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Can a Film Be Too Good to Review? by Karl Cohen
Scene from Tomm Moore's 'Song of the Sea', a mostly hand-painted animated feature heralded by everyone from the Oscars to Variety and the Village Voice. photo: courtesy T. Moore
DO YOU DARE GO ON AN ENCHANTING
animated magical adventure into a world you have never seen before; a world occupied by playful seals, helpful spirits and fairies and an evil witch?
“Song of the Sea” depicts such an enchanted world where the artwork is breathtakingly beautiful at times and doesn’t look like anything you’ve seen before. Although this film is set in the present in Ireland, it depicts a journey to a land where fairytales happen. It is nothing short of wonderful magical experience.
When I first saw “Song of the Sea” by Tomm Moore (also "The Secret of Kells", 2009, and "Kahlil Gibran's The Prophet", 2014) I was so swept away with this joyful fantasy that I needed to see it a second time ASAP so I could collect my thoughts about it.
I wanted to write something intelligent, but I was so emotionally involved at the first screening and the suspension of disbelief was so great that all I could do was gush about the charming story and artwork. Rarely do I feel that I need to see a feature a second time. In recent years the only other film experiences that have fallen into this category for me were seeing "Book of Kells" (also by Moore), "Earnest and Celestine" (2012) and "Triplets of Bellvue" (2002).
“Song of the Sea” is a fantasy adventure with a mixture of climatic moments, delightful light-hearted mythological characters, supernatural surprises, gorgeous visuals, lovely Celtic music, and other wonderful things.
The artwork seems so remarkably well-designed for each moment that each setting enhances the storytelling. Some settings are dark and foreboding; others have a mysterious quality to them that suggest they are pages of ancient Celtic manuscripts come to life.
Scene from Tomm Moore's 'Song of the Sea' a mostly hand-painted animated feature heralded by everyone from the Oscars to Variety and the Village Voice. photo: courtesy T. Moore
Some of the art is flat semi-abstract in its design while other sequences depict great realistic looking vistas. The film’s magical sequences include tiny glowing dots of light floating through space and explosions of light and color in the night sky. There are also journeys into mysterious buildings, caves and other enchanted spaces.
I chose to see the film at an advanced private screening in a large theatre with the film’s intended audience, a full house of kids in grades K-4. Before it started the noise level suggested being there was a mistake, but when Tomm Moore, the film’s director, introduced his film, the audience became immediately hushed.
He charmed not only the kids but all of us as he discussed how his parents told him Irish fairytales when he was quite young. As a parent he had also introduced his daughters to tales from the ancient Celtic culture. He warned us there would be scary and magical moments and he invited us to remain seated when the film ended as he would be back to answer questions.
I was impressed that the kids were such a great audience. They sat through the 90-minute film utterly mesmerized without a hint of restlessness. They were also quite appreciative in their applause and in their questions. Many were quite uninhibited in the things they asked and Moore gave them intelligent answers that they could understand.
"All too often parents are forced to sit through some mindless animated feature with their children, films made exclusively for the younger set," commented Nancy Phelps, who writes frequently about animation festivals for her and the newsletter of ASIFA-SF (the Bay Area’s chapter of the International Animation Association).
"'Song of the Sea' is a film that every member of the family can enjoy together on a different level. I wish that there were more animated features of this quality."
Scene from Tomm Moore's 'Song of the Sea' a tour de force, mostly hand-painted animated feature heralded by everyone from the Oscars to Variety and the Village Voice. photo: courtesy T. Moore
It turns out the film took about seven years to make. The first four were spent developing the original script and financing, the last three in production and post-production. Since the film was financed with money coming from several countries, a few European studios were involved in completing it. Although teams of artists in different countries created the film, Moore’s hand and aesthetic sensibilities seem to carefully control every second of the film.
Most of the film was hand-drawn, although there was some 2D and 3D computer work along with digital special effects. The budget was under $20 million which I found amazing as the film is equal or better in many ways than a typical big budget computer-generated feature from Hollywood that cost $100 to $200 million. If it took short cuts to keep the budget under control, I wasn’t aware of them.
Now that I’ve seen the film three times I still can’t watch it objectively. It remains an exciting, engrossing work of art that still captivates me too emotionally for me to withdraw to an intellectual observing position. Viewing it remains a subjective experience for me. If you see it I hope you like it as much as I do.
“Song of the Sea” has been nominated for the Oscar for the Best Animated Feature and it is currently being shown in the Bay Area at the Embarcadero Theatre in San Francisco and at the California Theatres in Berkeley. The screening I attended was part of the San Francisco Film Society’s Educational Department outreach program headed by Keith Zwolfer. There were about 275 youngsters present.
As if the actual film were not enough, an exhibit, "The Art of 'Song of the Sea' and The Secret of Kells" will grace the walls of the San Francisco Cartoon Art Museum from February 21 to June 21.
It will feature original and digital concept art from the studio’s two Academy Award-nominated feature films. This behind the scenes look at them is being made possible by the generous support of Cartoon Saloon that helps produce Moore’s projects. The Cartoon Art Museum is located at 655 Mission Street in San Francisco. Call 415-CAR-TOON go here.
Karl Cohen is an animator, educator and director of the local chapter of the International Animation Society and can be reached . Posted on Feb 16, 2015 - 09:52 PM