{"id":77497,"date":"2015-07-09T16:10:41","date_gmt":"2015-07-09T15:10:41","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.scifinow.co.uk\/?p=77497"},"modified":"2015-07-09T16:10:41","modified_gmt":"2015-07-09T15:10:41","slug":"song-of-the-sea-film-review-a-mermaids-tale","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.scifinow.co.uk\/reviews\/song-of-the-sea-film-review-a-mermaids-tale\/","title":{"rendered":"Song Of The Sea film review: a mermaid&#8217;s tale"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Illustrator and co-founder of Cartoon Saloon, Tomm Moore, delivers some more marvellously intricate hand-painted 2D animation in his second feature film after the Oscar-nominated <em><strong>The Secret Of Kells<\/strong><\/em>.<\/p>\n<p>Moore\u2019s original idea, which takes inspiration from the mythological Selkies \u2013 magical beings who are seals in the sea and become human on land \u2013 of Irish folklore, plays out on a visually imaginative palette that is bursting with Celtic imagery.<\/p>\n<p>Just as Dorothy disappeared into her imagination in <em><strong>The Wizard Of Oz<\/strong><\/em> to deal with her fears, so too does Ben (David Rawle), who is forced to come to terms with the death of his mother and face the responsibility of looking after his younger sister Saoirse.<\/p>\n<p>When granny comes to visit she decides it\u2019s too dangerous for the children to continue to live in a lighthouse with their grieving father (Brendan Gleeson) and takes them to the city. Ben starts the long journey home on Halloween night, and grudgingly takes his sister with him.<\/p>\n<p>Superbly realised sea-scapes generate both an immersive tranquillity and perilous playground that cannily sidles in the idea that the sea can be friend and foe. The gorgeously detailed and patterned background of forests and caves that the children toil through are infused with a sparkle of magic, which brings to mind the work of artist Paul Klee, and the unique cultural angle sets this film apart from so much other modern animation.<\/p>\n<p>It also features stone trolls who inhabit an underground lair, with a door inscribed \u2018Feic uf\u2019 clearly marking out its Irish roots and adding a dash of humour for adults.<\/p>\n<p>Moore imbues a warm sensibility and honesty to this fantasy adventure that doesn\u2019t shy away from its serious themes, but doesn\u2019t quite match the darkness of his previous feature.<\/p>\n<p>Just like the young wayward travellers lose their way, this film gets a little lost too, but it finds its feet again with a bittersweet ending that delivers a commendable message about the importance of family.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Oscar winner Tomm Moore follows up Secret Of Kells with Song Of The Sea<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":37,"featured_media":77499,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"quote","meta":{"MSN_Categories":"Uncategorized","MSN_Publish_Option":false,"MSN_Is_Local_News":false,"MSN_Is_AIAC_Included":"Empty","MSN_Location":"[]","MSN_Add_Feature_Img_On_Top_Of_Post":false,"MSN_Has_Custom_Author":false,"MSN_Custom_Author":"","MSN_Has_Custom_Canonical_Url":false,"MSN_Custom_Canonical_Url":""},"categories":[2615,8],"tags":[4575],"acf":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.scifinow.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/07\/Song-Of-The-Sea.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.scifinow.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/77497"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.scifinow.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.scifinow.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.scifinow.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/37"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.scifinow.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=77497"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.scifinow.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/77497\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.scifinow.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/77499"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.scifinow.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=77497"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.scifinow.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=77497"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.scifinow.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=77497"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}