Song of the Sea

I recently came across this movie on Amazon Prime. (Thanks, Dad.) It's a 2014 animated film I had never heard of before, but the drawing style looked interesting and I saw Brendan Gleeson listed in the voice credits so I thought I'd give it a go.

The story opens on a young boy named Ben and his mother painting murals of Irish folklore on the walls of his room in the lighthouse where he lives with his father and pregnant mother. As they paint, she teaches him a Gaelic song. Her mother and father put him to bed, and she gives him a gift of a shell flute to hear the song of the sea. That night, his little sister is born and his mother presumably dies. When we next see him, he is older, drawing pictures of his mother's stories, annoyed with his little sister who has still not talked although it's her 6th birthday. It's obvious that he resents her and blames her for the loss of their mother.

This movie is absolutely beautiful. Upon doing some reading about the movie, I learned that this is hand-drawn animation. It would be something really special only for the look of the movie, but it delivers on much more than that.

I love how the Irish folklore is woven throughout the movie. I want to say more, but also don't because I just want you to go watch it if you haven't. :)