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WSJ's Joe Morgensten gushes about Kells:

'The Secret of Kells'

From our vantage point—or disadvantage point—in time, it's impossible to project ourselves into the minds of the medieval monks who created the Book of Kells, the magnificently illuminated manuscript that spent centuries at the Abbey of Kells, and can currently be seen and studied at the Trinity College Library in Dublin. Were they performing an act of pure devotion, or pursuing beauty as well? There's no mystery, though, about why the people who made "The Secret of Kells" did what they did. This wonderfully strange and exquisite little feature was created, especially for young children, to celebrate the book through another kind of illumination that's been falling into disuse—hand-drawn animation.

The story concerns a Celtic boy named Brendan who helps a master illuminator finish the book, then protects it from Viking marauders. (The director was Tomm Moore, and the co-director was Nora Twomey.) But the soul of the film lies in its ravishing colors, and in exuberantly stylized images that pay homage to Celtic culture and design, together with techniques and motifs that evoke Matisse, Miyazaki and the minimalist cartoons of UPA. Since the emphasis is more on graphic variety than continuity, there's almost a sense of too-muchness, but that's fine; it's another expression of devotion.