Song of the Sea (2014) is a film about a young boy and his little sister going on an adventure to find the sister's voice after discovering she is a mythical "selkie," and must set free the rest of the magic-folk of Ireland. The film is a collaboration from several different European production teams and directed by Tomm Moore, and was only the second film from the studio "Cartoon Saloon." I chose to review it as part of this project because it has a 99% rating on Rotten Tomatoes, and yet lost to Big Hero 6 (with a rating of 86%) for the title of Best Animated Feature Film at the 2015 (87th) Academy Awards, just as The Tale of Princess Kaguya (2013) did. I watched Song of the Sea after Kaguya because it was released later chronologically, and because it has a marginally lower rating.
It has really beautifully stylized animation that makes the entire movie feel like a children’s storybook; a few scenes look like they could be taken directly from medieval tapestries. The motion was really smooth as well and perfectly captured the magical essence of the story. The music was incredible as well, and is definitely one of my favorite parts of the movie. It brought so much to the film not only because it was part of the central storyline but because it was so well performed and made you feel like you were witnessing these magical events alongside the characters.
Without even knowing much about the narrative before watching, it was clear it is based in Celtic mythology and culture (mainly around the mythological seal creature the “selkie,” though the original myths are altered to be family friendly), coincidentally similar to how The Tale of Princess Kaguya was based in Japanese folklore (though I think I enjoyed this film just a bit more). Overall the story was very emotional; although it may look cutesy from the outside, it has very serious themes like grief and the emotions that come with it. There are clear parallels between many of the mythical creatures we see in the film and how they represent different ways of dealing with loss, which is really well done and especially important considering it is a children’s film and could even help kids with this in the future. Certain scenes reminded me of Coraline (2009) and walked the line between scary/eerie and magically wondrous, while others reminded me of Frozen (2013) because of the importance given to the bond between the two siblings. Even though it is only only the second ever feature film from Cartoon Saloon, I think they did an amazing job and I will definitely look into their other work.
A tiny nitpick I had with the film was that they didn't explain the backstory behind a lot of the magic involved, which is interesting given the cultural background of the film; obviously the young girl Saoirse and her mother are selkies, but then why wasn’t the brother a selkie as well? Why did all the magical creatures (fairies, giants, spirits, etc) need to become separated (or “untangled” as the mother described it) from the human world? It might just be me, but I prefer having lore/exposition established when it comes to films with magic or other supernatural elements as it makes it easier to understand and leaves more room to contemplate the plot.
Similar to why The Tale of Princess Kaguya didn't win, I believe that Song of the Sea was snubbed of the Oscar because it was too niche, a foreign-made film (didn't get much attention in the US) and because it is not as "safe" as a Disney film. Overall, it just wasn't "mainstream" enough. Song of the Sea deals with a heavy topic (and approaches it a lot better than many Disney/DreamWorks films with the same themes), is animated in something other than the factory-standard CGI, and didn't make buckets of money at the box office. Despite all this, it still has a much higher critic rating (according to Rotten Tomatoes) than Big Hero 6. It is truly a shame that the Academy doesn't expand their horizons and give the chance for smaller studios or independent creators to win more often, because then incredible films like these are overlooked and forgotten far too quickly by mainstream audiences.
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