- Ben, a young Irish boy, and his little sister Saoirse, a girl who can turn into a seal, go on an adventure to free the fairies and save the spirit world.
- Saoirse is a child who is the last of the selkies, women in Irish and Scottish legends who transform from seals into people. She escapes from her grandmother's home to journey to the sea and free fairy creatures trapped in the modern world.—Anonymous
- Ben and his younger sister Saoirse live with their father Conor in an isolated lighthouse. Their mother died six years ago while giving birth to Saoirse. Unable to talk, Saoirse is starting to show special powers and sea creatures seem to respect her, indicating that she is no normal little girl.—grantss
- This Oscar-nominated animated feature tells the story of the last Seal Child's journey home. After their mother's disappearance, Ben and Saoirse are sent to live with Granny in the city. When they resolve to return to their home by the sea, their journey becomes a race against time as they are drawn into a world Ben knows only from his mother's folktales.
- Conor, a lighthouse keeper, lives on an island with son Ben, his pregnant wife Bronagh, and sheepdog Cu. Bronagh disappears late one night, presumably dying after childbirth, leaving behind daughter Saoirse. Six years later, Conor is broken, Saoirse is mute, and Ben is antagonistic towards Saoirse, blaming her for Bronagh's disappearance. On her birthday, she is visited by Granny, the grandmother. That night, Ben scares Saoirse with a story of Mac Lir and his mother Macha, the Owl Witch, who stole his feelings and turned him to stone. Later, Saoirse plays a seashell horn given to Ben by their mother, leading her to a white sealskin coat in Conor's closet. She wears the coat and walks to a group of seals in the sea, revealing her as a Selkie (a person who can shape shift between human and seal). After swimming, she is found by Granny, who insists upon taking the children to the city. Conor reluctantly agrees despite Ben's protests, and locks the coat in a chest, throwing it into the sea.
On Halloween, Saoirse plays the shell, alerting Faerie to her. Ben and her attempt to go home, but encounter the Faerie, hopeful that Saoirse will allow them to go to Tír Na Nog. However, they are attacked by Macha's owls, turning the Faerie to stone. They take a country bus, where they run into Cu, who had followed them. However, Saoirse is growing ill. They come across a sacred well that Saoirse falls into. Ben follows and meets the Great Seanachaí: They learn that Sariose was kidnapped by Macha, and that she is mute because she needs the coat otherwise, she will die. He gives Ben one of his hairs that will lead him to Macha, showing that Bronaugh - a Selkie herself - returned to the ocean, remorsefully watching.
Ben then meets Macha, who claims that when Mac Lir suffered from a broken heart, he cried so much that it brought an ocean into existence and then threatened to drown the world, so she sent her owls, who took away Mac Lir's feelings and turned him into stone. she turned him into an island near their home. Ben manages to rescue Saoirse who sings her song, which breaks all the jars used by Macha to store the feelings stolen from Faeries, giving Macha her feelings, recognizing that taking away feelings doesn't help. Macha admits that she stole feelings not to ease Mac Lir's sufferings, but her own (who was hurt from seeing Mac Lir hurt). She helps them fly them back home, and Conor attempts to take Saoirse to a hospital; simultaneously, Granny is near the island to find them. Ben dives into the sea in search of Saoirse's coat and recovers it with the seals and Conor.
The group is then washed up on Mac Lir's island, where Saoirse is fully healthy and sings the song of the sea. Faeries rise and travel to Mac Lir and he emerges with Macha and his dogs as they head to Tír Na Nog.
Bronagh appears preparing to depart with Saoirse, but since she is half-human, Bronagh takes her coat (which would untangle the human and Selkie worlds) and departs. After a tearful goodbye, the Faeries depart across the sea, and Ben and his family happily return home to their island, where Granny finally arrives, and decides the children can stay with their father. Ben and Saoirse reconcile and become friends.
Contribute to this page
Suggest an edit or add missing content