Friday’s openings: Catch ‘Song of the Sea’ at the Magic Lantern

If you watched the Oscars broadcast last night, and you managed to say awake through the whole thing, you probably noted some of the more obvious winners. Namely, that Disney swept the animation awards: best short and feature.

The short went to "Feast," which is about a cute little dog — a dog — whose gluttony is the thing that helps his master find, and refind, true love. The feature award, more surprisingly, went to "Big Hero 6," a film about an inflatable robot and the young boy who invented him.

"Feast" would not have been my choice. I would probably have voted for "Me and My Moulton." But none of the animated shorts really moved me all that much, so I'm not complaining.

But the feature? I've seen four of the five nominees, and my choice would have been "Song of the Sea," which opens Friday at the Magic Lantern (along with "What We Do in the Shadows" and a second run of the Oscar winner for Foreign Language Film, "Ida"). Furthermore, this needs to be said: Its not winning is a travesty on par with "Shakespeare in Love" winning over "Saving Private Ryan."

"Big Hero 6" is a standard Disney product, telling the story of a clever young boy, his invention and how the two — along with friends — become heroic crime-fighters. "Song of the Sea" tells the tale of a young boy whose mother — a "selkie," half human, half seal — disappears on the night his sister is born, which causes him to resent the younger girl until her own secret self is revealed.

What sets "Song of the Sea" apart from almost any other animated film outside of Japan is the quality of the visuals: Each individual frame is a virtual painting in and of itself. I haven't seen such animated beauty since, perhaps, "Spirited Away."

Don't believe me? Go to the Lantern on Friday and see for yourself.