The Secret of Kells

The Secret of Kells is a very imaginative film in the sense that it creates an origin story for the Book of Kells. What is particularly interesting about this film is that it is animated. What that allows is for a much younger audience to become engaged with illuminated manuscripts as a whole. Illuminated manuscripts are something that most likely appear dull to a younger generation of people. And the Secret of Kells makes these manuscripts more appealing through its utilization of things like fairies and mythical monsters.
Furthermore, the film employs an idea of the illuminated manuscript that takes on somewhat of a magical characteristic. The Book of Kells in the film literally “illuminates” the reader, taking on a quite literal approach to the illuminated manuscript. The Secret of Kells depicts these manuscripts as being work of angels and being able to shy away sinners from reading it. Obviously this is a very religious take on illuminated manuscripts, and rightly so. Heavy notions of Christianity are not mentioned in this film, although the basics are. This makes it very easy for young people who are not entirely educated on the Christian faith to comprehend and process.
Something that the film does is paint the authorities of the monastery as being stern and unimaginative for most of the story. Brendan – a young boy and the main character of the film – has an uncle who is head of the monastery. He routinely refuses Brendan to partake in the making of the pages of illuminated manuscripts as well as exiting the monastery, which ends up being a vital part of the story towards the end. While this tactic that the filmmakers used makes The Secret of Kells more appealing to a younger audience, it is not entirely true. In fact, many young people in monasteries were educated on how to create illuminated manuscripts and continue the work that was being done.
While The Secret of Kells may not be historically accurate, it is an entertaining film to watch. It has the ability to appeal to and educate a younger generation of people on illuminated manuscripts, whilst illustrating them in a tasteful, enjoyable light. Overall, The Secret of Kells does a nice job with this and is an interesting film to watch regardless of ones age.