New Animation Fare with the Kids

I was once again exploring the library-sponsored streaming service Kanopy (I noticed that several Wiseman documentaries are there) and found some animated movies to watch with the kids.

I'm never really sure how it will all go, kids being silly and all. When we first let Cass watch Aquaman he wasn't interested in the least. He'd rather watch Moana. When I put on Into the Spider-Verse for the first time, he threw a fit, wanting to watch Aquaman. So it goes.

But as time has marched on and his maturity level has increased, he was interested in watching both movies I'd suggested. They were on different days, and both times he was all excitement, "Yeah, dad, let's watch that!" I'm not sure if it's because he didn't want me to put on basketball, or if he was curious about the random animated gems I might find on my dad-tastic streamer...or both...but the results were the same.

The first of the two came out in 2009, was a joint Irish-French-Belgian production called T"he Secret of Kells:"

It's a loose retelling of the making of the Book of Kells, an illuminated text from medieval Ireland. The animation is almost like if Samurai Jack or Dexter's Laboratory was done with the kind of care and precision that Pinocchio was made with. Brendan is the main character, a young orphan boy living in a walled city in Ireland in the age of Viking invasions.

On one of his secret excursions beyond the walls he befriends a magical being, one form of which is the little girl below in white, showing Brendan the ancient oak tree that yields green-pigment-acorns that he needs for the book he's helping create:

The fact that it's a book that motivates the plot is something we appreciated in our house, as it's a very book-heavy household. It was also interesting to me to watch Cass react to Vikings as the antagonists. He's been doing deep dives into the histories of ancient horde-types (Vikings, Spartans, Visigoths, Conquistadors, Samurai...I know they're not all horde-types...) and he'd been fascinated by Vikings for a minute. To see them as the bad guys, as monsters and bringers of death, nightmares come to life...I watched him try to reckon with his own exalted fascination in comparison to the views of the conquered.

We all liked this movie very much. Some of the climactic action sequences were a bit scary for the four-year-old, but overall it was beautiful and fun. And Irish. And about a book...but the religiosity takes a bit of a back seat, I suppose, for as much as a movie about the making of a uniquely Irish Christ-y book could be.

The second animated film came out in 2012, but the English dubbing was released in 2013. It's based on a series of Belgian books and was produced in France, "Ernest and Celestine:"

That poster is a little dramatic. In the world of Ernest and Celestine the surface dwelling folks are bears, and they're mostly terrified of mice (in "you can't ever get rid of mice" and "they eat through everything" kinds of ways). The bears are like people. In the underground exists a complex society of rodents, mostly mice and rats, and the most important job is the dentist, because you only live as long as your incisors exist. They are taught early and often the perils of being in proximity to bears.

The film is about two misfits who are abandoned and then vilified by their respective worlds, and who then find a kind of platonic love for each other. It's about friendship and juxtaposition, and not necessarily about the two worlds becoming one world.

Every frame is a watercolor feast for the eyes:

The dream sequences are both fantastic, and both end with each friend telling the other, "I'm not your nightmare." Near the end, as the bears have Celestine, the Hobbit-sized mouse under arrest and on trial (she won't divulge info on Ernest), and the rodents have Ernest, a giant (to them) grizzly bear under arrest and on trial (he won't divulge info on Celestine), the juxtaposition angle comes full circle.

It's original, wonderful, and is about the power of friendship.

Both of these animated movies were pleasant surprises and I'd recommend them for families and/or animation heads.