The Blog of Kells

Wednesday, February 18, 2009

Comics in shops!

Thanks to Annes pal for taking these snaps!

Wow! Another very nice review. Its very gratifying!
So happy people are enjoying the movie.

http://twitchfilm.net/site/view/brendan-and-the-secret-of-kells-review/

P.S. only niggle is the slight mispelling of my co-director Nora's surname its Nora TWOMEY (a fine Cork name it is too ) !

sure its great just to be nominated!

The European Association of Animation Film has announced this week the nominees selected for the Cartoon Movie Tributes 2009. The winners will be announced at the Centre de Congrès in Lyon on 7 March.

The nominees are:

Best European Director of the Year

* Thorbjørn Christoffersen, Craig Frank and Kresten Vestbjerg Andersen (Denmark) for «Journey to Saturn»
* Jacques-Rémy Girerd (France) for «Mia and the Migoo»
* Tomm Moore (Ireland) for «The Secret of Kells»

Tuesday, February 17, 2009

Comic Cast Interview is live.

http://thecomiccast.wordpress.com/

(beware - I swear)

Monday, February 16, 2009

Bums on seats

C'mon everyone in Belgium and France! Encourage everyone to go to see this film! Bring your Granny!

some translations of French press! (thanks Anne!)

Télérama - Cécile Mury
"Le récit alerte, tour à tour cocasse et émouvant, ne cesse de surprendre, d'éblouir. Une vraie révélation."
"This lively tale, switching from entertaining to moving, never stops to surprise, to amaze. A true revelation."

Le Monde - Isabelle Régnier
"L'univers visuel est d'une telle splendeur qu'il mantient son spectateur dans un état de reve éveillé, du début à la fin."
"The visual context is so splendid that it keeps the viewer in a daydreaming state, from start to finish."

Première - Didier Roth-Bettoni:
"Ce conte recèle de richesses visuelles - les dessins, d'inspiration celte, sont splendides - et thématiques (...). Merveilleux!"
"This tale is full of visual wealth - drawings, from celtic inspiration, are splendid - and of thematic wealth (..). Wonderful!"

Le Parisien - Renaud Baronian:
"Personnages, décors et lettrines virevoltent en permanence, occasionnant un exquis tournis chez le spectateur, grand ou petit."
"Characters, backgrounds and illumination twirl around all the way through the movie, provoking an exquisite dizziness in all viewers, grown-ups as well as little ones."

L'Express.fr - Christophe Carrière:
"Chaque image est une fete pour les yeux, convoque une idée, éveille une pensée...".
"Each frame is a feast for the eyes, appeals an idea, awakes a thought...".

Jean Baptiste Ven Damme

The man, the legend , JB is in town for the Premiere and hanging out in the studio this week. Tis great to see him and check out the beautiful work he's been doing!

http://thedoberman.deviantart.com/gallery/#_newest

some man for one man!

happy birthday production baby

Oilver McGrath , the production baby was 1 year old on Saturday!
Apparently he spent the day charming the ladies of Berlin.

Coraline

Last night I saw Coraline as part of the Dublin Film Festival, what a gorgeous movie!
Neil Gaiman did a Q+A afterwards which was interesting too.
I really hope we continue to see such innovative and unusual films being made .

And great music by Bruno Coulais! Ahh sure he only works on classy films I suppose ;)

Saturday, February 14, 2009

where its due...

I noticed in that interview posted below that one very important member of the design team was not mentioned.
This was an unintentional omission.
I've posted before about Barry Reynolds' work finalising the main character designs and designing all the other characters in the film. His sense of design unified the characters and was very important to the final look of the film.
He was involved in the initial visual devlopment of "Rebel" back in 2000 and I asked him to come back and join the team in 2005 to help pull all the development work I'd done with Ross Stewart together into the final designs.
He also did most of the designs for the characters that were added during storyboards and the final designs for all the secondary characters.
The only exception being that Jean Baptiste Van Demme made the Viking designs and model sheets .
However , it was mainly Barrys work on the model packs we used in all the countries involved in the production.
Barry was also the one responsible for checking that all the layout posing was on model and he did a huge amount of the layout posing on the film.
It was great to have someone with such a natural flair for design to pull everything together.

