Meet Cartoon Saloon director Paul Young

Yesterday saw the release date of a film by Kilkenny-based Cartoon Saloon, entitled Song of the Sea, which earlier this year was nominated for an Academy Award. 

It’s quite an achievement for this small animation studio but not the first one as an earlier work. The Secret of Kells, was also nominated for best animated feature film in 2010.

More recently, an offshoot of the business has developed producing prints based on the films, prompted by public exposure at exhibitions such as the Musee-Chateau d’Annecy in France where the International Annecy Animated Film Festival takes place every year and by demand from fans wanting to own a piece of the artwork.

Exquisite animation is the leitmotif of Cartoon Saloon’s work and, indeed, anyone familiar with the films cannot fail to be mesmerised by their beauty and detail.

“We chose 16 scenes from The Secret of Kells to produce but didn’t want to go the licensing route. We wanted to do something high end,” says company CEO Paul Young.`

However, rather than illustrations being redrawn for the purpose, the prints are made from existing work, according to Paul.

“Before the film, we make illustrations to see how the scenes will look and it’s these that become the prints using museum quality paper and inks that are long- lasting.”

The individual prints are signed by the film’s director and are available in limited editions of 100 at a price the website quotes at $500 (€45), a reflection of the market where they are mainly in demand.

Each one tells part of the film’s story which centres around the medieval illuminated manuscript the Book of Kells, and tells how the monks at the monastic settlement at Kells are forced to turn their attention from transcribing manuscripts to building barricades to stop their precious illuminated manuscript falling into the hands of marauding Vikings, with the monastery’s abbot Cellach’s nephew Brendan saving the day.

It was the company’s first feature film, directed by Paul Young’s colleague Tomm Moore, who with co-director Nora Twomey set up the company after meeting at college and needing a way to earn their keep.

“Since The Secret of Kells was nominated in 2010 for the Oscar it made it easier for us to find finance for our next film,” says Paul.

“It opened doors. We’ve also brought out a coffee table book about the making of The Secret of Kells and will do the same with Song of the Sea.”

This second feature length film is a darker, melancholy tale of a family losing their mother and the daughter coming to terms with discovering she is a selkie, a mythological Irish being who is half human, half seal, with voices by, among others, Brendan Gleeson and Fionnuala Flannagan.

Like The Secret of Kells, it’s made in traditional 2D animation with equally beautiful visual appeal.

With Song of the Sea in cinemas now what’s next?

While responsible for RTÉ’s children’s programme Puffin Rock, and having also made advertisements for everyone from Digiphone to Denny’s and Trocaire to Cadbury’s, they have a third feature film coming into production, which should also yield a series of prints.

Directed by Nora Twomey, it’s entitled The Breadwinner, based on the novel of the same name by Deborah Ellis.

It’s the first feature- length script from Cartoon Saloon that has not come from an original idea and is also a distinct departure from their focus to date on ancient Irish myths and culture.

Instead, it tells the story of an 11-year-old girl in Taliban-led Afghanistan who has to adopt the appearance of a boy by cutting her hair in order to support her family after her father’s arrest.

It’s a hot topic, helped by so many novels in recent years centring on life under the Taliban. Financed by the Irish Film Board, Telefilm Canada and a number of others, it will be Nora’s directorial debut.

“There’s huge interest in the subject matter which made financing the film easier,” says Paul.

Animated film lovers and Cartoon Saloon fans have this to look forward to in 2017.

* Next week we meet Perch Design.