This is an Irish ani­mated film by Car­toon Saloon, the mak­ers of Skunk Fu, Old Fangs and CúIlín Dúalach. It screened at the Berlin Inter­na­tional Film Fes­ti­val in Feb­ru­ary this year. Soon after it was nom­i­nated for an Acad­emy Award for Best Ani­mated Film.

The story takes place in the XIX cen­tury. Abbot Cel­lach is rais­ing with firm hand his nephew Bren­dan. After Bren­dan meets brother Aidan, the monastery’s illus­tra­tor, he dis­cover the beauty of art and cre­ativ­ity. Hav­ing dis­cov­ered fan­tasy, Bren­dan decides that instead of fol­low­ing his uncle’s steps, he will fol­low his on dream, he decides to com­plete the book of Kells, which takes him on a mag­i­cal adventure.

Direc­tor Tomm Moore said “The nom­i­na­tion for The Secret of Kells in the ani­mated fea­ture cat­e­gory of the Acad­emy Awards is a huge sur­prise and hon­our. It’s a trib­ute to the hard work and ded­i­ca­tion of the entire crew and all our part­ners in the pro­duc­tion”.

I have only seen the trail­ers and can not wait to get the DVD. The char­ac­ter design is aston­ish­ing and the whole look of the film seems to be promis­ing tex­tures and spaces only pos­si­ble in 2D, it has a je-ne-sais-quoi that comes as refresh­ing and nec­es­sary in these times of CG surplus.