Trailer Tuesdays: The Breadwinner

Who loves Cartoon Saloon? This lady does! Though some parts of Song of the Sea left me a bit underwhelmed, Cartoon Saloon’s aesthetic stylings and my lingering, overflowing love for The Secret of Kells have ensured my continued excitement over their works. Despite The Breadwinner taking a far less fantastical approach to exploring the world, its trailer has me intrigued as to how this adaptation will fare given its more serious nature.

Mo’ Faeries, Mo’ Problems: A Song of the Sea Review

Readers of this blog may recall back in January when I reviewed The Secret of Kells, lamenting that I couldn’t find a decent upload of its successor, Song of the Sea, or anywhere I could go to see it legitimately. Funnily enough, wait four months and more options suddenly open up. Which is to say that I have finally seen Song of the Sea. Now, considering the difference in topics I don’t think it would be quite fair to compare them on that level—and really, I don’t want to compare the two in this review—but seeing as they’re both works by Cartoon Saloon a bit of comparison is going to be inevitable. In that vein, I’ll get this out of the way now: I enjoyed Song of the Sea. Did I enjoy it as much as The Secret of Kells? No. For quite a few reasons.

Spoilers for the entire film under the cut.

Not Quite a Fairy Tale: A The Secret of Kells Review

While the announcement of the Oscar nominations were a while back at this point, well-deserved grumblings are still going around within the general public about what was nominated and, in some cases, what wasn’t. Many believe that the exclusion of The Lego Movie was either a horrendous oversight or a case of critical pretension at its worst, but there had to be something about the other movies that gained them enough clout to be on the list in the first place. While I think a large reason of why Big Hero 6 made the cut was due to its status as a Disney flick, out of all nominations the one that stuck out to me the most was Song of the Sea. Animated by Cartoon Saloon, the story looks at the story of a young boy and his friend, a young girl who just so happens to be a selkie. Unfortunately, as this movie wasn’t showing in either of the theaters in my town, nor could I find it online, I didn’t get to see it as I had planned. But, all was not lost! This turned out to be the perfect opportunity to finally sit down and watch Cartoon Saloon’s other critically acclaimed film, The Secret of Kells from 2009, and oh my god you guys, it seriously deserves all the hype it gets.