Jeffrey Overstreet writes, “I finally saw The Secret of Kells. Wow. I haven’t been so hypnotized and enthralled by animation in a very long time. It’s remarkable how, in this era of increasingly lifelike digital animation and 3D, something that seems handmade can still work the most powerful magic.”
He interviews critic Steven D. Greydanus, because he’s troubled by the film. “Had I just watched a film about The Book of Kells that never once acknowledged what is written on the book’s pages?”
The weirdest thing about this movie to me, though, was the group of monks from other continents who were drawn as racial stereotypes and seemed to have no place at a Catholic monastery in Ireland in the 800’s. I’ve never seen mention of them in discussions of the film, but their inclusion was so strange to me it really had me wondering why the writers chose to have them there, aside from simple comedic relief.
That’s a good point. I suppose I took it representative as the global church. They were the biblical scholars working together to preserve God’s Word.