In 2014, following the relative success of their first film The Secret of Kells, Irish animation studio Cartoon Saloon released their second film, Song of the Sea. Directed by award-winning Irish filmmaker, illustrator, comic-book artist, and animator Thomas “Tomm” Moore, this fantastic animation is far from being simply a children’s film solely.
The cast is also excellent, featuring such talents as Brendan Gleeson, Fionuala Flannagan, Lisa Hannigan, and upcoming child voices David Rawle as Ben and Lucy O’Connell as Saoirse.
The story follows young Ben and his little sister, Saoirse (Seer+Shuh) on their adventure across Ireland to get back home, encountering magic along the way. The story runs in two parallels. The first main arc follows Ben and the people in his life. The second follows the mythology and characters from it.
Song of the Sea beautifully captures the theme of loss and grief and the journey it takes in working through these feelings and, while perhaps not forgetting the person being grieved for. In turn, one allows for oneself to move on and keep living. There is the idea that pain and sorrow are indeed valid feelings, and it isn’t healthy to pretend they don’t exist at all and ignore your emotions.
Allowing yourself to feel these emotions is what allows us to begin to heal.
The film is heavily based on Irish culture and mythology, but the themes present within the story are powerful and relatable to any audience.
The amazingly gorgeous art is also something that can be enjoyed by anyone, as the backgrounds are all stunning works of watercolor art with charming and delightful CGI animation layered on top of it to make the film simply beautiful to look at.
The whole story and the artwork honestly make me sob my eyes out by the ending, and I’m not a big crier when it comes to media.
Finally, I recommend this film for the aforementioned reasons, as well as that, if you are privy to Irish culture and folklore, you’ll find familiar tones in the film, but if you aren’t, you’ll be drawn into a different world and perhaps even learn something new along the way!
Song of the Sea (2014) can be rented or purchased on Amazon Prime Video, Vudu, iTunes, or GooglePlay.
