Dir. TOMM MOORE (& NORA TWOMEY); Wri. FABRICE ZIOLKOWSKI; Music. BRUNO COULAIS & KILA; Starring. EVAN McQUIRE, BRENDAN GLEESON, CHRISTEN MOONY, MICK LALLY, MICHAEL McGRATH, LIAM HOURICAN, PAUL TYLAK, PAUL YOUNG; R.T. 75 mins; 2009, France/Belgium/Ireland
WHAT IT’S ABOUT: The Dark Ages Irish Abbey of Kells is the only world that twelve year-old Brendan (McGuire) has ever known, having been brought up under the strict tutelage of his uncle, Abbot Cellach (Gleeson), who is obsessed with completing the massive sanctuary wall intended to protect Kells from attack by rumoured Viking hordes. This all changes with the arrival of Brother Aidan (Lally), a venerable master illuminator charged with the completion of the Book of Iona, a gospel manuscript with illustrations so rich they’re reputed to “turn darkness into light”. Seeing great artistic potential in Brendan, Aidan enlists his help in the work, inspiring Brendan to go out into the larger world outside the Abbey, where he meets and befriends a spirited forest elf, Aisling (Moony). But there are dangers waiting for him out there too, and the Vikings draw nearer every day …
WHY IT’S AWESOME: I’ll admit, I’d never actually heard of this Oscar-nominated film when I first discovered the work of multi-award-winning animation director Tomm Moore, instead introduced when I encountered 2014’s mesmerising sleeper hit Song of the Sea. It was only later, as I began to learn more about that film and its masterful creator, that I stumbled across this, his absolute masterpiece, a film of such singular style and immense beauty and power that I was left entirely awestruck. Like many of the best animated features, it’s a feast for all ages, a perfect means to engross children for an hour-and-change but just as fascinating and rewarding for grown-ups, deceptively simple and fun but ultimately proving surprisingly sophisticated once you start digging down through its MANY layers. It’s a triumph of visual storytelling, Moore and co-director Nora Twomey (The Breadwinner, which Moore also co-directed) eschewing traditional exposition for a near-textbook example of the inherent strengths of Show-Don’t-Tell, and we’re pulled in hook, line and sinker by its well-written, perfectly-pitched characters and exquisitely esoteric, stylised visuals, the animation intentionally invoking the Celtic art and religious iconography resplendent in the film’s subject matter, lending it a rich, delicious, haunting and occasionally unsettling beauty that effortlessly holds the eye. The voice-cast are uniformly excellent, too – Brendan may have been the only role of note for Evan McGuire, but he made him a compellingly precocious young hero, especially in his interactions with fellow unknown Christen Moony, who brought sweet mischief to youthful fairy Aisling but tempered it with an edge of ancient sadness that yearningly evokes the lost wonder of the legendary Tuatha De Danann she represents, and with acclaimed late Irish character actor Mick Lally (A Man of No Importance), who brought the gleeful twinkle of a favourite uncle to Brother Aidan, while living legend Brendan Gleeson instils cool, stony authority and unshaken integrity in the Abbot of Kells. There are many moments of simple, wide-eyed wonder and plenty of honest, wholesome belly laughs too, but there’s also a compelling dark side to the film, particularly in the fantastic beast-like portrayal of the Vikings and Brendan’s skin-crawling encounters with ancient Celtic demon Crom Cruach, and a lot of dramatic power to add some epic FEELS to the viewing experience. Equal parts visually arresting and emotionally enthralling, this truly is one of the most spell-binding animated features to have come along this century, a perfect evocation of an age long since passed, and still the crowning glory of one of the very best filmmakers working in this cinematic art-form today. I’m thoroughly intrigued to see what Tomm Moore will bring us when his latest project, Wolfwalkers, arrives later this year …
