BEFORE: I made it through a 12-hour shift at the New York International Children's Film Festival. Dealing with kids can be the absolute worst, which is one reason why I don't have any of my own - it's bad enough I have to deal with OTHER people's children once in a while. They cry, they scream, they make other noises, they run around and make messes everywhere - what's the upside of having them, again? I'm sure not seeing it. OK, so they take care of you when you're old and sick, maybe, if you're lucky, if you haven't driven them crazy or made them hate you enough to move away and not visit. Uh uh, it's not worth the chance.
Anyway, I got home Sunday night around 9 and we watched the latest "Tournament of Champions" battles on Food Network - by then I was completely worn out and I figured I should probably go to bed early as I was up so damn early Sunday morning, but then I realized I still had to watch another short (thankfully short) animated film or I'll fall behind and I won't get to my Easter film on time. So can I do it, can I make it through another Irish-based film before my eyes close involuntarily? Let's find out....
Brendan Gleeson and at least one other voice actor carries over from "The Secret of Kells".
THE PLOT: Ben, a young Irish boy, and his little sister Saoirse, a girl who can turn into a seal, go on an adventure to free the fairies and save the sprit world.
AFTER: These "Irish legends" films from Cartoon Saloon have such a great reputation in the animation industry, but I don't know, I'm just not feeling it. Maybe I'm just too exhausted this weekend to relax and enjoy these, maybe they're a bit too complicated, maybe I just don't know all this Irish mythology about selkies and fairies and witches and sages, they don't call to me the same way that mutants and Skrulls and Asgardian frost giants do.
But OK, yeah, there's this lighthouse keeper, Conor, who fell in love with a selkie, which is a bit like a mermaid, so right off I'm thinking this movie stole that part of the plot from "Aquaman", except this was released in 2014, which was four years BEFORE "Aquaman" happened, so who really stole from who? Together they had one human son and one daughter, except Bronagh, the selkie mother, disappeared right after her daughter Saoirse was born. Here I thought she died in childbirth, but I guess things aren't that simple.
Six years later, the kids' grandmother comes to visit, and the kids fight over a seashell flute that Bronagh gave to Ben - but when Saoirse plays it, she finds a white coat that allows her to turn into a seal. When the girl turns up on the seashore in the morning, Conor throws the coat into the ocean and Granny decides to take the kids away from the lighthouse, only for some reason they can't bring their dog along, and of course Conor needs to stay and work in the lighthouse, or all the ships will crash during the night. The kids decide to try and find their way back from Granny's house to the lighthouse, but only to get their dog.
But Saoirse gets kidnapped by fairies who can't return to their homeworld unless she wears her coat and sings them the Song of the Sea. But then they're attacked by owls that belong to a witch, who kidnaps fairies and keeps them in glass jars for some reason. So now the kids have to go find that coat, which isn't easy because their father threw it in the ocean. They hide in a hut and Saoirse falls down a well (there sure is a lot of falling in these movies...) and when Ben and the dog go after her, they find a cave inhabited by an old wise man with an extreme amount of hair, and every hair is a story somehow? There's a story here about a giant who tried to flood the whole world, but I just couldn't understand how THAT story tied in with the main story, it was all so very unclear. But following a different strand of hair allows Ben to learn that Saoirse was kidnapped by Macha and then another strand of the beard lead him to Macha's lair, where the witch turns the fairies she kidnaps to stone.
But Macha's doing this for the fairies own good, so they won't suffer or be sad any more? Her motivations didn't really make sense, either. And Macha HERSELF was partly turned to stone, which makes about as much sense as a giant snake eating its own tail and then disappearing, if I'm being honest. But just before Saoirse is fully turned into a stone statue, Ben has her play the seashell flute, which breaks the jars, saves all the fairies, and also turns Macha from a bad witch into a good witch again, and then they all get back to the lighthouse with the help of two magic dogs, not their own dog.
Back home with their father, Ben dives into the ocean and gets the chest with the coat in it, with the help of some seals, and then the girl can finally sing the Song of the Sea properly and free all the magical beings from their stone prisons, and the kids' mother even shows up again, but it's only so she can return to her homeworld and leave her annoying human family behind. She wants to bring her daughter with her, but Saoirse gives up her magical abilities so she can be human and live with her father and brother, and that part of the story seems to be a bit like Ariel's story from "The Little Mermaid", maybe.
Whew, it's all very complicated, because it's a hard life in Ireland, even for the magical folks. I know I'm exhausted, just from trying to figure this all out. I should get some sleep, but maybe just one more movie so I can clear this damn non-trilogy from the books.
Also starring the voices of David Rawle, Lisa Hannigan, Fionnula Flanagan (last seen in "Birthmarked"), Lucy O'Connell, Jon Kenny (last seen in "Angela's Ashes"), Pat Shortt, Colm O Snodaigh, Liam Hourican (last heard in "The Secret of Kells"), Kevin Swierszcz
RATING: 4 out of 10 birthday candles
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