“SONG OF THE SEA” My rating: C+
93 minutes | MPAA rating: PG
Frame for frame, the Oscar-nominated “Song of the Sea”may be the most visually beautiful animated feature film ever. It’s breathtaking.
That’s the good news.
The bad news is that as storytelling the latest effort from Irish animator Tomm Moore (his “The Secret of Kells” was nominated for an Oscar back in 2009) is a clunky ride, with an overthought and overwrought plot so complicated that it never tracks emotionally.
Ben (David Rawle) and his mute little sister Saorise live on an Irish island where their widowed father (Brendan Gleeson) keeps a lighthouse. Ben finds his little sister a bit of a pain — especially since she is drawn to swim in the dangerous waters and cavort with the seals who have shown up after an absence of many years.
In fact, Saorise is a selkie, a creature of Celtic legend who is human on dry land but becomes a seal in the water.
When their grandmother (Fionnula Flanagan) demands that they come to live with her in the city, the two children hit the road in an effort to return to the island that has been their only home.
Butler's Cinema Scene 