Tuesday, October 5, 2010

BD impressions: The Secret of Kells

9:54 PM / BD Impressions / Comments8 Comments

BD Impressions
Blu-ray

I don't think it would be unreasonable to suggest that THE SECRET OF KELLS would have been a lot less interesting if not for its visuals. This is in no way meant as a damning criticism - I've always said that animation, rather than slavishly trying to mimic live action, should concentrate on doing stuff you couldn't possibly do in any other medium, and THE SECRET OF KELLS is basically a manifesto to that ideology. With its perspective-defying Celtic art-inspired backgrounds and angular character designs that look like a cross between KIM POSSIBLE and SAMURAI JACK, this is easily the most visually creative animated film I've seen in ages, and on that basis alone it held my attention for the duration of its 75-minute running time. The voice acting is also impeccable for the most part (barring Brendan Gleeson as the abbot, whom I suspect was going for stern but instead comes across as bland), and special mention going to Christen Mooney as Aisling, the mysterious wood spirit who appears in all the promotional material, and the late Mick Lally as the elderly Brother Aidan.

Story-wise, I suspect it will resonate a good deal more with those familiar with the folklore that inspired it. For someone such as myself, completely ignorant about that side of things, I was a little confused at times and felt that more should have been done to explain just what was so special about the book after which the film is named and which serves as the primary motivating factor in just about everything the protagonist does. Speaking of which, the film does suffer from a problem common with animated features, in that it basically surrounds a rather bland, uninteresting protagonist with a bunch of colourful characters all of whom are considerably more interesting than him - I call this Charlie Bucket syndrome.

I'd encourage everyone to give THE SECRET OF KELLS a look. I'd be more inclined to describe it as interesting than entertaining or particularly engaging, but it's nice to see an animated film that doesn't follow the cookie cutter formula. It has an individual point of view and you can tell the artists poured themselves into every frame. It's not going to unsettle TOY STORY 3 from its position of best animated film of the year, but to be honest those two films aren't even competing on the same terms.

Image quality: A very nice-looking disc for the previously unheard of (by me) New Video Group, marred only by some slight banding in a few shots (see Example 20) and some blocking in the more complicated scenes (see Example 4). 9/10

The Secret of Kells
studio: New Video Group; country: USA; region code: ABC; codec: AVC;
file size: 19.8 GB; average bit rate (including audio): 36.17 Mbit/sec

The Secret of Kells The Secret of Kells The Secret of Kells The Secret of Kells The Secret of Kells The Secret of Kells The Secret of Kells The Secret of Kells The Secret of Kells The Secret of Kells The Secret of Kells The Secret of Kells The Secret of Kells The Secret of Kells The Secret of Kells The Secret of Kells The Secret of Kells The Secret of Kells The Secret of Kells The Secret of Kells The Secret of Kells

 
8 Comments

1. Marcus said:

Though I give TOY STORY 3 the edge, I thought the second best animated film last year was Wes Anderson's overlooked THE FANTASTIC MR. FOX. It's a very interesting watching experience actually: Never at any point did I feel like I was watching an animated film.

Haven't seen KELLS yet.

(Posted on Wednesday, October 6, 2010 at 2:52 AM)

2. David S.H. said:

Had a look on Amazon, there's a pre-order listing for 1st November, an Optimum release. Hopefully it looks as good as the US disc.

(Posted on Wednesday, October 6, 2010 at 3:21 AM)

3. Greg M said:

I've been meaning to check this out. Every time I see a screen shot though I think I'm looking at something from Richard Williams' "The Thief and the Cobbler."

(Posted on Wednesday, October 6, 2010 at 5:40 AM)

4. ucupa said:

Thank you ! I appreciate the review and screenshots.

(Posted on Wednesday, October 6, 2010 at 6:36 AM)

5. Paku said:

Thanks for the write-up.

I like how just about every shot looks like it would be perfect as a desktop wallpaper.

I gathered the story might not be remarkable but the visuals are just too enticing to pass on. I grow weary of unstylised 3D, and I'm not at all hyped about Toy Story 3. I didn't even bother to buy the first two on Blu-ray, though I suppose I might pick up the 3-pack at some point if it's cheap.

I wish they would release The Triplets of Belleville on Blu-ray, I still haven't seen that one.

(Posted on Wednesday, October 6, 2010 at 1:19 PM)

6. Author Profile Page Michael said:

Marcus:

Ah, now I haven't seen FANTASTIC MR. FOX YET. The taxidermy look, and the fact that it seemed to be Wes Anderson obliterating the source material in order to make a Wes Anderson Film (TM), put me off. I'll check it out sooner or later, though. I think it's in my rental queue.


Greg:

Yeah, now that you mention it there's a definite THIEF AND THE COBBLER vibe to it.


Paku:

TOY STORY 3 does what it sets out to do extremely well. I'd consider it the best 2010 film I've seen so far, albeit with the proviso that I still haven't seen a whole lot of 2010 films. I don't think I'd ever accuse Pixar of pushing the envelope stylistically, but I'm glad they're around, if for no other reason than it means we're guaranteed at least one animated feature with a solidly constructed story that doesn't take its audience for chumps every year.

And yes, BELLEVILLE - an often-forgotten HD DVD title that's yet to make the jump to BD.

(Posted on Wednesday, October 6, 2010 at 7:18 PM)

7. Marcus said:

THE FANTASTIC MR. FOX is definitely a Wes Anderson film above anything else (Dahl adaptation, animated feature, etc...), but I don't think it's a bad thing at all considering how much I enjoy his work.

(Posted on Wednesday, October 6, 2010 at 8:22 PM)

8. Bleddyn Williams said:

Thanks for the review Michael. I bought this on Tuesday, and its safe to say that if not for this site I don't think it would have been on my radar.

It's a beautiful disc to watch, and the looks alone carry the film, but I do feel the film doesn't have much momentum until the Vikings start getting close. Having said that, and followed the movie with the very interesting half-hour "Director's Presentation" I'm actually keen to watch it again. You'll learn more about The Book of Kells from this extra than the feature itself, which as you pointed out, is a failing of the film.

PAKU - The french "Triplettes of Belleville" HD DVD is one of the discs worth keeping the player for. I'm sure when it emerges in blu it should be stunning. Having said that, I got rid of the old US Sony DVD because it had horrible edge enhancement on horizontal lines (not vertical ones though). The Tartan DVD was much better, though the HD DVD is the current championship title holder.

(Posted on Thursday, October 7, 2010 at 8:12 PM)

 
To combat spam, commenting is automatically disabled on entries older than 30 days.

Did a comment you tried to post accidentally get eaten by the spam filter? It happens from time to time. I get upwards of 200 spam comments every day and unfortunately don't have the time to weed through all of them in case something genuine ended up there by mistake. If one of your posts gets incorrectly flagged as spam, email me at m.r.mackenzie[at]gmail[dot]com and I'll do my best to retrieve it.

 
Archives
Categories
Recent posts