The melody of the sea

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Movie
German title The melody of the sea
Original title Song of the Sea
Country of production Belgium , Denmark , France , Ireland , Luxembourg
original language English , Irish
Publishing year 2014
length 93 minutes
Age rating FSK 0
JMK 6
Rod
Director Tomm Moore
script Will Collins
production Claus Toksvig Kjaer ,
Tomm Moore,
Ross Murray ,
Frederik Villumsen ,
Paul Young
music Bruno Coulais
cut Darragh Byrne
synchronization

The melody of the sea is an Irish animated film from the year 2014 by Tomm Moore . It won the European Film Award 2015 in the category Best Animated Film .

action

Ben lives with his parents and his dog Cú in the lighthouse keeper's house on a small island. Bronagh, Ben's heavily pregnant mother, and Ben paint a Selkie mural for the upcoming sibling. On the side, Bronagh Ben teaches Celtic songs and stories. Ben is looking forward to the baby and his mother assures him that he will be the world's best big brother. Before going to bed, she gives him a shell flute, which is held to his ear and plays the song of the sea. But the mother is not doing well, she has pain in her stomach and her hair suddenly turns gray.

Six years later, Ben is around ten years old. What has happened in the meantime is uncertain, but it is clear that Cú is still Ben's best friend and Ben is still absorbed in his mother's stories, even though she has been missing for six years. But it is also certain that Ben is afraid of the water and doesn't like his little sister, Saoirse. On the occasion of Saoirse's birthday, the paternal grandmother comes to visit. She always has something to complain about and wants the children to move to town with her. She doesn't feel that her father, Conor, is looking after her properly. Indeed, Conor resembles the legendary Mac Lir , who because of his grief was turned to stone by his mother, Macha , the owl witch. The fact that Saoirse still does not speak does not help to reassure the grandmother.

In the evening, the father takes the ferry to the mainland to drown his grief in a glass of beer. After Ben scares Saoirse with the story about Macha, she begins to play on Ben's clam flute. The music creates a kind of flakes of light that lead the girl to a white seal coat. When it docks it is suddenly able to dive with the seals in the water. The grandmother later finds it washed up on the beach wet and reproaches the returned Conor. He gets scared and determines that the children have to go to Dublin with the grandmother and throws the coat into the sea.

Ben and Saoirse have to leave Cú behind and set off on the long drive into town. However, Ben draws a map intending to return to Cú. At the first opportunity the children leave the nagging grandmother's home. It's October 31st, Halloween, and there are children in disguise all over the city, as well as three members of the elf folk who have been attracted by the girl's shell music. They kidnap Saoirse and bring her to her cave, because it turns out that only Saoirse can redeem all elves from their petrification through her singing on Halloween night. Only then can she and the other magical beings move to Tír na nÓg . Macha is of course behind the fossils and Saoirse's music has not escaped it either. Your owls try to kidnap the girl, but they don't succeed.

The children meanwhile know that Saoirse needs her coat to sing and make their way back to the island, where they think the coat is. On the way they meet Cú, who was looking for them. When they stop at a holy spring because of heavy rain, Saoirse follows the trail of the light flakes and jumps into the spring. Ben is scared, but Cú pulls him with her. Ben ends up in a cave where he meets a Seanchaí . This storyteller shows Ben that his sister and Cú have been brought to Macha's home. Saoirse has not been doing well since the first bath with the seals and she became more and more indisposed on her journey. The first gray streaks even formed. The Seanchaí tells Ben that Saoirse will not see the next day without her coat. Ben ventures out on his way, but first he has to face his past. As if in a vision, he sees that his mother was also a selkie and had to go back to the sea because of her daughter. This intensifies Ben's pain, but he continues undeterred.

In conversation with the macha, who is confusingly similar to the grandmother, Ben realizes that she once acted out of love for her son when she turned Mac Lir to stone. She simply didn't know any other remedy for his grief than to deprive him of his feelings with a magic glass and thus turn him to stone. She now wants to give this help to everyone, even against their will. She tries it with Ben by conviction, but Ben can defend himself and finds his sister and his dog. With the help of a final exertion of strength, Saoirse now plays the flute again and sends the trapped feelings into the macha. She now recognizes her mistake and helps the children to get to the island quickly.

