It's available for free viewing on Hulu!
No, really, though, it's a great movie and I like it a lot--but not for kids, despite the fact that it's animated. It's an Irish animation film--I went to see it at BYU's International Cinema a few years back with my friend Lena, but unfortunately there was something wrong with the audio that day, so we missed a lot of the dialogue.
Something on TVTropes inspired me to give it another try, and since it was available on Hulu, I went for it.
The basic plot: Kells is an Irish village in the year 800 AD, a time when the Vikings were raiding, pillaging, and burning Ireland on a routine basis. The Abbot of Kells (Cellach) is determined to build a wall to protect his people from the Vikings (called the Northmen here) to the point that he's become obsessed with it and he forces all the monks in his monastery to focus all their efforts on building it. The Abbot is raising his young orphaned nephew, Brendan, with a very strict hand--but it's obvious that he loves the boy deeply, and Brendan loves his uncle.
A newcomer arrives--Brother Aidan, one of the best illuminators in the world. He teaches Brendan how to draw the beautiful illumination drawings you'll find in medieval copies of the Bible (actually this whole story is based very loosely on the Book of Kells, one such Bible... and the animation is designed to look like that style of medieval art. It's breathtaking.) Aidan is much more loving than the Abbot. He feels it's important for the monks to continue to create books, so people will have access to the knowledge therein, rather than just focus on the wall.
Aidan convinces Brendan to go against some of his uncle's strict commands, including venturing into the forest where he meets a beautiful young forest sprite named Aisling. She's bristly at first, but they quickly become friends (and they are young enough that that's all they are! Around 10-11 or so.)
Brendan is a little bit torn between his two father figures (you know how I love family dynamics in movies. :) Neither one is perfect. Cellach isn't wrong to want to protect his people from a very real threat. Aidan isn't wrong to value books and carrying knowledge to the people. Cellach is only trying to protect Brendan with his strict orders (but denying him autonomy and keeping him too stifled). Aidan is only trying to help the boy spread his wings by encouraging him to go against his uncle sometimes (but unfortunately this puts his life in danger, at times, and causes a rift between the boy and his only living relative).
Cellach comes off as a jerk at times, right until the end of the movie (although he's never bad, really, just obsessed.) But I love him anyway... especially because I read the free prequel comic for the film. Ten years before, Cellach was working on a manuscript in a monastery when he receives word that the local village is under attack. He immediately drops everything and rushes to the village, frantic to save his sister and nephew. He's a BIG buff dude, btw, he can handle Vikings. He makes it to the village but his sister and brother-in-law are dead. He manages to save baby Brendan though, even fighting off 3 Vikings at one point in order to do so.
The comic makes it incredibly clear just how much he loves his nephew. He would do anything to protect him. And, you understand why he becomes so obsessed with the wall later. He's haunted by the loss of his sister and brother-in-law and their ENTIRE village. He never wants that to happen ever again, and he's doing everything he can to prevent it.
So, here's the spoiler, if you don't want to watch and you wonder why I'm haunted: The Vikings do attack. The wall isn't done yet, but Cellach hopes it will hold and tells everyone to stay put. He locks Brendan and Aidan in the scriptorium, in an effort to protect them. Aidan wants everyone to flee to safety. Cellach doesn't.... and then his wall backfires. The Vikings get inside the wall, the people can't get out, 95% of all the characters in the film die. It's not graphic and it's done from a distance, but the implications are there and they are horrifying.
Cellach has already got 2 arrows sticking out of him when he realizes Brendan and Aidan are still locked in the scriptorium. He desperately races to save them, but the Vikings stab him in the back and he collapses. Meanwhile, Brendan and Aidan manage to escape... only to see Cellach laying bleeding in the snow. Brendan cries out and tries to get to his uncle, but Aidan tells him there is nothing they can do... and they flee, Brendan sobbing.
That's when Cellach wakes up and sees Vikings pouring out of the burning scriptorium, and he starts crying because he thinks his nephew is dead, and that it's his own fault for locking him up. Argh... His face in this scene... It's even worse knowing he is probably having flashbacks to when he first saved Brendan 10 years ago. He wants to die too, like almost everyone else, but he survives the attack with a few others. The only other surviving monk tells him he must get up and carry on as their leader, and he does.
Fast forward TWENTY years. Cellach is an old depressed man still haunted by all those deaths, especially his nephew's. Brendan shows up back at Kells and they have a happy reunion........ but why did it have to take so long? Cellach has been suffering for 20 years, and he says he has little time left. Why couldn't they have been reunited sooner?!? Ahhhhhhh...... I am seriously rewriting this ending in my head so that they are reunited much sooner! Maybe... 2 years later instead of 20? Yeah. And then Brendan could still grow up with his uncle, and his uncle would probably heal emotionally sooner, and be a lot more loving towards Brendan......
I am such a sucker for happy endings, and that one was very bittersweet.
