SIFF 2015 - Movie 0 : Song of the Sea

I've already posted about the geekery of pulling data off the siff.net webpage and putting it into CSV or Google Calendar format. That continues.

Today, while I wasn't doing that, I was actually watching a movie at SIFF. I always think it's a bit confusing to the uninitiated, but SIFF is an organization that runs, amongst other things,  the Seattle International Film Festival event. Which is also called SIFF. SIFF, the organization, also shows films year-round. As well as during the festival.

So, today, I went to the SIFF Uptown cinema to watch a movie that's not part of the festival. Is that all clear? Did it need to be? Probably not, but that's why I'm not numbering it as a festival movie. A pre-festival movie.

http://www.siff.net/cinema/song-of-the-sea

An animated movie out of Ireland, this is the story of a family whose mother disappears under mysterious and possibly tragic circumstances right about the time of the birth of the daughter. And then the daughter turns out to be a "selkie", which is like a were-seal, I guess. I read stats for them in a Monster's Manual at some point.

This was done by the same team that did "The Secret of Kells", which I enjoyed, which was a story about calligraphers in the middle ages. Or, a kid apprenticed to calligraphers. Big eyes, very flat shapes - reminded me a whole lot of Genndy Tartakovsky's "Samurai Jack" style. And "Song of the Sea" has a lot of the same style.

One thing bothered me when I looked at the description: it's described as a movie about a boy who discovers his sister is a selkie. Is it really that, or is it a movie about a girl who is a selkie? Turns out, the description is probably a little more apt. It's about the boy's adventures, tugging his supernatural sister around. You see the rest of the family, but clearly the boy is the focus. But why is that? Isn't the interesting character the girl?

Random other observation: how do the Irish learn how to pronounce things? The girl's name is "Saoirse", pronounced "seer-shuh". It's their language, they can do what they want, but wow.

Some peril, no dirty language as far as I can recall. Seems appropriate for kids.