The Secret of Kells is an animated film made in Ireland by Cartoon Saloon, which made its rounds at the Berlin International Film Festival in 2009 and is now circulating in the US. Featuring such vocal talents as Brendan Gleeson (Abbot Cellach), Liam Hourican (Brother Tang), Mick Lally (Aidan), Evan McGuire (Brendan) and Christen Mooney (Aisling), The Secret of Kells tells the story of a 9th century world under attack by the vikings. Brendan is a young boy interested in illumination, but mainly sheltered from the outside world by his uncle, Abbot Cellach. Brendan's world gets shaken up when Brother Aiden, from Iona, comes to Kells.
 
I hadn't heard much about this movie, but the visual style of it seemed rather interesting and when I looked into it, I read good things, so I ventured to take a look. I did find the aesthetics of the movie very appealing and overall it's a simple, fun adventure set in a world I'm not very familiar with. Unfortunately, I didn't really find the plot very engaging. Maybe they purposefully made the plot pretty simple so that the younger targeted audience would be able to easily follow it. From what I remember, the music was pretty interesting and matched the feel of the movie, with perhaps the exception of one sung number by Aisling (Christen Mooney), which I thought was a little odd and out of place.
 
Even so, I was a little surprised at the younger demographic for the movie, since there are some pretty intense and possibly scary scenes for younger viewers. Keep that in mind before taking your younger kids to see this film. In the end, I definitely see the appeal of the movie and feel it's pretty deserving of its various nominations, however, when viewed against all the other films that are kid-friendly, they might be worth your investment over this one. That said, it's a gorgeous movie and may warrant viewing just for the pure aesthetics.