Reviews: 'Song of the Sea' is an animated fable with beauty to cry for

City Paper grade: A-

If you've seen Tomm Moore's The Secret of Kells, you're probably reading this in line outside the Ritz waiting for the doors to open for the first matinee of Song of the Sea. So: Let's address the rest of you. As hand-drawn animation edges closer to being a dead art form, the work of its few remaining practitioners takes on a melancholy quality, and Moore's modern take on Celtic folklore, which won him his second consecutive Oscar nomination, is so beautiful you could weep to look at it. The story involves a six-year-old girl, Saoirse (Lucy O'Connell), who's been mute since her mother apparently died in childbirth, and her older brother Ben (David Rawle), who talks enough for the both of them. But like Saorise, who turns out to be a selkie, a mythical shape-changer who transforms into a sleek white seal, Song of the Sea yearns to break free of the confines of plot and simply swim in its own possibilities. Although the story is an original (conceived by Moore, written by Will Collins), it embraces the mystery and sometimes the arbitrariness of fable, but it's never difficult follow, and engaging voice work by Brendan Gleeson and Fionnula Flanagan makes it a pleasure to listen to as well as look at.