Mixed up

The Secret of Kells offers a strange concoction of religions | Sam Thielman

Cartoon Saloon/GKids

Half Christian history, half Celtic fairy story, The Secret of Kells is the most beautiful movie to come out in a season full of high-quality kids' films. It's also a very confusing one, from a Christian perspective, as it suggests that wood elves helped to preserve the words of Jesus.

Our story starts out in the ninth century, when Christian monks in Ireland kept what remained of human knowledge and lived in constant fear of Viking invaders looking to plunder their abbeys. Brendan (Evan McGuire), a curious 12-year-old boy, is helping his too-strict uncle, the Abbot (Brendan Gleeson), to build a wall against the Norsemen. But what Brendan really wants to do is to illuminate manuscripts like the Abbot's friend Brother Aidan, who doesn't seem to hate fun like the Abbot, and who brings to the abbey the Book of Kells—an ornately illustrated collection of the four Gospels.