Handcrafted animated magic. That’s the best way to describe Tomm Moore’s latest film “Song of the Sea,” which premiered at Tiff earlier this year and went on to screen AFI Fest this past November. In this astonishingly beautiful new film Tomm Moore revisits Irish folklore through the eyes of two young siblings, Ben and Saoirse. At the center of the story are the Selkies, mythical creatures that are human above ground and seals under water.
Reimagining these ancient stories for a new audience was a challenge that Moore was more than happy to face. Like with his Academy Award-nominated feature “The Secret of Kells,” this film is also filled with personal touches and with a heartwarming atmosphere that translates into the gorgeous visuals. It’s a rare treat to see a film that has been so delicately crafted in every aspect.
Above all, Tomm Moore is a fan of animation that loves the medium and his fellow creators dearly. Proof of this is his sincere excitement over a “selfie” he was able to take with animation legends John Lasseter and Hayao Miyazaki last month at the Governors Awards. Miyazaki in particular has made a great impact in the way Tomm Moore approaches his work. Inspired by his family and his cultural background, Moore has managed to create two films that are indelibly his own, and which set him apart from the financially driven crowd.
Distributed by Gkids, “Song of the Sea” recently received 7 Annie Awards nominations including Best Feature Film, Best Director, and Best Musical Score. The film also ranks high in several of the major film publications among the 20 animated features in the race for a Best Animated Feature Oscar nomination
I had the pleasure to sit down with Tomm Moore recently in Los Angeles to talk about his latest animated masterpiece, life after the Oscar nomination, and Cartoon Saloon’s next project. This was undoubtedly one of the most delightful chats this writer has had in recent memory.
Read More: "Song of the Sea" Tiff Review
Carlos Aguilar: When you were looking at Irish folklore for this film, how did you decide what stories or elements would work with the film you wanted to make, especially since you wanted to tale a story aimed at children?
Tomm Moore: When we first started looking at doing something with the Selkies, we noticed that in a lot of the stories the kids would often be a big part of them. The mother would disappear back into the sea, and sometimes they’d be a passage at the end of the story where the kids would go down to the sea and see a seal. They’d always wondered if that was their mother as a seal. That’s why I started thinking about the Selkies stories from the kids’ point of view.
We had lots of different folktales we were looking at. I was really passionate about using several different ones, but the script was getting too bloated and it was too much content. We decided to cut down to just the folklore that we could use to strengthen the family story. We had a lot of folklore, there was almost too much to pick from and as there always is with Irish folklore. There are so many versions of every story because every storyteller tells the story differently. We took a license and we said, “What folklore do we have in this draft that really strengthens what’s happening with the family?”
We came to the idea that the witch could be just an exaggerated version of the Granny, and then the shanachie was going to be a version of the kids’ grandfather but it became too complicated, so we decided against it. It was all about simplifying and boiling it down to make kind of a espresso of folklore so that we could have something really strong that would work internationally as well [Laughs].
Aguilar: Where did you find the folk story or stories that served as framework for “Song of the Sea”?
Tomm Moore: Everywhere. A lot of these stories I heard while growing up and others I read in a book called The People of Sea, lent to me by my friend Ross Stewart. He was the Art Director in “The Secret of Kells.” I went on a trip to the coast of Ireland when I had started working on the “The Secret of Kells,” and I’ saw these seals that had been killed by the sea. Then, when I was talking to the woman that we had rented the cottage from, she said that the fishermen had been killing the seals and blaming them for the drop in fish stocks. She said, “That wouldn’t have happened years ago because people had these beliefs that seals could be Selkies and that they contained the souls of people lost at sea.”
When I came back I talked to Ross Stewart and he loaned me the book I mentioned, which was a collection of stories from the 1920s. The author had gone around Ireland and England collecting all the different beliefs about seals. I was reading those and I was also reading some of Lady Gregory’s works. From the time of Lady Gregory and W.B. Yeats there was a big movement to try and capture the stories that had been just passed down in the oral tradition. But honestly, most folklore is only alive if you hear it, if it’s told, because if it’s written down it becomes kind of a gospel. If it’s written people think, “That’s it! That’s the right version! Don’t’ change it.” Folklore is always changing and evolving for new audiences. That’s how you keep it alive.
Aguilar: While “The Secret of Kells” is a gorgeous film in its own right, it seems like “Song of the Sea” had an even more ethereal and fluid look to it, almost like watercolors.
Tomm Moore: A big part of that is Adrien Merigeau, who was the main background artist in “The Secret of Kells.” When I was developing “ Song of the Sea” and working on conceptual stuff, we really tried to blend our styles. His natural style seemed very full of little idiosyncratic design motifs. We started looking at the rocks and carvings that I wanted to include, and we could see similarities between his work and those Pictish carving, so he started to incorporate that into it.
