As with the How to Train Your Dragon series, I don't feel like I
can review my most recent viewing without also reviewing another. SotS
isn't a sequel, and even "spiritual successor" is a stretch (sorry about
this sibilation), but it and TSoK have a lot of uncommon facets in, er,
common. Both come from minor French-Belgian-Irish studio Cartoon Saloon, under the direction
of illustrator Tomm Moore. Both work from Celtic folklore, keeping it
simple enough for kids, and have Brendan Gleeson as their best-known
voice actor. Both star a prepubescent human boy and a youthful female sprite,
with a pet tagging along for good measure. Both have beautifully
haunting music and a captivating 2D style that manages to be cartoony
and artsy at the same time. Both have been nominated for Best Animated
Feature at the Academy Awards, and I don't expect SotS to win either.
With so little brand recognition, they're inherent niche players,
however undeservedly.
TSoK is probably even more of a niche player just for its religious theme: The Book of Kells is a Christian theological text, which the heroes must protect from barbarians at the abbey gate. And might I say, those vikings are among the scariest, if most over-the-top, cartoon human villains I've seen. I'm not sure why Aisling the sylvan wolf-fairy goes out of her way to help mortal Brendan (traditional fairies don't seem keen on these things), but I count her among my favorite female characters from animated films. In a somewhat helpful role is Pangur Bán, a cat straight out of a medieval poem, whose name I might just give to a real white cat someday.
SotS does include some Christian imagery in the background, but it never matters to the story. Here we have a little family alone on a tiny island. Ben had been excited to have a sister on the way, but since her arrival coincided with the loss of their mother -- which may have prompted their father to show Saiorse favoritism -- Ben's resented her for all her six years. Saoirse has never spoken and shows a worryingly strong interest in the sea, especially the seals and a musical shell left behind by Mom. Stodgy Grandma insists on the kids moving to her hometown for safety, but Ben decides to sneak back for Cú the sheepdog ASAP, and Saoirse shows equal stubbornness in coming with him. The subsequent adventure reveals her exotic nature and widely important powers, letting Ben appreciate his sister at last.
If you've seen the trailer, you already know what Saoirse is: a selkie. I've known just one other story about them, and both convey the message that human love for a selkie, however virtuous, will surely result in heartbreak.
But that's far from the main point of SotS. Parallels between human and supernatural characters help establish the real lesson: Painful feelings trump no (or repressed) feelings. I hope it's clear enough to younger viewers how applicable this can be outside of fantasy.
Just having a moral may put SotS a notch above TSoK. It also has less violence and no solid villains, making it that much more family friendly. A few characters bring to mind Labyrinth, in a positive way.
My parents called SotS the first animation in a while to wow them audiovisually. I recommend that they check out TSoK for more, but with mild caveats.
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