cineuropa film focus

http://cineuropa.org/ffocusarticle.aspx?lang=en&documentID=89641&treeID=1686

variety review

http://www.variety.com/review/VE1117939771.html?categoryid=31&cs=1

irish radio coverage

http://www.rte.ie/news/morningireland/

Premiere night Dublin Film Festival (just the first bit)

Premiere pics

http://entertainment.ie/caughtout/image.asp?ID=599&PhotoID=3301349167

Superstars Evan McGuire and Christen Mooney (Brendan and Aisling)

http://www.rte.ie/tv/theden/ice/icewatchtheshow_avlong.html?2330650,240,230

some video from Sunday night

http://entertainment.ie/jdiff/

Gala screening

Still recovering from Sunday night it was a great buzz.
We all really enjoyed it and are really excited about Disneys plans to promote it over the next few weeks , watch out for the buses and projected images in Trinity college.
A big online thanks to Grainne Humphries and all at Jameson Dublin Film Festival
and to everyone who was in attendence on Sunday night.
It was lovely to meet the young actors , Evan Mc Guire and Christen Mooney again.
And Brendan Gleeson and Mick Lally have been so supportive helping to spread the word.

We saw the first billboards up on the way out of Dublin coming home which was a great buzz too!

Irish Times on line comment!

There was one chink of glorious light this weekend. We went to see The Secret of Kells (see the website for accompanying book here) last night, the closing film in the Dublin Film Festival. It is the first full-length Irish animation and co-directed by Kilkenny man Tomm Moore and Nora Twomey. It was stunning. A cascade of light and colour and wonder burst from the screen. And a beautifully-measured tale about the creation of the Book of Kells in 6th century Ireland. Gorgeous ornate animation with unmistakable (and unforgettable) Celtic motifs. Great voices from actors Brendan Gleeson and Mick Lally and two child actors. Amazing.

In an atmosphere of communal despair, this amazing work showed what is, and can, be possible. It was the first ‘yes we can’ moment I have experienced since the beginning of the year.

Please go and see it when it opens. It’s uplifting.

http://www.irishtimes.com/blogs/politics/2009/02/23/neverending-unrelenting-misery-and-a-chink-of-wonder/#more-221

Irish Premiere Tommorow Night

Gulp! Its gonna be great! But I'm all butterflies in anticipation!
Can't wait to see so many people from the production who will be there , as well as
all the actors and musicians and friends and families.
It sold out really quickly , so thats a good sign I think!

Twitch Review copied and pasted !

BRENDAN AND THE SECRET OF KELLS Review

Posted by Todd Brown at 10:31am.

Posted in Film & DVD Reviews , Animation, Sci-Fi & Fantasy, Continental Europe & Russia, UK, Ireland, Australia & New Zealand.

If you’re thinking to yourself that basing a children’s film around the creation of a famously illustrated Bible is an odd thing to do, well, you’re mostly right. It is kind of odd. And in lesser hands than director Tomm Moore and co-director Nora Twohey’s, doing so very likely would have resulted in a barely watchable history lesson. But by focusing less on the book - which, conspicuously, is never referred to as being a Bible within the body of the film - and more on the child who would eventually complete the years of labor that went into its creation, Moore and Twohey have instead created a charming, gorgeously realized fable about the power of imagination and art to thrive even in the most hostile times.

Young Brendan is an orphan living within the Abbey of Kells, a middle ages Irish monastery populated by monks whose lives are meant to be dedicated to the preservation and duplication - by hand - of books containing the whole of human knowledge at the time. Preserving knowledge is an important task at the best of times and particularly so at this particular age, a time when Viking hordes were storming the shores of Ireland and laying waste to whatever they came across. But, more than mere copyists, the monks of the Abbey were artists, men known as Illuminators thanks to their unique ability to create elaborate calligraphies and illustrations within the text to carry the meaning even to those who could not read. Brendan’s childhood was one surrounded by myth and story and art, a nearly ideal environment for a child with a curious mind and a bit of skill with a quill.

Unfortunately, Brendan’s childhood was also spent surrounded by one enormous wall. The Abbot of Kells, you see, terrified of the oncoming Viking raiders, has diverted virtually all of the Abbey’s resources away from the art that was supposedly their primary occupation and put them, insteaed, into fortifying the Abbey against future invasion. Though well meaning the Abbot verges on obsessive when it comes to the completion of his wall and young Brendan, alas, has never been allowed to set foot outside of its boundaries.

Life for Brendan changes dramatically with the arrival of Brother Aidan, a living legend among Illuminators, widely considered to be the very finest artist of his generation and the man currently in charge of work on the fabled Book of Iona - a book now roughly two hundred years in the making, a book supposedly so beautiful that it possesses nearly supernatural power. Iona sacked by raiders, Aidan has now brought his work with him to Kells and it takes mere moments for him to recognize a kindred spirit in Brendan and to take the boy under his wing. Lesson one? You will learn more from a day spent in the forest than from a lifetime behind walls and so Brendan is sent out into the woods - without the Abbot’s knowledge or consent - to find the oak berries that Aidan needs to create his inks. It is a dangerous, wild place, but also a beautiful one - a place that Brendan navigates only with the help of a forest spirit he meets and befriends there ...

Immediately engaging and gorgeously realized, Brendan and the Secret of Kells avoids the limitations of a ‘historical’ movie, instead casting itself as a coming of age adventure, with its young hero forced to make his first steps on his own, making his own decisions about right and wrong and finding the strength in himself to face up to his fears and foes both magical and frighteningly real. It is a film about being bold enough to create and the fallacy of simply trying to preserve.

The debut feature from Irish animator Tomm Moore - the film also had significant backing from France and Belgium - immediately establishes Moore as an absolute master of his craft - a story teller and visual artist who absolutely deserves to be mentioned in the same breath as masters such as Michel Ocelot and Sylvain Chomet. His world is richly detailed and strikingly unique, folding traditionally Irish influences into a riot of color and detail that dazzle the eyes while the deceptively simple story goes to work on more subtle levels. His characters are just as richly detailed as his visuals, the messages simple and universal. This is no less than the arrival of a major new talent.

Gwan the Cats!

David O'Reilly (a talented young Kilkenny man who used to work with us and hang out in our studio during his teenage years )won the Golden Bear in Berlinale.
His beautiful and touching short "Please say something" really impressed everyone who saw it on the HUGE screen in Berlin.
Here we all are with our hip scarfs in Berlin ! A fine bunch of Kilkenny Cats.
Congratulations David!

Comics in shops!

Thanks to Annes pal for taking these snaps!

Twitch Review

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»

Comic Cast Interview is live.

http://thecomiccast.wordpress.com/


(beware - I swear)

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.