We started working really early, before we even had a script. We were working on evolving this style, and we were hoping it would be a bit more atmospheric than in “The Secret of Kells,” we wanted some of that damped atmosphere that you get in Ireland. Adrien is great with watercolors, and I had been playing a lot with watercolor as well. We felt it was the right approach. “The Secret of Kells” had a stained glass look, and we wanted “Song of the Sea” to feel more like watercolors, more like a mystical fairytale.
Aguilar: What sort of visual reference did you and your team have to create the beautiful patterns and details in the film?
Tomm Moore: It came from a lot of carving and rocks, and the mad sacred geometry in the way they are arranged. It’s amazing stuff. It’s all Celtic and Pre-Celtic from the Picts. The word “picture” comes from the Picts, they were an Irish tribe that used tattoo themselves with the images in all this carvings. When the Romans first found them, they realized they were called the Picts. The word comes from the name the Romans used to refer to the drawings the Picts had all over themselves.
Aguilar: Tell me about your approach in terms of character development. In this films character seem more delicate, perhaps more personal.
Tomm Moore: I based most of the characters on my family. Ben is based on my son. He was 10 when I started working to work on it, now he is 19 now. Time just flies when you are making animation [Laughs]. Cu was based on a dog we had. When Ben was younger we had a dog named Cu. My mother’s name is Bronagh, and she looked a lot like the character in the film. My characters are certainly very personal.
These films are so hard to get made or even get off the ground, then put the finance together, get the story right, that if you pack the film full of people that you love you can live with it longer. There is always a bit of nostalgia. My nephew does Ben’s voice, as you can see it’s a real family story. I knew the characters needed to be softer so I looked at films like “My Neighbor Totoro” and other Japanese animation. The characters in “ The Secret of Kells” are quite geometric, and for this one I wanted to get something a bit softer and fuller.
Aguilar: Was the relationship between Saoirse and Ben also inspired by your personal experience?
Tomm Moore: Yes, the same with Brendan and Ashley in “The Secret of Kells,” both relationships are based on my relationship with my sister. I have three sisters, but there was a certain sibling rivalry between me and my next older sister. For sure that was influential in both films.
Aguilar: I love all the details that you have hidden throughout the film: the animals in the background, the cameo on the bus, or even inanimate objects with a particular shape. Every frame is full of beautiful small touches
Tomm Moore: We spent a long time on that. We wanted to pack everything in there. Adrien’s point of view made the backgrounds look almost like illustrations. We set up each shot like an illustration that would work in a book as well, but ultimately we needed to have continuity. We did a lot of color scripting. All the details are little encouragements for people to watch the movie more than once. [Laughs]
Aguilar: Where you concern about translating Irish folklore into a story that could work for a global audience?
Tomm Moore: I think there is universality to the films. With “Song of the Sea” this was very deliberate because I knew that we had gone the independent route, we didn’t go with a big studio. We made it for 5.5 million Eur, that’s very small compared to other films. “ The Book of Life”, which was the next “low-budget” animated film at The Hollywood Reporter roundtable that I was in, was $50 million.
For me that freedom meant that I could be more personal and more true to our culture. At the same time you want people to be able to enjoy it. There are certain jokes in there that only Irish people will get, but for the most part I wanted to take the approach in which somebody from anywhere in the world could watch it and enjoy it. I like that about “Totoro.” You get a glimpse of Japanese culture but at the same time anybody, anywhere, could watch “Totoro” and enjoy it even if they don’t know anything about Japanese culture.
Aguilar: The film seems to take place in a not-so-distant past where 3D glasses and Walkmans where an awesome novelty.
Tomm Moore: I was thinking it was like 1987, that’s when I was 10 years old. I was nostalgic for that time and I decided to add those little touches. [Laughs]
Aguilar: Music is such an important element in “Song of the Sea.” Tell me about developing the score with the musicians and other talent.
Tomm Moore: With “The Secret of Kells” Bruno Coulais and Kila did a great job but they work for a quite short neat the end of the film. This time, because the music was so important for the whole film, we asked them to get involved really early on. Bruno and Kila started working on the music for the film while we were still writing the story. It was really great, we would have little sessions in Ireland where they’ll get together and work. The first thing we had to work on was the song. We needed to get that right and find a singer. We were lucky to find Lisa Hannigan, who could act and sing. That was the first challenge for this movie, working on the music at the same time as the visuals.
Aguilar: With the advent of 3D animation, is it difficult to find the right people to work on more detailed-oriented 2D films?
Tomm Moore: There is a little team, like in stop-motion. It’s a little team of people that we’ve put together who had worked on “The Secret of Kells,” and some new people. I think it’s about finding people who are really passionate about 2-D animation and want to work at a different level on it. We are lucky in Europe, there seems to be a lot of 2D animation happening. There is still expertise and different studios are still making it.
