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The Secret of Kells (2009)

tomatometer

91

Average Rating: 7.6/10
Reviews Counted: 77
Fresh: 70 | Rotten: 7

Beautifully drawn and refreshingly calm, The Secret of Kells hearkens back to animation's golden age with an enchanting tale inspired by Irish mythology.

90

Average Rating: 7.7/10
Critic Reviews: 21
Fresh: 19 | Rotten: 2

Beautifully drawn and refreshingly calm, The Secret of Kells hearkens back to animation's golden age with an enchanting tale inspired by Irish mythology.

audience

82

liked it
Average Rating: 4/5
User Ratings: 8,836

My Rating

Movie Info

Follow 12-year-old Brendan (voice of Evan McGuire) as he battles Vikings and confronts an ancient serpent god on a mission to locate a legendary crystal and complete the mythical Book of Kells. Brendan lives in a heavily fortified medieval outpost known as the Abbey of Kells, where the ongoing threat of Viking raids causes the peaceful monks to live in a state of constant fear. Along with his uncle, Abbot Cellach, Brendan labors to fortify the abbey walls daily so his people will be protected

Oct 5, 2010

$0.7M

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All Critics (77) | Top Critics (21) | Fresh (72) | Rotten (7) | DVD (4)

The story is a bit tangled, and there is too much of it packed into nearly 80 minutes, but little kids won't be bothered when the animation is so magical.

September 29, 2010 Full Review Source: Time Out
Time Out
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A gorgeous blend of the magical and the gloriously trippy.

August 25, 2010 Full Review Source: Orlando Sentinel
Orlando Sentinel
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A breathtaking mixture of Celtic mythology and creative animation.

May 13, 2010 Full Review Source: Seattle Times
Seattle Times
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Just a couple of minutes into this beautifully drawn, intricately rendered Irish import, you understand why the movie earned the Academy's attention.

April 30, 2010 Full Review Source: Miami Herald
Miami Herald
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In the end, the film is about a magical book, but you never really have a sense of what makes the book magical.

April 23, 2010 Full Review Source: Detroit News | Comments (14)
Detroit News
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Its hand-drawn two-dimensional animation springs to life with color and meticulous technique, filigreed and curlicued like the luminous book at its center.

April 9, 2010 Full Review Source: Houston Chronicle
Houston Chronicle
Top Critic IconTop Critic

...there's never a point at which the viewer is wholeheartedly drawn into the admittedly simple narrative.

March 19, 2011 Full Review Source: Reel Film Reviews | Comment (1)
Reel Film Reviews

A unique film visually, but the story and characters are a bit weak and the pacing is a bit slow.

December 31, 2010 Full Review Source: Laramie Movie Scope | Comment (1)
Laramie Movie Scope

Steeped in both magic and mythology, The Secret Of Kells offers a refreshing alternative to Hollywood fare.

October 11, 2010 Full Review Source: Daily Express
Daily Express

Combining a classic fairytale trajectory with a singular aesthetic that fuses Celtic and Christian mythology, this stunning film is yet another example of the rude health of contemporary animation.

October 6, 2010 Full Review Source: Film4
Film4

Tomm Moore's Irish animation, drawn with painstaking reference to both Celtic myth and medieval manuscripts, possesses a lively originality that shows Europe's animators not far behind America's and in some ways in front of them.

October 6, 2010 Full Review Source: This is London
This is London

This understated Irish charmer deserves to reach a wider audience, if only to remind people that animation is a diverse medium that can be exploited in numerous ways to tell all sorts of stories.

October 4, 2010 Full Review Source: Scotsman

Hand-drawn and watercoloured, the animation is as sublime as a stained-glass window.

September 30, 2010 Full Review Source: Total Film
Total Film

The look of the film is simply ravishing.

September 30, 2010 Full Review Source: Daily Telegraph
Daily Telegraph

A low-key pleasure.

September 30, 2010 Full Review Source: Guardian [UK]
Guardian [UK]

A feast for the eyes that manages to be both whimsical and sinister.

September 30, 2010
Little White Lies

While this is a handsome picture that laudably avoids patronising its audience, it's not always as child-friendly as it might be.

September 30, 2010 Full Review Source: Radio Times
Radio Times

Unlike anything else you've seen, and very much worth seeking out, this is a unique and beautiful creation.

September 29, 2010 Full Review Source: Empire Magazine
Empire Magazine

The movie equivalent of Kim Kardashian - delightful to look at in motion, but after a while you realise there's not a lot going on.

