Song of the Sea - from the creators of The Secret of Kells

I'm not entirely sure. Doesn't paranormal deal with stuff like ghosts and demons and supernatural deal with mythical creatures? Wait, ghosts are kind of supernatural themselves, right? Actually, this is getting confusing.

edited 26th Jul '14 8:56:49 AM by TargetmasterJoe

Well, there are gods, with magical items and shapeshifting and stuff. Sometimes they have demigod children with mortals. There's also the sidhe, which can fall anywhere between spirits and fairies.

Well, if it's all the same, I'd like to consider Irish mythology as supernatural.

Direct from dictionary dot com:

Supernatural:

1. of, pertaining to, or being above or beyond what is natural; unexplainable by natural law or phenomena; abnormal. 2. of, pertaining to, characteristic of, or attributed to God or a deity. 3. of a superlative degree; preternatural: a missile of supernatural speed. 4. of, pertaining to, or attributed to ghosts, goblins, or other unearthly beings; eerie; occult.

Paranormal:

of or pertaining to the claimed occurrence of an event or perception without scientific explanation, as psychokinesis, extrasensory perception, or other purportedly supernatural phenomena.

Is the question here one of whether selkies are part of the paranormal or the supernatural, or both? I would lean more toward supernatural, because I'm assuming that the selkies are real in the movie's world.

Amen to that.

Usually "Supernatural" is used in stories were there is no scientific explanation for the events, while "paranormal" is used in ones where there are. For example, "Carrie" was accused of being a witch or possessed, but she just had uncontrolled psychic powers.

So, if SotS doesn't bother to give a pseudo-scientific explanation to the Selkies (such as "they are a race of shapeshifters who evolved separately") its safe to call it supernatural.

edited 31st Oct '13 8:45:38 AM by Sijo

I'm excited.

I'm excited too. Not just because I love mythology and films about it, but because I (finally) figured out how to give myself an avatar on this site.

Bravo.

We've got pictures!!!

http://songoftheseamovie.blogspot.ie/2013/11/frederikstad.html

Say, that coat Granny has looks like it's made of fur or some other animal skin...maybe it's seal hide?!

edited 12th Nov '13 6:09:07 AM by TargetmasterJoe

Okay, so there's apparently some sneak preview happening at the CTN Animation Expo, but apparently the You Tube video is private.

http://youtu.be/5oGsh4-htmg

Anyone have this in not private?

It was a live stream that started at 9:00 am (Pacific time) this morning. I came upon it by accident when I got on the net this morning, and watched part of it. I wish I could have stuck around for the whole presentation, but I had to get to work.

It's gone from You Tube now. (-_-)

Ahhh...

In the words of Private (one of the penguins from Madagascar):

"Well, this sucks."

edited 16th Nov '13 3:16:25 PM by TargetmasterJoe

Is there a chance that they'll upload it again?

Eh, probably not. Want me to rehash the parts I saw?

My responses:

This:

And :

Exactly what do you mean by "rehash"? Do you mean upload it on You Tube or describe what you saw? I don't want to come off as forceful or anything like that. Either way, that'd be much appreciated since probably most of us didn't see it.

edited 16th Nov '13 7:38:39 PM by TargetmasterJoe

Pretty much all I can do is summarize the parts I saw. The stream began at 9:00 but Tomm didn't start talking for a few minutes because the people at the expo were taking a long time to get seated. Tomm meant to move into his presentation soon after that, but there was a blip in the technology they were using, so at first neither the people watching the internet stream nor the folks at the expo could see the pictures he showed. We just saw the logo on the screen for a while, so Tomm started giving some very general background info about how the idea for the story first came to him (a trip to the coast with his wife and son, when the son was 10. They saw tons of seals on the trip, which called to mind old Irish stories that Tomm heard from a certain storyteller whose name I didn't catch). He mentioned that the character of Ben is based on his own son at age 10, and the son is now 18. So, the idea for a the film has been in his mind for about eight years, but the film only started moving forward when The Secret of Kells was nearly finished, in 2008. He also talked about how Kells was a co-production between studios in five countries, which studio handled which jobs, how amazing the people involved were, et cetera.

When the proper visuals finally came up, he showed some fabulous concept art and stuff that looked like storyboards. He summarized the plot of the film, and I don't think I've heard a complete summary before, so here it is:

Ben, Saoirse, their father, and their dog live in a remote lighthouse in late 80s Ireland. No mention of where the mother is. They are happy at the lighthouse, but when some circumstance changes, the children are sent to live with their grandmother in a city, far from their home. Because of the move (or something else), the father chooses to take Saoirse's seal-skin (which is the thing that allows her to change forms) away from her. This forces her to stay in human form, but also takes away her power of speech. Wanting to get back to the lighthouse, Ben and Saoirse run away from their grandmother's place on Halloween night. While on their journey, they meet all kinds of fantasy creatures, and during these encounters, it becomes evident that Saoirse's lack of ability to speak or sing is a big problem for the other magical creatures. The singing of the selkies is important to the other magical beings, but I didn't catch the reason. Anyway, I think the thrust of the story is that Ben wants to help Saoirse get her seal-skin back, and (I think) ultimately return her to the ocean. That's what I remember of what Tomm said about the plot.

The other major thing that I recall from the presentation was the bit where Tomm talked about the conceptual trailer. He pretty much said that the footage from that trailer will not be appearing in the finished film. Even though he loves that scene and the imagery of it, he said that he couldn't fit it into the film once the screenplay evolved to the form it's in now. Which is a bummer, because I've watched that trailer many times; I thought it was very powerful.

And. . . I think that was where I had to split. I only saw about a half hour of the stream, maybe even less. But I was glad to hear more about the actual story.

Seriously, this discussion board owes you its thanks. You're awesome!

By the way, I know I said this earlier, but they said we would be crying. How sad do you think it's going to be, An American Tail sad or Grave Of The Fireflies sad?

edited 18th May '14 6:44:30 PM by TargetmasterJoe

I've also gotten the vibe that this film will be bittersweet/sad. I believe it was mentioned that Saoirse is the last selkie in existence, which is sad on its own. I'm also getting the feeling that the end of the story will involve Saoirse being separated from Ben and the rest of the family, but that's just my conjecture. In any case, I don't think it will reach "Grave of the Fireflies" levels of sadness.

Yeah, I don't think I'd want to see a movie that's totally super-sad (That's why I avoid movies like Grave of the Fireflies). Besides, it would be too much if it was as sad as Grave Of The Fireflies, wouldn't it?

Wait, what about the mom? Isn't she a selkie herself? Or rather, the queen of them? (At least, I think I read that somewhere.)

edited 17th Nov '13 10:08:07 AM by TargetmasterJoe

Oh, Ben isn't a selkie? ...I guess that makes sense given the rest of the plot.

I hope there is a unicorn in this movie.

edited 17th Nov '13 10:15:57 AM by Ruise

Call me crazy, but I hope Aisling or Pangur Ban make cameos.

I don't know; at this point, I'm not sure if the mom is even in the movie, as she wasn't mentioned a single time (that I can recall) during Tomm's summary of the plot. We saw concept art of her, but that was during the part of the stream where Tomm was talking about the trailer scenes that wouldn't be in the finished film. Suffice to say. . . I don't know anything about the mother character or her role in the story.

Maybe the mom is so important to the story, that she's a Walking Spoiler. IIRC, Tomm Moore said in his blog that she has "a small but crucial part".

edited 17th Nov '13 11:40:29 AM by TargetmasterJoe