Aguilar: Where things easier this second time around?
Tomm Moore: “The Secret of Kells ” was tough because it was the first one and we were trying to figure stuff out. This time there were stressful moments but we were a little bit more battle-hardened, like the old team getting back together for one more war [Laughs]
Aguilar: What do you love about 2D animation that 3D can’t provide? What would you say makes the medium particularly special?
Tomm Moore: I think there is a language to drawing that’s special, just like with Ghibli’s latest, “The Tale of the Princess Kaguya.” Even if you try to fake the look of a drawing by doing something like “Paperman”, is not quiet the same as feeling that somebody really drew it. Also, I think that if you watch a movie like “My Neighbor Totoro” and then you watch “Ponyo,” you wouldn’t know that they’ve been made 20 years apart. But if you watch the original “Toy Story” and then “Toy Story 3,” you can really see a big difference, you can see a big change in technology. 2-D has a certain timelessness.
Aguilar: You’ve mentioned Miyazaki’s work has been an inspiration to you, what other animators or artists have influenced your work?
Tomm Moore: Richard Williams, who was for years trying to make “The Thief and the Cobbler.” He was never able to finish it properly and then it got taken off of him. It’s a sad story, but he was always such an inspiration to me. When I was in college I saw a documentary about him and you could see he really had this great passion. He fully believed that animation could be art and it didn’t have to been as just something commercial. He spent over 25 year working on that film, that’s more of an art piece than anything else.
Also Genndy Tartakovsky, who is now doing CG stuff like “Hotel Transylvania,” but also worked on shows like “Samurai Jack ” and other greats tuff on TV. Then of course all the Eastern European animated film, specially the Hungarian folktales. There is also the Russian animator Yuri Norshteyn, he is really amazing. He ‘s made some beautiful short films, but he has also been working on this feature film for like 20 years. It’s going to be beautiful if he ever finishes it. I suppose I get inspiration from all over the place.
Aguilar: For you what’s the main difference between animated and live actions films in terms of the creative process and the effect they have on audiences?
Tomm Moore: Animation and live action are blending. I was recently talking to a friend of mine who is an editor, he used to work in live-action and now he works in animation. He used the analogy that editing in live action is like carving away a piece of marble but the shape is basically already there. With animation is more like clay because you keep building, changing, and adding things.
I think animation is freer and I think that’s why live action filmmakers like Spielberg or Cameron are using animation more in their films. “ Avatar” or “Gravity” are basically animate films because they have so much CG animation in them. But I think hand-drawn animation can be something really special. If the character design is quite simple it has the ability to allow people to easily relate to the characters in a special manner. A cartoon character isn’t a specific person. It isn’t Tom Cruise or George Clooney playing the part, it’s a character that could be you. It’s easier for you to get drawn into it in a special way.
Aguilar: Would you ever work on a 3D animated film?
Tomm Moore: I wouldn’t say no, but I’d have to find a way to adapt to it and I don’t think I’d be interested in doing something like Pixar’s shiny, perfect surfaces in 3D. To be honest with you, they do it so well and they spend so much money on it, that unless you are doing it in Pixar there is no point trying to match it. It’ll just come out looking cheap, so you would have to find a clever way to dot it. I like drawing. I like to spend the day drawing, the process is important for me. Drawing is a just a pleasure and it’s nice to keep it going. I think we stand out a little bit from the crowd by being 2D. There is less and less of it that now we have like a badge or a brand that stands out by being 2D.
Aguilar: “Song of the Sea” has received overwhelmingly positive reviews and a great reception by audiences. I’m sure this must be very rewarding and encouraging.
Tomm Moore: The more god reviews we get the more confidence we get, and the more proud we are when we stand beside the film. The only problem is the pressure, this was like making a difficult second album and now we have to make sure that the third film, and the next are good. But that’s a good problem to have [Laughs]
Aguilar: What are you and Cartoon Saloon working on next?
Tomm Moore: The next project that Cartoon Saloon is doing is going to be directed by Nora Twomey, who was the co-director in “The Secret of Kells,” and it’s based on a book called The Breadwinner by Deborah Ellis. It’s about a little girl in Afghanistan who has to pretend to be a boy so she can provide for her family. Her father is a storyteller. There is going to be two different visual styles in it. The storytelling world will use a decorative style based on Afghan art and then there will be a different style for the real world. It’s definitely challenging. I’m also writing another movie at the moment, it’ll be my third Irish-themed movie.
Aguilar: Seems like you are making a real brand or niche for yourself with Irish animated stories
Tomm Moore: Yes, at least for myself, but I think Nora is going to make something very special and different.