Arrived on the island, Conor tells Ben what he did with the coat, but doesn't listen to the boy. He just wants to quickly row the kids to the mainland to take Saoirse to the hospital. Ben knows that the Saoirse will not save and, despite his fear, jumps into the sea. The seals help him to find the coat and Saoirse now swims through the sea as Selkie with her father, her brother, Cú and the seals. You land on the island, which is actually the petrified Mac Lir, and Saoirse begins to sing and redeems all magical beings, including Mac Lir. Bronagh, her mother, also appears and would actually like to take Saoirse with her to Tír na nÓg. However, at the request of Conor and Ben, she refrains from doing so.

The grandmother suspected that the children had returned to the island and arrived there completely devastated. Conor can assure her, however, that everything will be fine from now on and in fact one sees everyone later happily celebrating Ben's birthday. He has now overcome his fear of water.

production

In an interview with Robbie Collin from the Telegraph , Tomm Moore spoke of the traditional Selkie tales centering on the love between Selkie-woman and human-man, and in the usual stories, the children who went to the beach hoping to be one of the seals be her mother, more like accessories. He just wanted to put the children at the center of a film.

synchronization

The German-language synchronization took place at Digital Media Technologie GmbH in Hamburg . For the synchronous director and the dialogue book was Celine Fontanges responsible.

role Original speaker Voice actor
Ben David Rawle Jacob Neise
Conor Brendan Gleeson Roland Hemmo
Macha Fionnula Flanagan Angela Stresemann
Bronach Lisa Hannigan Celine Fontanges
Saoirse Lucy O'Connell Emma Luise Herrmann
Dan Jon Kenny Wolf Frass
Lug Pat Shortt Achim Schülke
Mossy Colm Ó Snodaig Klaus Dittmann
Spud Liam Hourican Peter Weis

Soundtrack

song Singer
1. Song of the Sea Lisa Hannigan
2. The Mother's Portrait
3. The Sea Scene
4. The Song Lisa Hannigan and Lucy O'Connell
5. The Key in the Sea
6. The Derry Tune
7. In the streets
8. Dance with the Fish
9. The Seals
10. Something is wrong Lisa Hannigan
11. Run
12. Head credits Lisa Hannigan
13. Get Away
14. Help
15. Sadness
16. Molly
17. I hate you
18. Who Are You
19. The Storm
20. Katy's Tune
21. In the bus Lisa Hannigan
22. The Thread Lisa Hannigan
23. Amhran Na Farraige Lisa Hannigan
24. Song of the Sea (Lullaby) Nolwenn Leroy
25. La chanson de la mer (berceuse) (French) Nolwenn Leroy

criticism

Mark Kermode of the Guardian describes the film as "superb" and the animation as "gorgeous". He thinks the latter shows similarities in color with the films by Studio Ghibli with a trace of Sylvain Chomet . Ultimately, Tomm Moore shows his own style. Kermode gave the film five stars out of five.

Leslie Felperin from the same newspaper gave the film four out of five possible stars. Full of praise for the film content and its implementation, which the children did not patronize, no criticism is given.

Nominations / Awards

The film was nominated for both an Oscar and a César in the category of Best Animated Film, but did not win any of the awards.

The German Film and Media Assessment FBW in Wiesbaden awarded the film the rating particularly valuable.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. Release certificate for The Melody of the Sea . Voluntary self-regulation of the film industry , October 2015 (PDF; test number: 154 742 K).
  2. Age rating for The Melody of the Sea . Youth Media Commission .
  3. ^ Robbie Collin: Song of the Sea: the deepest animation you'll see all year? , on: telegraph.co.uk, on: July 13, 2015.
  4. The Melody of the Sea. In: synchronkartei.de. German dubbing file , accessed on February 19, 2018 .
  5. Mark Kermode: Song of the Sea review - a wonderful family animation, rich in Irish folklore , on: theguardian.com, on: July 12, 2015.
  6. Leslie Felperin: Song of the Sea review - beautiful and entrancing animation , on: theguardian.com, on: July 9, 2015.