Entertainment

A visual feast — just add Celt

The biggest surprise when Oscar nomi nations were an nounced came when “The Secret of Kells,” an obscure Irish-French-Belgian co-production, scored a nod for Best Animated Feature, squeezing out such high-profile contenders as “Monsters vs. Aliens,” “Ponyo,” “Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs” and “A Christmas Carol.”

It’s easy to see how the animation nominators fell in love with this charmer based on Celtic mythology, which is quite unlike anything I’ve ever seen before.

You probably can’t get more retro than artwork inspired by illuminated manuscripts from the Middle Ages — except maybe by using cave paintings.

These manuscripts also happen to be the obsession of the movie’s hero, Brendan (voiced by Evan McGuire), an orphaned pre-teen novice at a monastery in Kells, Ireland.

Brendan’s stern uncle, the Abbot Cellach (Brendan Gleeson), is building a wall to keep out invading Vikings.

But when an elderly Scottish illustrator (Mick Lally) arrives with a jewel-encrusted, unfinished book of the four gospels, Brendan offers to sneak out in the forest in search of special berries to make ink.

His dangerous quest includes an encounter with Aisling (Christen Moon-

ey), a white wolf-fairy, and other mystical creatures.

Mostly hand-drawn with a few digital effects, “The Secret of Kells” is not only not in 3-D — the images are so deliberately flat that they often seem less than 2-D.

They’re also incredibly detailed and abstracted — not that the climactic Viking attack isn’t so vivid that it may frighten some of the younger children to whom this movie is apparently being marketed.

“The Secret of Kells,” well directed by Tomm Moore, will likely appeal to older fans of fantasy and animation.