Song of the Sea 2014
I was given a Screen Pass to someone’s collection and saw this movie listed. It got phenomenal ratings when it came out and lost the Oscar for Best Animated Feature to Big Hero 6. It is a classic foreign animated film, kind of slow with very pretty, albeit simple, animation, generally “charming.” It is mostly an Irish production, but several European animation studios helped out. There is a lot of sadness, starting with the death of a mother, leaving behind her loving but negligent husband, an older son, and a newborn daughter that the son mistreats because he blames her for the death of his mother. It takes a while for things to get going and I had no idea where that might be, so I don’t want to give anything away, but Celtic mythology is involved. Most kids (and grown ups) will be bored by this movie without action or much comedy, and only a few Irish folk ballads for songs. But, like the critics that praised it, some people (who love Hayao Miyazaki movies) will be crazy about it. I‘m somewhere in between. I was mostly worried terrible things were going to happen to the kids or dog after the filmmakers killed off the mother and the two kids are in constant danger of one kind or another. It is a little manipulative, but it does turn out to be interesting and magical, easier to like than some of the other highbrow Oscar bait animation.
Written: 29 Aug 2021
Owned on: Digital