Aguilar: How did the Oscar nomination for “The Secret of Kells” change things? Did it change things at all?
Tomm Moore: It did, maybe not in the way that we had immediately expected. It wasn’t like we suddenly had access to millions and millions or anything like that, because we weren’t willing to become part of the studio system and make a movie that would work in that system. They spend so much money on those films that if you get involved in that system you don’t know if your film will ever get made because it’s such a risk to make them. You could develop something for years and it might never get made. And if they do make it has to be very accessible and it has to be a certain type of product. When they make them well they are beautiful, I was blown away by “How to Train Your Dragon 2.”
But for me, the freedom that you have to give up by trying to get into that system wasn’t worth it. The Oscar nomination might have opened doors to do something like that, but instead we decided to go back to Ireland and stay pretty small. What the nomination did instead was giving us a professional armor. It gave us a certain credibility and people took us more seriously after that. It also opened doors in terms of actors. We could now get voices that we really wanted. It helped with raising the finance, even though we ended up with a very small budget, less even that in “ The Secret of Kells.”
After the economic crash there was less money to put together, but the money that was out there we were able to attract because of the Oscar nomination. Besides, I got to join the Academy, I got to meet Miyazaki the other night, and there are so many benefits that just go on and on [Laughs].
Aguilar: I think “Song of the Sea” is absolutely marvelous, but for those who haven’t had the chance to see, why should they flock to see it?
Tomm Moore: I think it’s offering something different. I think what we tried to do - and I hope we’ve been successful at - is make a movie that is something like “ Totoro,” something like “E.T.” or “Goonies.” We wanted to make something like those movies from the 80s that weren’t a sequel or a prequel. They were just a complete new adventure in themselves. “Song of the Sea” has a kind of melancholy that most animated films seem not having much of anymore. I hope it offers something special.
Reimagining these ancient stories for a new audience was a challenge that Moore was more than happy to face. Like with his Academy Award-nominated feature “The Secret of Kells,” this film is also filled with personal touches and with a heartwarming atmosphere that translates into the gorgeous visuals. It’s a rare treat to see a film that has been so delicately crafted in every aspect.
Above all, Tomm Moore is a fan of animation that loves the medium and his fellow creators dearly. Proof of this is his sincere excitement over a “selfie” he was able to take with animation legends John Lasseter and Hayao Miyazaki last month at the Governors Awards. Miyazaki in particular has made a great impact in the way Tomm Moore approaches his work. Inspired by his family and his cultural background, Moore has managed to create two films that are indelibly his own, and which set him apart from the financially driven crowd.
Distributed by Gkids, “Song of the Sea” recently received 7 Annie Awards nominations including Best Feature Film, Best Director, and Best Musical Score. The film also ranks high in several of the major film publications among the 20 animated features in the race for a Best Animated Feature Oscar nomination
I had the pleasure to sit down with Tomm Moore recently in Los Angeles to talk about his latest animated masterpiece, life after the Oscar nomination, and Cartoon Saloon’s next project. This was undoubtedly one of the most delightful chats this writer has had in recent memory.
Read More: "Song of the Sea" Tiff Review
Carlos Aguilar: When you were looking at Irish folklore for this film, how did you decide what stories or elements would work with the film you wanted to make, especially since you wanted to tale a story aimed at children?
Tomm Moore: When we first started looking at doing something with the Selkies, we noticed that in a lot of the stories the kids would often be a big part of them. The mother would disappear back into the sea, and sometimes they’d be a passage at the end of the story where the kids would go down to the sea and see a seal. They’d always wondered if that was their mother as a seal. That’s why I started thinking about the Selkies stories from the kids’ point of view.
We had lots of different folktales we were looking at. I was really passionate about using several different ones, but the script was getting too bloated and it was too much content. We decided to cut down to just the folklore that we could use to strengthen the family story. We had a lot of folklore, there was almost too much to pick from and as there always is with Irish folklore. There are so many versions of every story because every storyteller tells the story differently. We took a license and we said, “What folklore do we have in this draft that really strengthens what’s happening with the family?”
We came to the idea that the witch could be just an exaggerated version of the Granny, and then the shanachie was going to be a version of the kids’ grandfather but it became too complicated, so we decided against it. It was all about simplifying and boiling it down to make kind of a espresso of folklore so that we could have something really strong that would work internationally as well [Laughs].
Aguilar: Where did you find the folk story or stories that served as framework for “Song of the Sea”?
Tomm Moore: Everywhere. A lot of these stories I heard while growing up and others I read in a book called The People of Sea, lent to me by my friend Ross Stewart. He was the Art Director in “The Secret of Kells.” I went on a trip to the coast of Ireland when I had started working on the “The Secret of Kells,” and I’ saw these seals that had been killed by the sea. Then, when I was talking to the woman that we had rented the cottage from, she said that the fishermen had been killing the seals and blaming them for the drop in fish stocks. She said, “That wouldn’t have happened years ago because people had these beliefs that seals could be Selkies and that they contained the souls of people lost at sea.”
