The Secret of Kells (2009)

I remember first hearing about this movie when it was nominated for an Academy Award last year for Best Animated Feature film. I don't always love animated movies, for me it either needs to be a really great story, or highly amusing. I had never heard of this one, and I tend to forget about them if they aren't on my kid's radar. This one popped up when I was adding new stuff to my instant Netflix queue and so I tossed it on there, forgetting about it for awhile, until Steph mentioned that she had watched it and enjoyed it, so I picked it for yesterdays movie of the day. I loved this movie from the first five minutes. I found it visually magical and beautiful. The story is about a young monk living in a monestary that ends up helping a traveler that comes and is working on completing the Book of Kells. He asks Brendan, the young boy for help, but helping him means leaving the protective walls of the monestary and venturing into the forest. He decides to help and he meets a fairie girl named Aisling and his adventures start there. I won't post any further story/spoilers because I think this is so worth watching, that I don't want to give anything away. I loved everything about this movie. Every scene could be paused and looked at as a work of art. I can see myself watching this multiple times just to look at the many geometric shapes, doodles, celtic art, watercolored frames, and color. The music is haunting when it needs to be, and exciting when the action is going on. Chloe watched quite a bit of this with me and seemed to really be taken in by its interesting imagery. Ian I think got a little bored, but if he gave it a chance I think he would really enjoy it. This is definitely a film for all ages. A perfect little movie, I highly recommend it.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0485601/