The Secret of Kells (2009)

The second animated movie co-produced in Belgium I've seen in the past few weeks, The Secret of Kells couldn't be less like A Town Called Panic. The latter was a madcap, stop-motion animated laugh-fest, whereas Kells features gorgeous 2D animation, only a few laughs, and a story about a load of monks and a book. Where the two movies compare is in how original and enjoyable they both are.

Kells looked amazing on Blu-ray, and the animation is reminiscent of book illustrations and paintings from bygone ages. I had heard of the Book of Kells, but I didn't really know what it was, and the movie doesn't do much to enlighten you, for this is a tale of the book's creation as seen through the eyes of young Brendan. According to Wikipedia, the Book is 'an illuminated manuscript and known today as one of Ireland's greatest national treasures', so there you go.

The movie opens with Brendan and an assortment of monks of different shapes, sizes and colours giving chase to a goose in order to pluck feathers for use as quill pens. So far so Disney, it particularly put me in mind of Mulan for some reason, and then Brendan later gets a feline sidekick (non-speaking though) who tags along on his adventures. Here's where the Disney comparisons end, although you could say the animation is similar to the stylised work in the opening credits of classics such as Sleeping Beauty. Kells' plot about Brendan, trapped in the Abbey of Kells by his uncle Abbot Cellach who is building high walls all around to protect the abbey from marauding Vikings (rendered as demonic, square-bodied demons, and really quite scary), and Brendan's relationship with master book artist Aidan of Iona is not exactly what dreams are made of.

Brendan does escape the walls into the forest where he meets a sprite named Aisling, who helps him to find berries to make a particular ink for the Book of Kells. Further into the movie, Brendan must find a special crystal and enters an angular world where a snake begins eating itself... It's very strange. Then the Vikings attack, killing many, and despite shooting an arrow into him and slicing him through with a sword, Abbot Cellach lives to see another day while Brendan and Aidan escape. Thinking back, there's actually not a lot of plot, and what there is centres around drawing illustrations in a book of gospel. Now, if Pixar had told the same tale in the same style, I'm sure it would have drawn crowds in millions, for Up had an unconventional old man and child pairing, with a grown up storyline, but sadly The Secret of Kells didn't have the same studios behind it.

I'm glad that I found the movie (in the pages of Empire, where I also read about Panic), as it's a beautiful piece of work. The animation is the best part of the movie, it is the artwork that grips you and pulls you into the story, and it is the stylistic appeal that would make me watch the movie again. That's not to say the story and characters have nothing to recommend them, they're all well and good, it makes sense that a movie that is all about the beautifully rendered pages of the Book of Kells should look so pretty itself.