Review of Song of the Sea (2014) by Colginator — 15 Jul 2015

From the opening sounds as we first hear the hypnotic "Song of the Sea" it is clear that this film is something special. It's a Celtic song that a pregnant mother sings to her 4 year old son to tell the tale of the Selkie, a mystical creature with the power to live as a seal at sea and human on land with the ability to carry the spirits across the oceans. Shortly after this he wakes to find his father clutching his new born sister in his arms, with his mother disappeared.

6 years later, the young boy named Ben (David Rawle) has grown to be a grumpy child who has been raised by his father Conor (Brendan Gleeson), neither of whom have been able to get over the loss of a mother and a wife. He's raised along with his sister Saoirsie who has yet to speak a single word despite nearly reaching six years old. But the relationship between Ben and his sister is troubled, as he often treats her with much disdain and distance. He loves his sister as any brother would, but blames her for the loss of his mother at the same time causing him to to act out at times.

This difficult situation leads to the children's grandmother (Fionnula Flanagan) to take them to the city of Dublin, away from the lighthouse and the sea in the hope of having them finally recover. But Ben misses his home, with the lighthouse being one of the few things left to connect him to his mother and sets off to journey home. On his journey he encounters the mystic creatures of Irish folk lore that he was enamoured with as a child from giants made of stone to an aged creature who contains the memories of every mystic creature in his long beard. From these creatures Ben discovers that his sister is a selkie and he must return her to the sea so she can sing the selkie's song to release the souls of the mystic creatures.

Unlike the standard computer animated films that have become too commonplace, Song of the Sea is lovingly drawn with hand drawn animation. It's truly imaginative in its visuals at times creating beauty in the mundane through creating the streets of Dublin and having gorgeous bright lights engulfing the town at night. At others it creates the mystic land of the sea and the sight of the seals swimming majestically against the rough waves or giants emerging from the ocean's depths. It is constantly beautiful and carries with it stunning attention to detail bringing the world to life through incredible touches including dust particles floating in the sunlight, creating a world to behold through its more traditional take on animation.

Whilst the film explores the entirety of Celtic legend, the core of the film remains its characters and how they deal with their bereavement and depression. Each character deals with their pain in a different way with some removing their emotions entirely due to not being able to handle them any longer or becoming obsessed with the past when they were happy. With this we get great emotional depth from all the characters as we can understand and even possibly relate to all the pain that they are going through. But the centre relationship is the heartwarming relationship between Ben and his sister. He is going through a difficult period of his life, at times being selfish and even cruel because of his his reeling from the loss of his mother. But as the film goes on we watch many beautiful scenes where we see he is a brother willing to go any length to save his sister.

I could draw all kinds of comparisons about this films to other animated gems. I could say that it has the sense of childlike wonder that you see in a Disney film. I could say that the film delivers the same spirit of adventure of a Ghibli film. But comparisons like this do the film a disservice. This film stands in its own right delivering a unique animation style and focus on Irish culture not quite like any I've seen before. It is truly a masterpiece.