But I suppose I can never give enough credit to ALL the artists who poured their talent and energy into this production.
Like all animated features this film is the product of a lot of peoples talent and energy.
We have a credit list of about 200 people on this film and I am indebted to everyone of them for the commitment and hard work they have poured into this production.

I was the overall Director and worked on this project in its various forms for most of my twenties, and its a source of great pride that the initial designs and visual development we began in Ballyfermot college in 1999 evolved , thanks to all the crew who contributed over the years into something so much greater than I could ever have achieved alone.

It would be great to publish an "art of" book to showcase all the beautiful artwork and artifacts created by this talented team over the years.
If only we could find a willing publisher......;)

Belgian press on Digital Graphics site!

http://www.digitalgraphics.be/?page_id=138&lang=en

Late Late Show

http://www.rte.ie/tv/latelate/

the feb13th episode about 6 mins is the brendan gleeson interview and 20mins in to the show there is a scene from Kells.

Sound of Brendan and Pat to plug it!

Gealic Games Promo CompetitioN!

http://museum.gaa.ie/plugins/newsfeed.cgi?rm=content&plugin_data_id=26564

Friday, February 13, 2009

french telly

http://jt.france2.fr/13h/

just click on this bit to skip to the bit about kells-

Deux dessins animés pour les vacances... 00h35m18s

Online interview

http://www.inter-activities.com/Brendan/TOMM_MOORE_BRENDAN.html

Thursday, February 12, 2009

Soundtrack Album

http://totoutard.com/artistes/artistes.php?idartiste=105

The album is cool, nice presentation on the Cd itself and a nice little booklet with it.

comic stuff

http://www.glenatbd.com/goodies/fonds-d-ecran-2415.htm

Wednesday, February 11, 2009

Belgian telly!

http://video.rtlinfo.be/video/13055.aspx

Don't forget to go several times my French,Flemish and Belgian friends!

(you need to search for brendan et le secret de kells on that site to see the clip)

french press - lots of stars! nicey one!

http://www.allocine.fr/film/revuedepresse_gen_cfilm=110254.html

photos from Belgian Premiere

http://www.thetopofmusic.be/fotoalbum/album.php?page=album&boek=brendan/08022009premiere&vanafFoto=30
man I wish i had been there ....but I was in Berlin instead!
Looks like a great night

some press

I thought it might be good use of this blog to put up some of the press we've gotten so far and links to interviews and stuff.
Anyone in Ireland should watch the Late Late Show this week as Pat has a great show lined up and the voice of Abbot Cellach , Brendan Gleeson is on .....

Vincent Donnelly, Movies Plus magazine and Movies.ie

“I loved THE SECRET OF KELLS, the movie has a magical other-worldy feel that reminded me of Hayao Miyazaki's movies (such as Spirited away) It's one of the most visually arresting animations I've seen, every frame is a work of art. That coupled with a perfect soundtrack and a back-drop of Irish folklore, it's impossible not to love it.”

Michael Doherty, The RTE GUIDE

“The film combines the visual beauty of Celtic typography with the humour of Belleville Rendezvous and the charm of Miyazaki’s Spirited Away.”

Lee Marshall in Berlin

09 Feb 2009 18:02

Dir: Tomm Moore. Ireland-France-Belgium. 2008. 78mins.

Visually ravishing and doused in Celtic magic, Irish animated feature Brendan And The Secret Of Kells takes as its plot source and stylistic inspiration the eighth century Book of Kells, an intricately illuminated Latin gospel that is widely considered to be Ireland's greatest national treasure.

Brendan is certain to draw fans in the 5-11 core audience, although though its weight of exposition and hand-drawn 2-D animation style may make it a niche product rather than a marquee title outside of its home territory. The US could prove to be an exception, though, where its huge diaspora Irish community will make it a key market.

The film's historical anchor is the most prevalent of various theories about the origin of the Book of Kells – that it was begun on the abbey of Iona in Scotland, and later taken to the Abbey of Kells in County Meath, where monks continued the intricate and time-consuming work of illustration. But pretty much everything else in the story is either invented or rooted in legend.

Our hero is child-monk Brendan, a red-haired lad whose curiosity keeps leading him into scrapes that incur the wrath of his stern uncle, Abbot Cellach. The other monks – an international bunch, bringing home just how cosmopolitan European monasteries were in the so-called Dark Ages – tell Brendan in reverent tones about the greatest illustrator of them all, Brother Aidan from Iona.

