This is a review of the Secret of Kells animated film (2010). After watching it, I looked up the story behind it. Knowing the background actually helps me to understand and appreciate the story a bit more than just from watching the film. I’m not sure if that’s a good thing or a bad thing. I would give it somewhere around 3.5 out of 5 – around 3 for the story and around 4 for the animation.
The story itself is quite dark, following a boy named Brendan who has no parents and is living in an abbey under the protection of his uncle, the abbot. The abbot is obsessed with building a wall around the abbey due to fear of viking attacks. He’s constantly critical of Brendan and doesn’t ever seem to listen to him. Brendan also doesn’t ever seem to listen to his uncle, and does what he pleases. For being a “family film”, it doesn’t seem to promote good family dynamics. In addition, it’s quite dark and has some scariness to the viking attack sequences which probably wouldn’t be great for young children. People end up getting shot with arrows and buildings are burnt down… it also seems a bit more graphic in that regard than a typical child’s film so this may be better for ten and up.
I also thought it was quite odd in the film to see the mix of paganism and Christianity, in fact the film portrays the abbot quite negatively but the pagan parts of the film are portrayed positively. Considering the Book of Kells mixed Christianity and paganism I can see why it was mixed in the film, but I wish that Christianity hadn’t been portrayed as negatively through the abbot. In addition pagan gods are depicted in the story but the theme of Christianity doesn’t come through at all.
The plot itself seemed to flow okay until towards the end. There was an extreme time jump, but I am guessing this was done to show how the book was completed and shared among the people of Ireland.
The vikings were incredibly flat characters; they were practically not even recognizable as humans in the way that they were drawn. It seemed like the story writers didn’t try to give them any piece of the story other than being a force like a natural disaster that swept through an area and destroyed it. I kind of wanted to see them become part of the story, but there weren’t any actual viking characters. They were basically all depicted as monsters, and they were all indistinguishable from one another. I really feel like it could have added to the story to humanize them a bit.
As a story, I think I liked the bits in the forest the most. They were quite captivating through the animation style but also some of the most emotionally charged scenes.
In all, the film was designed to represent the Irish traditional art style which appeared in the Book of Kells as well as represent the story of its creation. In that sense, the movie was a huge success. The art style is very stylized and very different from most animated films. If anything it reminded me of some of the highly stylized animated shows like Samurai Jack. The music was also memorable and helped enhance the atmosphere.
星女 