Reviewed by Chris Eberle

Song of the Sea - Blu-ray Movie Review

Synopsis

After a little girl named Saoirse is born under mysterious circumstances, her father and older brother are left alone to raise her when her mother Bronach disappears suddenly. By six years of age, Saoirse still doesn’t talk but seems to show mysterious abilities. The children’s grandmother decides to take them to live with her in the city and there begins a quest. Saoirse learns she is the last of the Selkies and is the only one who can save the world of magic from the evil witch Macha. Her brother Ben is skeptical at first but soon sees the importance of her task. Together with their dog Ku they find the witch’s lair and set things right just in the nick of time.

Specifications

  • Universal
  • 2014, Color, Rated PG, 1 Hr 34 mins
  • 5.1 DTS-HD Master Audio, 1.85:1 Aspect Ratio
  • Starring the voices of: David Rawle, Brendan Gleeson, Lisa Hannigan
  • Directed by Tomm Moore

Rating

  • Entertainment:
  • Video:
  • Audio:
  • Extras:
  • Violence: No
  • Sex: No
  • Language: No

Commentary

This film is simply stunning to look at. The hand-drawn animation is in every way a work of art. Rather than the raw organic look I saw in The Tale of the Princess Kaguya, Song of the Sea takes a much cleaner approach with deep contrast, bold colors and beautiful lines that make foreground objects stand out against sometimes vast and detailed backdrops.

That being said, I found the pacing to be extremely slow. It was as if the story only needed about 40 minutes time to tell but director Tomm Moore decided to fill up 90 minutes with the tale. It’s a beautiful and classic story for sure but it seemed to move at a snail’s pace much of the time. As such I had a hard time staying engaged. Artistically, it’s a homerun but as a screenplay, it would have been better served as a 40-60 minute short feature.

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Technical

The transfer is easily of reference quality. Color is bold and saturated but never cartoonish or overblown. Contrast is used to much better effect than in most hand-drawn films. This is a quality of animation that is in a class by itself with a level of detail and sharpness that is easily a cut above.

The audio presentation makes great use of the surrounds and sub channels but I found the dialog to be understated in volume. A little bump of the center channel level helped things on my end but I think the mix could have been better balanced. The best thing about the soundtrack is the music which is presented on a wide front soundstage with great detail and depth.

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Extras

Bonus features total less than 30 minutes and include animation tests, a brief look behind the scenes, a montage of still images and multiple trailers. You also get audio commentary from director Tomm Moore.

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