When I came back I talked to Ross Stewart and he loaned me the book I mentioned, which was a collection of stories from the 1920s. The author had gone around Ireland and England collecting all the different beliefs about seals. I was reading those and I was also reading some of Lady Gregory’s works. From the time of Lady Gregory and W.B. Yeats there was a big movement to try and capture the stories that had been just passed down in the oral tradition. But honestly, most folklore is only alive if you hear it, if it’s told, because if it’s written down it becomes kind of a gospel. If it’s written people think, “That’s it! That’s the right version! Don’t’ change it.” Folklore is always changing and evolving for new audiences. That’s how you keep it alive.
Aguilar: While “The Secret of Kells” is a gorgeous film in its own right, it seems like “Song of the Sea” had an even more ethereal and fluid look to it, almost like watercolors.
Tomm Moore: A big part of that is Adrien Merigeau, who was the main background artist in “The Secret of Kells.” When I was developing “ Song of the Sea” and working on conceptual stuff, we really tried to blend our styles. His natural style seemed very full of little idiosyncratic design motifs. We started looking at the rocks and carvings that I wanted to include, and we could see similarities between his work and those Pictish carving, so he started to incorporate that into it.
We started working really early, before we even had a script. We were working on evolving this style, and we were hoping it would be a bit more atmospheric than in “The Secret of Kells,” we wanted some of that damped atmosphere that you get in Ireland. Adrien is great with watercolors, and I had been playing a lot with watercolor as well. We felt it was the right approach. “The Secret of Kells” had a stained glass look, and we wanted “Song of the Sea” to feel more like watercolors, more like a mystical fairytale.
Aguilar: What sort of visual reference did you and your team have to create the beautiful patterns and details in the film?
Tomm Moore: It came from a lot of carving and rocks, and the mad sacred geometry in the way they are arranged. It’s amazing stuff. It’s all Celtic and Pre-Celtic from the Picts. The word “picture” comes from the Picts, they were an Irish tribe that used tattoo themselves with the images in all this carvings. When the Romans first found them, they realized they were called the Picts. The word comes from the name the Romans used to refer to the drawings the Picts had all over themselves.
Aguilar: Tell me about your approach in terms of character development. In this films character seem more delicate, perhaps more personal.
Tomm Moore: I based most of the characters on my family. Ben is based on my son. He was 10 when I started working to work on it, now he is 19 now. Time just flies when you are making animation [Laughs]. Cu was based on a dog we had. When Ben was younger we had a dog named Cu. My mother’s name is Bronagh, and she looked a lot like the character in the film. My characters are certainly very personal.
These films are so hard to get made or even get off the ground, then put the finance together, get the story right, that if you pack the film full of people that you love you can live with it longer. There is always a bit of nostalgia. My nephew does Ben’s voice, as you can see it’s a real family story. I knew the characters needed to be softer so I looked at films like “My Neighbor Totoro” and other Japanese animation. The characters in “ The Secret of Kells” are quite geometric, and for this one I wanted to get something a bit softer and fuller.
Aguilar: Was the relationship between Saoirse and Ben also inspired by your personal experience?
Tomm Moore: Yes, the same with Brendan and Ashley in “The Secret of Kells,” both relationships are based on my relationship with my sister. I have three sisters, but there was a certain sibling rivalry between me and my next older sister. For sure that was influential in both films.
Aguilar: I love all the details that you have hidden throughout the film: the animals in the background, the cameo on the bus, or even inanimate objects with a particular shape. Every frame is full of beautiful small touches
Tomm Moore: We spent a long time on that. We wanted to pack everything in there. Adrien’s point of view made the backgrounds look almost like illustrations. We set up each shot like an illustration that would work in a book as well, but ultimately we needed to have continuity. We did a lot of color scripting. All the details are little encouragements for people to watch the movie more than once. [Laughs]
Aguilar: Where you concern about translating Irish folklore into a story that could work for a global audience?
Tomm Moore: I think there is universality to the films. With “Song of the Sea” this was very deliberate because I knew that we had gone the independent route, we didn’t go with a big studio. We made it for 5.5 million Eur, that’s very small compared to other films. “ The Book of Life”, which was the next “low-budget” animated film at The Hollywood Reporter roundtable that I was in, was $50 million.
For me that freedom meant that I could be more personal and more true to our culture. At the same time you want people to be able to enjoy it. There are certain jokes in there that only Irish people will get, but for the most part I wanted to take the approach in which somebody from anywhere in the world could watch it and enjoy it. I like that about “Totoro.” You get a glimpse of Japanese culture but at the same time anybody, anywhere, could watch “Totoro” and enjoy it even if they don’t know anything about Japanese culture.
