Riverdance's animated adventure has just stepped on your screens
A scene from Riverdance: The Animated Adventure. Picture: Ribbet Productions
Cork’s singing sensation Lyra lends her distinctive voice to Riverdance: The Animated Adventure, which brings the spirit of the global hit show to the screen. Debuting on Sky Cinema and Now TV from Friday, May 28, the family-friendly feature film marks the latest project for the Irish Eurovision interval act that became a worldwide phenomenon.
Lyra, who co-wrote the song called Light Me Up with composer Bill Whelan, is in good company - the movie’s starry voice cast includes Brendan Gleeson, Pierce Brosnan, Pauline McLynn and Aisling Bea.
The movie has been a long time in the making as filmmakers worked with Riverdance’s creators on a plan to bring the show’s legacy to a younger audience.
“Lyra did a track for us which I think works beautifully well and really compliments Bill's score,” says Eamonn Butler, who co-directed the feature film with Dave Rosenbaum.
“Bill worked very closely with her. She tried to weave in some of the themes in the movie - the lighthouse story plays a very big part and she managed to work that in and I think she did a lovely job. She's got a fantastic voice as well.”
The film tells the story of a young Irish boy named Keegan, who lives in a coastal Irish town with his grandparents. Bereft when his grandfather, a lighthouse keeper, passes away, he befriends a Spanish girl named Moya who shares his passion for dance. They journey into the mythical world of Megaloceros Giganteus - populated by giant deer and other colourful creatures - as they learn to appreciate dance as a celebration of life.
For Irish animator Butler, who learned his craft while working for a decade at Walt Disney Studios and is currently based in London as chief animation officer at Cinesite, finding authenticity in the story was paramount.
“I took one of the first meetings that we ever had back in 2014, when Moya Doherty came over to discuss the potential of turning Riverdance into an animated movie. I've been attached to it since the very first day. I think being an Irishman, I wanted to make sure that the movie had an Irish voice, making sure it got made the right way.
“We wanted to avoid turning this into something that you see in a kiosk at the airport, selling those keyrings of leprechauns and whatnot. We wanted to avoid all of the clichés of what the rest of the world sees as being Irish. And it really kept us honest all the way through. I think it was really important to set it in modern times, and not make it overly sentimental or romantic. The kids have cell phones and yet they're surrounded by the legacy of the culture of Ireland."
Unusually for animation, the team involved developed the story in tandem with the visuals. They did so inspired by a score from Bill Whelan, who rearranged some of Riverdance’s most potent and memorable musical moments with new material.
“The show is fantastic, it has very sweeping themes centring around Irish culture. But it doesn't have a traditional narrative path through the centre of it. In wanting to reach a younger and new audience, I think it was very important for us to find a story.
“One of the first things you do when you're making an animated film is create an animatic, which is a rough, quick version of the movie told in storyboard form, which is kind of like comic book panels,” says Butler. “And very quickly, we found out actually, there's something really strong here. It gave us some core anchors, if you will, to hang that story around.
“Bill was really instrumental in helping guide the movie as well. He did a fantastic job reworking it with the pace and the timing of the film.”
Butler has had an impressive career. As well as a decade at Walt Disney Studios, he has contributed to such visual-effects-heavy blockbusters as Christopher Nolan’s Batman trilogy, Avengers: Endgame and The Witcher for Netflix.
“My work covers live-action films that use visual effects animation, such as creatures. In live-action work there's a need for characters that couldn't be realised any other way. More and more filmmakers are making films that are more fantastical.”
- Riverdance: The Animated Adventure is currently available on Sky Cinema and Now TV
