Sunday, 4 October 2015

Song of the Sea -- OUAN403, Animation Skills, Identify

Directed: Tomm Moore
Released: 2014

A joint Irish-Belgian-Danish-French-Luxembourgian production, Song of the Sea is set in modern Ireland & tells the story of Ben, a lighthouse keeper’s son and his sister Saoirse who is a Selkie - one of a race of magical women who become seals when they put on a sealskin coat. Whilst the human characters are all drawn in quite a standard cartoon style, the character designs of the magical creatures are quite heavily stylised, borrowing elements from Celtic and Pictish carvings. I particularly liked the design of the Faeries who reminded me of the decorated standing stones seen all over Ireland. The background art has the look of water colour painting, and was full of grungey texture which helped make it easier on the eyes, and gave depth to the wild Irish scenery. I thought that if the whole film had been coloured in flat tones, like the characters were, it would have looked like a cheap kids cartoon and been hard to sit through for an hour and a half.

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