Aguilar: The film seems to take place in a not-so-distant past where 3D glasses and Walkmans where an awesome novelty.
Tomm Moore: I was thinking it was like 1987, that’s when I was 10 years old. I was nostalgic for that time and I decided to add those little touches. [Laughs]
Aguilar: Music is such an important element in “Song of the Sea.” Tell me about developing the score with the musicians and other talent.
Tomm Moore: With “The Secret of Kells” Bruno Coulais and Kila did a great job but they work for a quite short neat the end of the film. This time, because the music was so important for the whole film, we asked them to get involved really early on. Bruno and Kila started working on the music for the film while we were still writing the story. It was really great, we would have little sessions in Ireland where they’ll get together and work. The first thing we had to work on was the song. We needed to get that right and find a singer. We were lucky to find Lisa Hannigan, who could act and sing. That was the first challenge for this movie, working on the music at the same time as the visuals.
Aguilar: With the advent of 3D animation, is it difficult to find the right people to work on more detailed-oriented 2D films?
Tomm Moore: There is a little team, like in stop-motion. It’s a little team of people that we’ve put together who had worked on “The Secret of Kells,” and some new people. I think it’s about finding people who are really passionate about 2-D animation and want to work at a different level on it. We are lucky in Europe, there seems to be a lot of 2D animation happening. There is still expertise and different studios are still making it.
Aguilar: Where things easier this second time around?
Tomm Moore: “The Secret of Kells ” was tough because it was the first one and we were trying to figure stuff out. This time there were stressful moments but we were a little bit more battle-hardened, like the old team getting back together for one more war [Laughs]
Aguilar: What do you love about 2D animation that 3D can’t provide? What would you say makes the medium particularly special?
Tomm Moore: I think there is a language to drawing that’s special, just like with Ghibli’s latest, “The Tale of the Princess Kaguya.” Even if you try to fake the look of a drawing by doing something like “Paperman”, is not quiet the same as feeling that somebody really drew it. Also, I think that if you watch a movie like “My Neighbor Totoro” and then you watch “Ponyo,” you wouldn’t know that they’ve been made 20 years apart. But if you watch the original “Toy Story” and then “Toy Story 3,” you can really see a big difference, you can see a big change in technology. 2-D has a certain timelessness.
Aguilar: You’ve mentioned Miyazaki’s work has been an inspiration to you, what other animators or artists have influenced your work?
Tomm Moore: Richard Williams, who was for years trying to make “The Thief and the Cobbler.” He was never able to finish it properly and then it got taken off of him. It’s a sad story, but he was always such an inspiration to me. When I was in college I saw a documentary about him and you could see he really had this great passion. He fully believed that animation could be art and it didn’t have to been as just something commercial. He spent over 25 year working on that film, that’s more of an art piece than anything else.
Also Genndy Tartakovsky, who is now doing CG stuff like “Hotel Transylvania,” but also worked on shows like “Samurai Jack ” and other greats tuff on TV. Then of course all the Eastern European animated film, specially the Hungarian folktales. There is also the Russian animator Yuri Norshteyn, he is really amazing. He ‘s made some beautiful short films, but he has also been working on this feature film for like 20 years. It’s going to be beautiful if he ever finishes it. I suppose I get inspiration from all over the place.
Aguilar: For you what’s the main difference between animated and live actions films in terms of the creative process and the effect they have on audiences?
Tomm Moore: Animation and live action are blending. I was recently talking to a friend of mine who is an editor, he used to work in live-action and now he works in animation. He used the analogy that editing in live action is like carving away a piece of marble but the shape is basically already there. With animation is more like clay because you keep building, changing, and adding things.
I think animation is freer and I think that’s why live action filmmakers like Spielberg or Cameron are using animation more in their films. “ Avatar” or “Gravity” are basically animate films because they have so much CG animation in them. But I think hand-drawn animation can be something really special. If the character design is quite simple it has the ability to allow people to easily relate to the characters in a special manner. A cartoon character isn’t a specific person. It isn’t Tom Cruise or George Clooney playing the part, it’s a character that could be you. It’s easier for you to get drawn into it in a special way.
Aguilar: Would you ever work on a 3D animated film?
Tomm Moore: I wouldn’t say no, but I’d have to find a way to adapt to it and I don’t think I’d be interested in doing something like Pixar’s shiny, perfect surfaces in 3D. To be honest with you, they do it so well and they spend so much money on it, that unless you are doing it in Pixar there is no point trying to match it. It’ll just come out looking cheap, so you would have to find a clever way to dot it. I like drawing. I like to spend the day drawing, the process is important for me. Drawing is a just a pleasure and it’s nice to keep it going. I think we stand out a little bit from the crowd by being 2D. There is less and less of it that now we have like a badge or a brand that stands out by being 2D.