And soon enough sprightly old Aidan turns up in Kells with his cat Pangur Ban, fleeing with his precious book from the evil, Minotaur-like Northmen, who are pillaging their way through Scotland and Ireland. Helping Aidan to finish the book despite the disapproval of his uncle (for whom the only useful job is building walls to keep the invaders out), Brendan strays into the forest in search of ink pigments, and is saved from danger by a white wolf who turns out to be Aisling, a mischievous, impulsive girl-sprite.

Director Tomm Moore and his team really excel themselves in these forest sequences, where Irish monasticism meets Busby Berkeley. At times, motifs from megalithic passage graves and Celtic jewellery float in the background like micro-organisms under a microscope, or fall in the form of snowflakes. Perspective is flattened out, and Brendan and Aisling are framed inside branches, just as Biblical characters were framed inside the opening letters of illuminated manuscript pages.

Occasionally, the action spreads across the screen in three separate frames, reminding us that the spatial narrative techniques of Medieval painting and modern graphic novels are not far removed.

Kids weaned on Pixar may look down on Brendan, but as with Miyazaki, it's a parental duty to drag them along to this captivatingly original take on Old School animation.

Production companies
Cartoon Saloon
Les Armateurs
Vivi Film
France 2 Cinema

International sales
Celluloid Dreams
(33) 1 49 70 03 70

Co-director
Nora Twomey

Producers
Didier Brunner
Viviane Vanfleteren
Paul Young

Tomm Moore

Screenplay
Tomm Moore
Fabrice Ziolkowski

Art Director
Ross Stewart

Editor
Fabienne Alvarez-Giro

Music
Bruno Coulais

Voice cast
Evan McGuire
Mick Lally
Christen Mooney
Brendan Gleeson
Liam Hourrican

A true delight to watch

Truly magnificent, magical and captivating all in one. This is the most amazing animation film I have ever been fortunate enough to watch.

von Stella Woeste, 15

"You must go where I can not. Pangur Bán, Pangur Bán..." The fairy child with the soft and melodious voice befriends the young Brendan who lives behind a strong wall with his uncle, Abbot Cellach who watches over Brendan's education. The wall is there to protect its inhabitants from the dangerous men from the north, the vikings who have already burned several villages, killing every man, woman and child. When Brendan wanders where he should not, he meets the fairy child and begins on his hunt for a secretive crystal that will enlighten him on finishing a book. The book of Iona for his new friend, Brother Aidan. That's where all the adventure begins.

This movie is absolutely beautiful. It is a work of art in itself and is a true delight to watch. This is one of those rare films that don't even need any dialogue, leaning back and just watching the colors proves to be sufficient enough. Not only is this movie made of wonderful pictures and colors that is eye candy in itself, it also contains a lot of emotions. It is like being on an emotional rollercoaster. One moment you are laughing with mirth at a crude joke and the next you are gasping in shock at a dark and scary scene. Tragic, sad moments prove to be tear jerkers in a way only a cartoon can make one feel, but the darkness is mirrored by light and funny moments that give this film a lot of charisma.

The music accompanying the film and especially the part where the fairy child sings, "You must go where I can not," is absolutely enchanting. This is a whole new level of animation, and I am positively surprised since I am usually a little skeptical about the amount of emotion an animated movie can bring across - I am completely blown away, and anyone who is in the mood to watch a beautiful, well drawn, imaginative and fascinating movie with just the right amount of comedy and tradgedy, should watch it. The creative artist, director and all the people voicing the characters in this film deserve more than a round of applause. This proves that animation can deliver a whole new perspective on life in its most precious form.

I love these reviews from Berlin because hey are written by young people who are the actual target audience!

http://www.jungejournalisten.berlinale.de/index.php?id=10&lang=e&parameters=a%3A1%3A%7Bs%3A2%3A%22id%22%3Bs%3A2%3A%2258%22%3B%7D

This is a video interview with me from the Paris promo trip, I was asked to speak in Irish at the end but got a bit muddled from thinking half in French and English all week!

http://www.premiere.fr/Cinema/Exclus-cinema/Interview-cinema/Brendan-et-le-secret-de-Kells-Interview-video-du-Realisateur/(gid)/1515543