Secret of Kells (Cartoon Saloon)

"Secret of Kells" is a 2009 Irish-French Belgian animated fantasy film by Cartoon Saloon, about a fictionalized account of the creation of the Book of Kells, an illuminated manuscript of the bible which has since become an Irish national treasure. Having done a few animation works prior, this would however be the studio's first feature film.

Founded in 1999, Cartoon Saloon is an Irish animation film and television studio based in Kilkenny which provides illustration, design, film and TV services. In 2007 to 2008, they developed the successful cartoon series "Skunk Fu!", which was nominated for a BAFTA Children's Award in October 2008.

Look, look!

You can see how incredibly stunning and unique the film's choice of style is, being styled after Celtic manuscript illumination, I especially found it amazing the amount of depth that can still be shown in the environmental designs for the film. 

Normally such a style would be used in very short sequences for animations (Not the best examples, but perhaps the dream sequence in "Prince of Egypt" and during Tiana's song "Almost There" in "The Princess and the Frog"). 

You could say the style might seem a little flat at first glance (Especially when looking at screen caps, they might make for gorgeous illustrations, but would it look just as good as an animation?) especially since they are trying to stick so close to the illustration style of the original Book of Kells (Which is a very beautiful book might I add), but once you actually watch the film, be prepared to have your breath taken away.

I still can't get over how unique and yet still effectively atmospheric their compositions are for every scene, and I am not just referring to their background designs (Despite it being one of the film's highlights), the character designs are so diverse (Save for the two young main characters, but hey, they are still children, so we can understand why they don't look too different from one another when it comes to their body shapes), an assortment of colors and distinct shapes (Some are really round and soft-looking, others are sharper and more angular) are used in a way that is so well done that it already indicates what their characters are are probably going to be like even before they actually speak.

But wait, I should be talking about the settings, looks like I got carried away there...

 As you can see from the numerous screen caps and gifs I have posted up to this point, "Secret of Kells" makes full use of incredibly detailed compositions with very vibrant and contrasting colors, it is interesting to note that traditional lighting is not often used in the film to set the mood of a certain scene, instead it is the choice of color palettes that sets the scene, which surprisingly works really well (Especially for that one scene where Abbot Cellach speaks to Brendan in a dark, cold-looking, bluish-grey tower room, contrasting deeply to the cheerfully humorous scene prior when Brendan and the brothers of the abbey were chasing after a goose through the village).

An interesting thing to note is how the film tends to centralize (I always remembered my photographer teacher hating that… ugh!) and frame the main focus of each scene, perhaps this isn't often advised for illustration designs, but I suppose as an animation, it works just fine (I mean it is so much easier for the viewer's eyes as well when watching it, instead of looking about to see where it is they actually need to focus on).

This is like the most beautiful book come to life (Though I have probably
said this way too many times with other animations).

A beautiful film with a unique style and rather different story to tell from your usual fantasy animations, do go watch it if you haven't yet.