YMMV / The Secret of Kells

• Anti-Climax Boss: Crom Cruach. Despite being an ancient Celtic god who destroyed Aisling's entire family (and possibly species), it gets about a minute of screen time and is promptly defeated by a piece of chalk.
• Awesome Art: The entire film is full of beautiful art that at first seems simplistic, but actually has a lot of details when you look closely... much like the art in the Book of Kells itself.
• Awesome Music: The entire soundtrack is great, courtesy of composer Bruno Coulais and Irish band Kíla, but "Aisling's Song" is particularly noteworthy and regarded by some as the film's high point.
• Complete Monster: In Eithne Massey's novelization, Harald Redtooth is the Chief Northman, savage leader of the band of Northmen raiders currently plaguing Ireland. Redtooth has the Northmen invade several villages, cities, and monasteries for the purposes of slaughtering most of their populations, enslaving the survivors, and looting all of the treasure possible to satisfy Redtooth's greed. With even children not exempt from death or slavery at the Northmen hands, Redtooth wipes out the monk city of Iona, then makes his way to Kells, where his Northmen lay waste to the city and set it aflame as they kill everything in their path. After severely wounding Abbot Cellach, Redtooth orders the man's close friend Aidan and nephew Brendan executed after swiping all their belongings and wearing them as trophies. Showcasing a cruel grin while committing his actions and even going so far as to name his sword "Monk Mincer", Redtooth is presented as a far more uniquely evil force than his movie counterpart.
• Ensemble Dark Horse: Despite getting less screen time than Brendan and Aidan, Aisling is by far the most popular character in the film, even finding her way into Empire's list of 50 best animated movie characters. Compare the original theatrical poster◊ to the post-Oscar one. She also had the honour of going to the Oscars in 2010 when the film was nominated for Best Animated Feature. Word of God says here that Tomm Moore's thinking of doing a short film on Aisling or Pangur Ban, but he's hesitant about it because of people's head-canons.
• Fanon: It was a fan theory that Aisling lost her human form completely, as she only appears as a wolf to Brendan at the end. This might've been jossed in Song of the Sea if her cameo in the bus (where she is in her human form) is any indication.
• Germans Love David Hasselhoff: According to Paul Young, CEO of Cartoon Saloon, "Kells came out and it didn’t really make much of an impact in Ireland... It made more waves in the US. It got picked up by GKIDS Films, which was the first time they had theatrically distributed a movie".
• Genius Bonus:
  • The first ink Brendan is sent out to gather materials from is based on a real medieval recipe for gall ink; the "berries" are actually used cocoons for a type of wasp, and Aisling even points out that they're not actually berries. But the resulting ink is actually black, rather than green like in the film.
  • Aisling is shown to be frightened of the monastery's cross in the courtyard and is unable to enter the tower where Brendan is. Fitting, since she's a fairy and her people are slowly being pushed out and forgotten as Christianity spreads across Ireland. Fairies in Irish folklore were also unable to enter buildings unless specifically invited, thus the use of Pangur Ban to free Brendan from the basement.
  • And, as mentioned above, the lavish detail the animators paid to the Book of Kells is gorgeous, and looks like it could easily be an excerpt from one of the pages.
• Hilarious in Hindsight: 13 years after this film, where Horny Vikings are the antagonists, Cartoon Saloon co-created the Vikingskool where Vikings are the protagonists.
• It's Short, So It Sucks!: Perhaps the most common complaint with the film. The movie features a rich story and world with monks, a wall, a sacred book, fairies, Vikings, and an Eldritch Abomination, but packs all of it into 75 minutes of screen time.
• Jerkass Woobie: Abbot Cellach post-attack, after he's been left broken by his guilt of not being able to protect his people and Brendan.
• Smurfette Breakout: Aisling is the only prominent female character in the film. She's also the most popular character by far, and fans have been calling for a spin-off based around her ever since.
• Strawman Has a Point: Abbot Cellach's obsession with building his wall over preserving the books (and by extension, knowledge and the arts) and his decision to forbid Brendan to go to the forest are portrayed as well-intentioned but ultimately misguided. And there's no doubt that he's not the best at expressing his affection towards Brendan. However, on the other hand, when Brendan does go into the forest, he's attacked by wolves and would have died if the local representative of the Fair Folk didn't come to help him. So the abbot was perfectly justified. Cellach's decision to protect the present (with his wall) instead of the future (the books and their knowledge) can seem justified in a time of invasions. And it's worth mentioning that, had he not lived in a world where Northmen are apparently unstoppable subhuman monsters, an invading army would have thought twice before attacking a heavily fortified location.
• Unfortunate Character Design: The designs for Tang and Assoua are drawn in a very stereotypical fashion, with the former being drawn with yellow skin and stereotypical Asian features, and the latter being drawn with big red lips. Their designs have caused a bit of controversy in America, which tends to react very negatively to such portrayals due to their deep association with racism and racist imagery. Tomm Moore has since apologized for this and shown regret for how they were depicted in the film, especially since he added them for greater inclusivity and didn't intend them to be racist.
• Vanilla Protagonist: Brendan, not much to him except that he's nice and brave.
• What Do You Mean, It's for Kids?: It's recommended ages 5 to 7 on Netflix, despite the whole "Vikings attacking and murdering an entire village" thing.

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