Le chant de la mer

"My son, remember me in your stories and in your songs. Know that I will always love you, always." Mother Bronagh

A good kids' animation will usually include some well-known motifs such as in Hansel and Gretel and The Wizard of Oz; Tomm Moore's Song of the Sea does. However, this is no ordinary animation: It swirls with pastels that morph into imaginative lines capturing humans and faeries as if the world supported both in their glory and despair--a phantasmagoric hot mess if you will. As he did in his first spectacular animation, the Secret of Kells, Moore hand draws (without the aid of computer) a maritime story about Ireland, not some nebulous Neverland.

Despite the imaginative, albeit almost primitive visuals, the story hammers home some important themes, especially for kids: the challenges of an older brother with a younger sister and the loss of a parent inducing depression to cause muteness. In addition, the interaction of a domineering grandma with small children plays a part as the filmmakers accurately target the challenges of growing up for any child.

In this Oscar-nominated tale set in 1987, Saoirse (voice of Lucy O'Connell), a mute child living in a lighthouse with her tormenting older brother, suffers the loss of mother, who is actually one of the Selkies (women in Scottish and Irish legend who change from seals to people while hiding their sealness). So, too, little Selkie Saoirse, who struggles to bring back mother from the sea and deal with grumpy grandma at the same time.

Saoirse's responsibility is to save all the fairy creatures from the modern world. Besides meeting an array of eccentric characters, she helps her bro learn to love her, and dad to accept the loss of his wife. If the story is not new enough for you, then relax with visuals that will hypnotize in their simplicity of execution and complexity of theme.

Then you can also consider how this 6 million dollar movie beats the heck out of major studio productions costing twenty times that.

Amazing artwork and amazing story! I must say this movie has a story to tell that will work up to your emotion just like sea touching a stone and fills it with life. Music is great! The use of color and environment is so vivid and well thought. "Song of the sea" takes you into a emotional and adventurous journey with Saoirse and Ben. I strongly recommend to watch this animated movie. If you are a fan of animation you will simply love it. I've watched quite a lot of work of Studio Ghibli. 2D work like this is rare to come by these days. Wonderful creation! You should make movies like this and unlock a part of us which has been lost in the waves of time. Thank you. :)

It is generally accepted that only Disney can do animation with strong musical themes. Wrong.

It is generally accepted that only Japan can produce superior animation.Wrong.

It is generally accepted that FINDING NEMO was the best animated story about the sea.Wrong.

The other IMDb reviewer who said this could be the best animated feature ever made may not be wrong. It is one of a kind.

I could go on but hopefully you get the point.

Wonderful. Enchanting. Magical. Perfect.

I couldn't even hit the PAUSE button.

A vacation to a recurring place, like that cabin in the mountains you visit once a year, is one of those nostalgic memories that you treasure so much that you'll try hard to recreate it when your turn comes to be a parent. For most, there are either mountain people or beach people; one set enjoys the sea air and playing in the sand while there are those that prefer the smell of pine and the wide openness of nature. I've had the privilege to have both, though I consider myself more of a beach guy.

One place that my parents would take my brother and I (and still do to this day) is the lovely Laguna Beach. The conflicting scents of sunscreen and ocean water give me such a relaxing buzz that I can't help but feel that the sea itself calls to me. Being about to observe the tide corals and touch them, as well as sticking my feet in the water just seems to define Southern California. It's such a laid back atmosphere and it's something that I hope to observe more in the future. The call of the ocean is the subject in Song of the Sea.

It's set in Ireland where we find a family living on an island in a lighthouse where a young boy named Ben loves his life with his lighthouse keeper father and his mother whose ready to give birth to a daughter. One night she disappears into the sea but the daughter is born safely. The father becomes distant from his kids out of guilt that he couldn't have saved his wife, leaving young Ben to care for his sister.

Six years later, the girl, named Saoirse, has yet to speak and easily frustrates Ben as he's remained fearful of the ocean water and forbids her to enter it. The two are your typical brother sister set who tend to fight and play pranks on each other, even though Ben is usually the troublemaker. Their grandmother comes to visit on Saoirse's birthday and tries again to persuade her son to let the grandkids come live with her. Things seem to go fine until Saoirse finds her mothers seashell that was given to Ben. She finds that when she plays it, a magical force leads her to find a coat where upon wearing in the sea, will allow her to turn into a seal. The incident convinces the father the kids might be better off and send them to their grandmother. The kids don't like the arrangement and set off to return to the lighthouse while coming across some other mysterious Celtic legends.

The team behind this picture also made the previously Oscar nominated Secret of the Kells. As with their last film, Song of the Sea is beautifully hand drawn, which is something we really need more of. Some say that computer animation is all what people want, but I think if marketed well, this would have done as well as a regular Disney movie (maybe not Frozen levels, but a lot).

As a story, Song of the Sea is a nice coming of age story that nicely shows a genuine relationship of brother and sister. A lot of the brother-sister sets we see are usually fighting or really close, yet this one is a bit a both, and because of that, feels more real. I too would be just as stressed should my sibling have never talked.

The legends of giants turning into stone islands, trolls living in cities and owl witches are fun to hear about and have a timeless quality that more Americans should hear about. That might be the Irish ancestry inside of me but what are young gonna do?

I'll give this nine seashell flutes out of ten. Song of the Sea has plenty of mysterious fantasy without any unnecessary pandering that one might receive from Nickelodeon. This is a film a highly recommend to not just families, but to those that have had a sibling.

Song of the Sea is perhaps known best for being one of the films nominated for the Best Animated Feature Oscar, and after seeing the film it's easy to see why. It's a beautiful and enchanting film, and one of the strongest of the nominees of what was mostly a solid line-up (one where even the weakest of the nominees, The Boxtrolls, had a lot of fine things about it). And as well-done a film The Secret of Kells is, to me Song of the Sea is the superior film, having connected more with the story.

Song of the Sea is so wonderfully animated, the character designs have a real charm without being too cute or stereotyped, but even better are the breathtakingly beautiful colours and very handsomely detailed and at its best magical background art. The music score is equally striking, the melancholic and lilting Celtic sound fitting so well and hauntingly with the story's emotional mood. The film contains a beautifully written script, thoughtful, poignant and with many nuances.

That the story was so easy to connect with was yet another thing that Song of the Sea excelled so well at, it doesn't try to do too much, for one as layered and rich as this one, nor does it feel too slight for the running time. The atmosphere is enchanting, but it was the emotional impact that was even more resonant, it is a subject very easy to identify with and the most emotional parts were just heart-breaking. The characters are interesting and engaging, Ben starts off a little stereotypical but goes through a significant amount of character growth throughout the film that it becomes far easier to warm to him. The voice work is fine, with an admirably nimble Brendan Gleeson and a charming and emotive Lucy O'Connell being particularly strong while David Rawle portrays Ben's development and emotions very believably as well.

All in all, outstanding film and really does cast an enchantingly intoxicating spell on anyone who has the fortune to watch it. 10/10 Bethany Cox