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France/Belgium/Ireland: Tomm Moore, 2009; IMDB

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.

USA: Sam Mendes, 1999; IMDB

USA: Robert Schwentke, 2005; IMDB

USA: Tommy Wiseau, 2003; IMDB

Original title: Lo strano vizio della Signora Wardh
Italy/Spain: Sergio Martino, 1971; IMDB

Original title: L'uccello dalle piume di cristallo
Italy/West Germany: Dario Argento, 1970; IMDB

UK: Chris Morris, 2010; IMDB

Spain: Gabe Ibáñez, 2009; IMDB

I had reasonably high expectations for this "missing child" horror/thriller, advertised as being from the producers of PAN'S LABYRINTH and THE ORPHANAGE. I wouldn't say I was disappointed as such by the end result, but it's definitely in the shadow of those two superior movies (incidentally, of the two, I actually prefer THE ORPHANAGE). Lead actress Elena Anaya and the slick photography by DP Alejandro Martínez carry what is essentially a very straightforward story that does little to step beyond the clichés associated with movies of this type. As pointed out by Mike Sutton in his review at The Digital Fix, it has a lot in common with Robert Schwentke's Jodie Foster thriller FLIGHTPLAN (including the missing child, the "is she deluded or not?" mother and the slick, clinical photography), but for my money that film made much better use of its premise. HIERRO ultimately does what it sets out to achieve, but when you don't set the bar particularly high in the first place that's not exactly a massive accomplishment.

Italy/Spain: Sergio Martino, 1971; IMDB

USA: David Fincher, 2002; IMDB

(Watched with commentary by David Koepp and William Goldman)

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