Song of the Sea

Tomm Moore found the film’s core on a family holiday. Walking a beach on Ireland’s west coast they came upon seals that had been killed; their landlady said local fishermen were doing it out of frustration at falling fish stocks, and that it would not have happened when seals were held sacred, souls of those lost at sea, or selkies. Moore took from that how folklore ties people to their environment and built the story on its loss. Work was spread across Europe: some animation in Denmark, animation, backgrounds and layout in Luxembourg, compositing and paint in Belgium, sound and music in France. The method is hybrid, drawing lines on paper, laying watercolour on another page, preparing elements such as rocks on their own pages and stacking everything in the computer. It was also voiced in Irish and Scottish Gaelic. It was nominated for animated feature at the 87th Academy Awards, where Big Hero 6 won, then took best animated feature at the 28th European Film Awards a year later. It sits mid-way in Moore’s Irish folklore trilogy, between The Secret of Kells and Wolfwalkers. A good fit if you value a villain whose cruelty is grief management: Macha turns feeling to stone to end her son’s pain. Not for anyone expecting Ben’s fear of water to be crossed quickly.