Aguilar: “Song of the Sea” has received overwhelmingly positive reviews and a great reception by audiences. I’m sure this must be very rewarding and encouraging.
Tomm Moore: The more god reviews we get the more confidence we get, and the more proud we are when we stand beside the film. The only problem is the pressure, this was like making a difficult second album and now we have to make sure that the third film, and the next are good. But that’s a good problem to have [Laughs]
Aguilar: What are you and Cartoon Saloon working on next?
Tomm Moore: The next project that Cartoon Saloon is doing is going to be directed by Nora Twomey, who was the co-director in “The Secret of Kells,” and it’s based on a book called The Breadwinner by Deborah Ellis. It’s about a little girl in Afghanistan who has to pretend to be a boy so she can provide for her family. Her father is a storyteller. There is going to be two different visual styles in it. The storytelling world will use a decorative style based on Afghan art and then there will be a different style for the real world. It’s definitely challenging. I’m also writing another movie at the moment, it’ll be my third Irish-themed movie.
Aguilar: Seems like you are making a real brand or niche for yourself with Irish animated stories
Tomm Moore: Yes, at least for myself, but I think Nora is going to make something very special and different.
Aguilar: How did the Oscar nomination for “The Secret of Kells” change things? Did it change things at all?
Tomm Moore: It did, maybe not in the way that we had immediately expected. It wasn’t like we suddenly had access to millions and millions or anything like that, because we weren’t willing to become part of the studio system and make a movie that would work in that system. They spend so much money on those films that if you get involved in that system you don’t know if your film will ever get made because it’s such a risk to make them. You could develop something for years and it might never get made. And if they do make it has to be very accessible and it has to be a certain type of product. When they make them well they are beautiful, I was blown away by “How to Train Your Dragon 2.”
But for me, the freedom that you have to give up by trying to get into that system wasn’t worth it. The Oscar nomination might have opened doors to do something like that, but instead we decided to go back to Ireland and stay pretty small. What the nomination did instead was giving us a professional armor. It gave us a certain credibility and people took us more seriously after that. It also opened doors in terms of actors. We could now get voices that we really wanted. It helped with raising the finance, even though we ended up with a very small budget, less even that in “ The Secret of Kells.”
After the economic crash there was less money to put together, but the money that was out there we were able to attract because of the Oscar nomination. Besides, I got to join the Academy, I got to meet Miyazaki the other night, and there are so many benefits that just go on and on [Laughs].
Aguilar: I think “Song of the Sea” is absolutely marvelous, but for those who haven’t had the chance to see, why should they flock to see it?
Tomm Moore: I think it’s offering something different. I think what we tried to do - and I hope we’ve been successful at - is make a movie that is something like “ Totoro,” something like “E.T.” or “Goonies.” We wanted to make something like those movies from the 80s that weren’t a sequel or a prequel. They were just a complete new adventure in themselves. “Song of the Sea” has a kind of melancholy that most animated films seem not having much of anymore. I hope it offers something special.
- 12/18/2014
- by Carlos Aguilar
- Sydney's Buzz
By Lee Pfeiffer
Count this one among the most-requested DVDs to come from the Warner Archive. Young Cassidy is based on Irish poet Sean O'Casey's multi-volume autobiography. (O'Casey often used the pseudonym "John "O'Casey" in in these works that chronicle his life in Ireland.) The film was started by director John Ford but when the elderly director fell ill, Jack Cardiff took over. The production bears plenty of hallmarks of a Ford production, but under Cardiff's direction the it has an appropriately harder edge and less sentimentality than it probably would have had if Ford had completed the film. Rod Taylor gives another fine performance as the titular character, a charismatic, roughshod young man who resents being born into poverty under the heel of the British government with scant opportunity for upward mobility. Although Cassidy can drink and brawl with the best of them, he is an intellectual at heart.
Count this one among the most-requested DVDs to come from the Warner Archive. Young Cassidy is based on Irish poet Sean O'Casey's multi-volume autobiography. (O'Casey often used the pseudonym "John "O'Casey" in in these works that chronicle his life in Ireland.) The film was started by director John Ford but when the elderly director fell ill, Jack Cardiff took over. The production bears plenty of hallmarks of a Ford production, but under Cardiff's direction the it has an appropriately harder edge and less sentimentality than it probably would have had if Ford had completed the film. Rod Taylor gives another fine performance as the titular character, a charismatic, roughshod young man who resents being born into poverty under the heel of the British government with scant opportunity for upward mobility. Although Cassidy can drink and brawl with the best of them, he is an intellectual at heart.
