The Secret of Kells

     Even after watching this movie twice this weekend, I'm not really sure if anything I can say about this movie will be deep or relevant, but does it need to be? The story is an artistic interpretation of the creation of The Book of Kells, which is a famous "illuminated manuscript" of the Gospels renown for the stunning artwork that adorns its pages. That being said, it draws a great amount from pagan Celtic mythology as well, two very important characters to the story are mythological creatures. The first is a forest spirit named Aisling, who helps the main character during the story, and the other is one of two primary antagonists, Crom Cruach. Crom is probably the most interesting of the two to me because he is an ancient Irish dark god. One of the pervading themes in this movie is the idea of turning darkness to light, and this theme is most definitely displayed in Crom's roll in the story. His eye is a crystal which is needed to complete the intricate art in the book, meaning a dark god was used to write a book of light.

Mythological and historical allusions aside though, the characters and plot are nothing unique. The main character, Brendan, is your typical naive, day-dreamy, youthful hero type, his uncle is the evil stepmother, and Aidan of Iona is Ben Kenobi...oh and Pangur Bán is the creature companion. That being said, I feel the characters don't need to be anything else in this film as I think the most important aspect was the theme of turning darkness to light, which they nailed right on the head. Despite all the obstacles placed before Brendan, all of them are worked into the greater good, even when the Vikings arrive and drive Brendan out of Kells, it only serves to set him on a journey to spread the teachings of the book to the outside world. 
     Now, no discussion of this movie can be made without mentioning the visuals, they were fantastic. The style of the film is very flat, evoking the same feeling as the art which adorns the pages of the Book of Kells itself. One of the pieces of advice Aidan gives to Brendan is that you can learn a lot from nature, I feel this is represented in the art as the shapes in Brendan's art are reflected in the shapes of the forest. The tree branches twist around one another like intricate calligraphy and the tree line evokes the feeling of a stained glass window pane or page liner. The music is also excellent, who doesn't like a good Celtic song? This movie's got plenty of those. Overall I'd say this was a great film, even if the plot doesn't grab you, the theme and images will. BUT IF THEY DIN'T! Feel free to comment about it. If you haven't seen it and want to, it's free on Hulu. Go watch it.