September 29, 2010 Full Review Source: News of the World
News of the World

Engaging, beautifully animated drama that plays like a children's storybook come to life, with a strong message, appealing characters and a distinctive visual style.

September 29, 2010 Full Review Source: ViewLondon
ViewLondon

An undeniably gorgeous film... [that takes] some of the most unique pages in history and forces them into the unremarkable mold of every other heroic coming-of-age fantasy.

August 25, 2010 Full Review Source: Orlando Weekly
Orlando Weekly

A lovely film, clearly lovingly assembled.

June 24, 2010 Full Review Source: Mark Reviews Movies
Mark Reviews Movies

Audience Reviews for The Secret of Kells

A rare modern animation with a sense of soul, not directed by the appeal of focus groups. After the opening scene, a young member of my family was already uncomfortable. Our young protagonist has to face fears of the unknown and the film's directors mean to make us an active participant, daring us to keep going along with him. This fear is induced with inventive, minimalist animation and is fed to us in bits throughout the movie, breaking with beautiful, playful, and joyful art and music that left me in awe.
February 4, 2012
Matthew Slaven

Super Reviewer

The biggest surprise of the past year's Academy Awards wasn't the triumph of Kathryn Bigelow or the ominous inclusion of "The Blind Side" to the Best Picture lineup, but rather the nomination of a little Irish film known as "The Secret of Kells," with barely any screenings to its name. The question at the tip of everybody's tongue became: what was the Academy thinking? Yet once "Kells" emerged quietly onto the moviehouse scene, people began to understand. In a year where 3-D glasses and grand IMAX screenings dominated the box office, one can't help but feel that the Academy members that voted for it were onto something, a form of silent rebellion against all things big and explosive.It's rare that the visual components of a film can so completely saturate its entire being. Indeed, the Irish fairytale story seems to exist wholly for the sumptuous drawings depicting it. A flighty little nymph sprite, with her white hair blowing spiritedly in the wind, guides ribbons of smoke along the geometric curlicues of the screen. Armed with nothing but a pencil, Brendan battles the fearsome Krom Kruit as he catapults himself within a milky plasmatic nebula. And then there are the montages, some whimsical, like filigreed clockwork, some impressionistic, like a smudgy Renoir painting, and some brilliantly naturalistic, featuring jeweled leaves with verdure smeared all over its surface.Yet although "Kells" features scenes heavily laden with Irish mysticism and subversively pagan rituals, the film could essentially double as a social allegory for modern film industry. Brother Aidan says dishearteningly to Cellach: "You've forgotten how important it is. All you want for us is this wall!" Just replace "it" with "hand-drawing" and "wall" with "hyper-explosive 3-D graphics," and you've got yourself the perfect antidote to James Cameron and his devoted followers. With a run time of little more than an hour, "Kells" is a refreshingly different take on classic animation, lovingly and defiantly flattened into two dimensions, inspiringly simple - and more than a little trippy. By paying homage to an ancient time where beauty and patience inevitably won out over brute force, the film blends a straightforward morality with sophisticated hand-drawings to stunning visual effect. Truly, it practices what it preaches.
May 1, 2011
jennifxu

Super Reviewer

    1. Aisling: I thought you knew how to climb trees.
    2. Brendan: I do! Just...much smaller ones.
    3. Aisling: Ya, like bushes!
    – Submitted by Dan K (13 months ago)
    1. Aisling: I've lived through many ages. I've seen suffering in the darkness. Yet I have seen beauty thrive in the most fragile of places. I have seen the book. The book that turned darkness into light.
    – Submitted by Chad E (22 months ago)
    1. Brendan: You can't find out everything from books, you know.
    2. Aidan: I think I read that once.
    – Submitted by Chris P (2 years ago)
    1. Aisling: I've lived through many ages. I've seen suffering in the darkness. Yet I have seen beauty thrive in the most fragile of places. I have seen the book. The book that turned darkness into light.
    – Submitted by Chris P (2 years ago)

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Latest News on The Secret of Kells

March 5, 2010:
Sharing The Secret of Kells
"The Secret of Kells" surprised many when it was announced as one of the nominees for this year's...

June 28, 2009:
Edinburgh 2009: Humpday wins RT Award
Humpday, directed by Lynn Shelton, has become the second ever winner of the Rotten Tomatoes Critical...

Foreign Titles

  • Brendan and the Secret of Kells (DE)
  • Brendan et le secret de Kells (FR)
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