- 9/25/2012
- by nospam@example.com (Cinema Retro)
- Cinemaretro.com
This weekend: stunning short stories from Colm Toíbin, adventures in Russian history, a metaphysical train ride from Milan to Rome in Zone, and Robert Littell's rediscovered Vietnam-era farce.
The Empty Family: Stories By Colm Toíbin
Related story on The Daily Beast: This Week's Hot Reads
In Colm Toíbin's 2009 Booker-nominated novel, Brooklyn, he described a young girl's migration to New York from Ireland's County Wexford, and her struggle to commit to simple American happiness. In his latest work, The Empty Family, he has written a collection of stories that are similarly preoccupied with the life that might have been had a different path been taken. The stories are haunted, too, by another ghost-that of Henry James, whose life Toíbin fictionalized in The Master (2004). The first story of this new collection begins with a passage from James' notebooks recording a dinner-party anecdote told to him by Lady Gregory about a friend; in "Silence,...
The Empty Family: Stories By Colm Toíbin
Related story on The Daily Beast: This Week's Hot Reads
In Colm Toíbin's 2009 Booker-nominated novel, Brooklyn, he described a young girl's migration to New York from Ireland's County Wexford, and her struggle to commit to simple American happiness. In his latest work, The Empty Family, he has written a collection of stories that are similarly preoccupied with the life that might have been had a different path been taken. The stories are haunted, too, by another ghost-that of Henry James, whose life Toíbin fictionalized in The Master (2004). The first story of this new collection begins with a passage from James' notebooks recording a dinner-party anecdote told to him by Lady Gregory about a friend; in "Silence,...
- 1/22/2011
- by The Daily Beast
- The Daily Beast
Jonathan Franzen's family epic, a new collection from Seamus Heaney, Philip Larkin's love letters, a memoir centred on tiny Japanese sculptures ... which books most excited our writers this year?
Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
In Red Dust Road (Picador) Jackie Kay writes lucidly and honestly about being the adopted black daughter of white parents, about searching for her white birth mother and Nigerian birth father, and about the many layers of identity. She has a rare ability to portray sentiment with absolutely no sentimentality. Isabel Wilkerson's The Warmth of Other Suns (Random House) is a fresh and wonderful history of African-American migration. Chang-rae Lee's The Surrendered (Little, Brown) is a grave, beautiful novel about people who experienced the Korean war and the war's legacy. And David Remnick's The Bridge (Picador) is a thorough and well-written biography of Barack Obama. The many Americans who believe invented biographical details about Obama would do well to read it.
Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
In Red Dust Road (Picador) Jackie Kay writes lucidly and honestly about being the adopted black daughter of white parents, about searching for her white birth mother and Nigerian birth father, and about the many layers of identity. She has a rare ability to portray sentiment with absolutely no sentimentality. Isabel Wilkerson's The Warmth of Other Suns (Random House) is a fresh and wonderful history of African-American migration. Chang-rae Lee's The Surrendered (Little, Brown) is a grave, beautiful novel about people who experienced the Korean war and the war's legacy. And David Remnick's The Bridge (Picador) is a thorough and well-written biography of Barack Obama. The many Americans who believe invented biographical details about Obama would do well to read it.
- 11/27/2010
- The Guardian - Film News
A talented Irish actor on stage and in films for Ford and Huston
For an actor who worked with two of the greatest movie directors of the last century and appeared in the world premieres of plays by Brian Friel, Ireland's leading contemporary dramatist, Donal Donnelly, who has died after a long illness, aged 78, was curiously unrecognised. Like so many prominent Irish actors in the diasporas of Hollywood, British television, the West End and Broadway – all areas he conquered – Donnelly was a great talent and a private citizen, happily married for many years, and always seemed youthful.
There was something mischievous, something larkish, about him, too. He twinkled. And he had a big nose. He had long lived in New York, although he died in Chicago, and had started out in Dublin, although born in England.
In John Huston's swansong movie The Dead (1987), the best screen transcription of a James Joyce fiction,...
For an actor who worked with two of the greatest movie directors of the last century and appeared in the world premieres of plays by Brian Friel, Ireland's leading contemporary dramatist, Donal Donnelly, who has died after a long illness, aged 78, was curiously unrecognised. Like so many prominent Irish actors in the diasporas of Hollywood, British television, the West End and Broadway – all areas he conquered – Donnelly was a great talent and a private citizen, happily married for many years, and always seemed youthful.
There was something mischievous, something larkish, about him, too. He twinkled. And he had a big nose. He had long lived in New York, although he died in Chicago, and had started out in Dublin, although born in England.
In John Huston's swansong movie The Dead (1987), the best screen transcription of a James Joyce fiction,...
- 1/7/2010
- by Michael Coveney
- The Guardian - Film News
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