After an untidy opening which almost masks the pleasures of what is to come, Tomm Moore’s Irish animation, drawn with painstaking reference to both Celtic myth and medieval manuscripts, possesses a lively originality that shows Europe’s animators not far behind America’s and in some ways in front of them.
The tale, set in the ninth century in a remote part of Ireland, has 12-year-old Brendan helping the monks who look after him to fortify their abbey against the Vikings. Learning from a master illuminator, he tries to finish his own book, which requires him to enter an enchanted forest beyond the abbey’s walls. The moral is that artistic vision and enlightenment are sometimes as good a fortification against barbarians as stout walls. But it is the original animation that draws you into a film which parents may take their children to without fear of adult boredom.
The Secret Of Kells
Cert: PG
