The Secret of Kells

The Secret of Kells: Brendan (voiced by Evan McGuire) is a medieval boy monk who dreams of illuminating sacred books. The carrot-topped lad possesses more imaginative brio than can be contained by the cloistered life he leads under the sternly overprotective eye of his disillusioned uncle, the Abbott (Brendan Gleeson), so a peppier old mentor (Mick Lally) dispatches Brendan on a character-building journey through a forest full of shape-shifting menace. Directed by Tomm Moore and Nora Twomey, this mostly hand-drawn animated Irish feature is full of reverence for the power of the word, and also intoxicated with color, shapes and patterns derived from medieval art. —Ella Taylor