Review of The Secret of Kells (2009) by Jim S — 19 Apr 2011

So interesting to see the celtic art-work, appropriate to the topic, instead of, say, Studio Ghibli. This is just as good, but for many of us will sadly not have the air of the exotic. Wouldn't it be great if there could be more movies, less traditional, in this style... but that's not going to happen, and it doesn't really escape its locale to become truly universal, despite the themes of deep knowledge of nature vs. culture... which is better: the natural world or our understandings of it?

Vikings are the baddies. And a nice take on the generation gap / coming-of-age / rebellion stuff... the junior hero needs to find himself to be able to complete the illumination. How to merge animistic/faerie mytholody with the monastic? The nature-inspired art-work.

Is this better than Disney's "ethnic" animations like Hercules, Mulan and The Emperor's New Groove? yes in quality and authenticity, no in entertainment value I suspect, because it's a bit confusing and there are no stars or block-buster songs. I think the unexplained and jumbled mystical elements had that Japanese flavour of "just accept" rather than the logical Disney "explain everything" approach.