OVP: Song of the Sea (2014)

Film: Song of the Sea (2014)
Stars: David Rawle, Brendan Gleeson, Finnoula Flanagan, Lisa Hannigan
Director: Tomm Moore
Oscar History: 1 nomination (Best Animated Feature Film)
Snap Judgment Ranking: 3/5 stars

Just over five years ago Tomm Moore became something of a household name amongst Oscar aficionados, when his Secret of Kells stunned in the Best Animated Feature race, gaining a nomination over more likely contenders like Ponyo and Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs.  This was the start of what is now an expected trend, when a major studio release (Tangled, Cars 2, The Lego Movie) gets upended by a small or foreign-language nominee in the animated feature race.  This happened again this past year, though not nearly with the same "whoa!" punch that it did five years ago, when Moore's latest film Song of the Sea managed a nomination in the Oscar race.

(Spoilers Ahead) As you'll see in the above link, I wasn't wild about The Secret of Kells when I first saw it, and it hasn't worn as well in my memory as it has others.  The animation in parts was absolutely beautiful, with a sea of really great tans, golds, and greens, and a distinctive color palette that rivaled almost no other nominees that year save Coraline (which, as you may or may not recall, won the OVP that year).  However, the plot itself was razor thin, and switched moods too frequently for my liking-you can't be fanciful and dour in the same breath, and that's what the movie tended to do.

And quite frankly, while I saw improvement with Song of the Sea, that's still what happened here.  The film too often relies on the impetuous nastiness of main character Ben, a young man who has lost his mother and takes this out on his younger sister, who adores him.  Ben, however, must learn a powerful lesson throughout the movie, which is sort of Animation 101, but it doesn't resonate in a way that feels authentic, and I think that's key for animated films, particularly when they're competing for Oscars.  His moods swing too ferociously and his good graces are given truly randomly, without any sense of the character.  The same can be said for Brendan Gleeson's portrayal of his father, Conor, who goes through moods of pure sadness and pure anger without much sense of reason, except when it feels expositional and aids the thin storytelling (the reality is that myths and fairy tales are not great sources for movies if only because the original is only a couple of pages long).  Finnoula Flanagan, as both the grandmother and later the petrifying Macha, is the one vocal actor really bringing down the house, and her Macha scene (where she plays a witch who locks up emotions) is easily the standout.

Animation wise it's hard to argue with the beauty on display here, even if the there it occasionally seems to rely too heavily on the dark atmosphere of the nighttime plot.  The indigo and again, shades of brown (Tomm Moore is very good at this very rich but under-utilized color) stand out, along with a really beautiful focus on the white contrast of the Selkie coat.  In my opinion, while nothing quite approaches the majesty of the Book of Kells scenes in his previous scene, this is a more succinct and lovely veneer, and I see why animators in the branch tend to fawn all over him for it, though I do truly wish that plot was more of a point when selecting nominations in this category, since this surely was the film that scored The Lego Movie's nomination and while it's not the fifth place of the actual nominees (we'll get there with the OVP after I track down Tangerines and Glen Campbell), it's the inferior to that awesome-blast.

Those are my thoughts on Tomm Moore's latest-how about you?  Did you enjoy Song of the Sea as a whole, or were you just enamored with the animation like moi?  And where does it rank on your Animated Feature list of 2014 (I've got one more to go, and it's sitting in a Netflix envelope within my eye-line, so it's coming quickly).  Share in the comments!