke and Spirited Away. www.movies.ie called it "a unique animated movie... beautifully made... has a magical other-worldly feel, with a script and visuals that reminded me of Hayao Miyazaki's movies (Spirited Away, etc.)... puts other 3D movies with bigger budgets to shame". Joe Morgenstern of the Wall Street Journal said that "it pays homage to Celtic culture and design, together with techniques and motifs that evoke Matisse, Miyazaki and the minimalist cartoons of UPA".^[13]

Gary Thompson of the Philadelphia Daily News said The Secret of Kells "is noteworthy for its unique, ornate design, its moments of silence... and gorgeous music".^[14] Leslie Felperin of Variety Magazine praised the film as "Refreshingly different" and "absolutely luscious to behold".^[15] Jeremy W. Kaufmann of Ain't It Cool News called its animation "absolutely brilliant",^[16] and reviewers at Starlog called it "one of the greatest hand drawn independent animated movies of all time".^[17] Writing for the Los Angeles Times, Charles Solomon ranked the film the tenth best anime on his "Top 10".^[18] On Oscar weekend it was released at the IFC Center in New York City and was then released in other venues and cities in the United States, where it grossed $667,441.^[19]

Accolades

Wins

• 2008: Directors Finders Award at the Directors Finders Series in Ireland
• 2009: Audience Award at the Annecy International Animated Film Festival
• 2009: Audience Award at the Edinburgh International Film Festival
• 2009: Roy E. Disney Award at Seattle's 2D Or Not 2D Film Festival
• 2009: Grand Prize at the Seoul International Cartoon and Animation Festival^[20]
• 2009: Audience Award at the 9th Kecskemét Animation Film Festival; Kecskemét City Prize at the 6th Festival of European Animated Feature Films and TV Specials^[21]
• 2010: Best Animation award at the 7th Irish Film and Television Awards^[22]
• 2010: European Animated Feature Award at the British Animation Awards^[23]

Nominations

• 2009: Grand Prix Award for Best Film in the Annecy International Animated Film Festival
• 2009: Best Animated Film at the 22nd European Film Awards
• 2009: Best Animated Feature at the 37th Annie Awards
• 2010: Best Film at the 7th Irish Film and Television Awards
• 2010: Best Animated Feature at the 82nd Academy Awards

See also

• List of animated feature-length films
• Cartoon Saloon
• Iona

References

Literature

• Keazor, Henry, "Stil, Symbol, Struktur: ‘The Tree of Life’ als Motiv im Film", in: Der achte Tag. Naturbilder in der Kunst des 21. Jahrhunderts, edited by Frank Fehrenbach and Matthias Krüger, Berlin/Boston 2016, p. 163 - 200

External links

• {{official website|http://www.gkids.com/films/the-secret-of-kells/}}
• {{IMDb title|0485601|The Secret of Kells}}
• {{allrovi movie|480597|The Secret of Kells}}
• {{mojo title|secretofkells|The Secret of Kells}}
• {{rotten-tomatoes|secret_of_the_kells|The Secret of Kells}}
• {{metacritic film|the-secret-of-kells|The Secret of Kells}}

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