Margaret's Trailer Park: The Secret of Kells

If you haven’t heard of The Secret of Kells, don’t worry, you are not alone. It’s the animated film that slipped into the Oscar nominations for best animated picture that virtually no one had even heard of in the US. Apparently while we were all watching Up and Coraline this little film was making its way across the world from film festival to film festival gaining buzz like a secret of its own.

The Secret of Kells trailer has this strange and enchanting ethereal quality to it that both draws you in and makes you want to back away. While the trailer doesn’t show any definitive plot for the story we can certainly make out the good versus evil themes within the film. The main character, which I’m sorry looks like Ron Stoppable from the Kim Possible cartoon, seems to be a boy who is unfamiliar with the land he is traveling through. A fairy-like, ancient, shape shifting, magical girl, or being, with long flowing white hair and white skin comes to his aid to rescue him in his time of need, opening the door for her to possibly teach him of this world he is in which is obviously experiencing distress and turmoil.

Visually the film looks almost like a living pop-up picture book, and I mean that in a good way, with elements of flat depth (if that makes sense) and stark contrasts of black and red signifying what is dark or bad, while white appears to mean something or someone is good. The music of the trailer, like the visual aspect, is simple yet eerie and complex with the sounds of a little girl’s voice floating through the air.

After watching the trailer for The Secret of Kells I can’t say I’m completely excited about the film, but I’m certainly not turned off by it. There is some question still as to when the US will see a wide release of the film, if at all, but Kells definitely made a good impression on the Academy. For now, we’ll just have to say that The Secret of Kells is a secret I definitely want to know more about.