Ernest et Célestine (2012) Reviews

• Absolutely sublime

  TheLittleSongbird2013-11-19

  Anybody who loves animation and just want to see one that warms your heart and moves, charms and entertains you, you have met your match with Ernest and Celestine. With me, out of all the films, animated and otherwise, viewed recently Ernest and Celestine stood out as one of the most beautiful. The animation, with its water-colour/ story-book look, is just lovely to look at and is imaginative while keeping things simple. The is sensitively orchestrated and unobtrusive, one of those music scores that you can listen to more than once and still find it memorable and appealing. You can't argue with the way Ernest and Celestine is written, it has a poetic simplicity that children and adults alike can understand with no problem. The unlikely friendship angle is a familiar one but that doesn't matter when Ermest and Celestine deals with it with so much warmth and heart. You can genuinely feel the relationship/friendship between the characters, and throughout the simple but never too simplistic story is both charming and touching, cute as well(I admit it that I did feel a lot of emotion watching). The characters are just as engaging as the writing, you can identify with them and their friendship and situation and it is easy to like them. They are nimbly voiced too. Overall, a sublime animated film that takes a familiar concept and does it with simplicity and doesn't rely on fart jokes, profanities, slapstick or crude toilet humour, instead allowing the story and friendship between the titular characters to come through and come through they do, and marvellously. 10/10 Bethany Cox

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• Superior Kiddie toon.

  Mozjoukine2013-03-23

  Genuinely charming cartoon feature from the PANIQUE AU VILLAGE lot. While rummaging through the town's dust bins, Ernest the bear finds sleeping mouse Ernestine and is dissuaded from eating her - whether it's Tom's Jerry, the King Sized Canary or Br'er Rabbit, they never get eaten. The pair are our introduction to the parallel surface world of the bears and the underground world of the mice, both of which prove hostile, though mouse world is one of those appealing fantasy communities, like Santa city in POLAR EXPRESS or the bath house in SPIRITED AWAY. The lead duo are among the most engaging of cartoon characters and their seclusion seems a nice outcome. It would be interesting to see if their appeal survives English language dubbing. The watercolour texture is unfamiliar and imaginative. The music is effectively unobtrusive. It would be hard to fault this one. Why try?

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• The French are so good at animation.

  bbickley13-921-586642014-03-18

  I really enjoyed watching this movie. I went into the film thinking it was more for adults, but discovered it has a story that anyone and any age can enjoy, and that's always a sign of a great movie. The movie is based on a children's book that I never herd of in which a Bear who's down on his luck befriends a mouse who's an artist at heart, beating all odds in a world where these two species are separated by fear and miscommunication. I love the animation style which I'm guessing is greatly inspired by the children's book it's based on. I especially loved the design of the mouse, Celestine. Her animation was very cute and they did a good job of making her very mouse-like with her movement and attitude while still making her relatable to humans. This was added by the voice over talent by Mackenzie Foy. I opted to watch the English dubbed version as I feel the authenticity of the dub matters less with animation. Some of you might disagree and I'm sure Lambert Wilson was great as Ernest, but hearing Forest Whitaker bring the poor reclusive bear whom Celestine befriends to life was a highlight. If you need a movie to take your kids to see, you gotta pick this one. It's a film that will put a smile on all of your faces.

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• A sweet and touching independent animated film

  Stompgal_872013-11-22

  I first heard of this film when I was looking up rare animated films right here on IMDb (e.g. 'The Illusionist,' 'My Dog Tulip' and 'The Plague Dogs') and thought the original poster of the titular characters looked sweet so I was pleased when I found that I could watch it instantly online. When I finished watching it, I found it touching yet adorable despite the story having some predictable moments. The animation style is similar to that of 'My Dog Tulip' (i.e. jerky and flickery in places but still having subtle colours) albeit with characters that are not as sketchy, are well-shaded, have a more detailed watercolour look and are more neatly drawn - likewise with the backgrounds. While the incidental music is rarely used, it has an authentic old-fashioned feel and I liked how parts of Celestine's blue outline winter painting appeared in time with the music. I found the use of subtitles helpful since the dialogue is in French and found some snippets of it hard to decipher but I picked up a few words that I'd remembered from studying the language at school. This film reminded me of other films and TV shows I'd seen such as the original 1990s Madeline series (Celestine's orphanage) 'The BFG (again Celestine's orphanage being reminiscent of Sophie's and Celestine begging Ernest not to eat her being similar to Sophie doing the same to the BFG),' 'Flushed Away' (the underground mouse village) and 'Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory' (the young mice going to the sweet shop after school). I found certain parts of the story predictable such as the rain washing the camouflage paint design off the van, thus leaving a trail of paint for the police to follow when it rolls backwards, and Ernest falling down the cellar during his unicycle juggling trick. I still found the latter predictable part funny as well as Ernest's 'one bear band' songs earlier in the film. There was even a twist on a cliché with a female bear being afraid of Celestine rather than a human woman or an elephant being scared of her and there were some cleverly executed ideas such as Celestine attending the bears' court and Ernest attending the mice court and the fire in the mice court spreading towards the bears' court. I was especially touched when Ernest and Celestine said they wanted to be with each other forever and I liked the happier version of their story at the end. While Celestine is a talented artist who is mostly sweet-natured and innocent throughout, I liked it when Ernest became more caring towards her despite his unfriendly and selfish attitude in the first half. All in all 'Ernest and Celestine' is yet another rare, independent animated film that was worth the watch and I would love to continue my search for films like this one. 8/10.

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• Film Review: Ernest & Celestine (★★★½)

  ClaytonDavis2013-10-26

  When we all think of animation and the journey it has walked through, naturally we all go to a big studio like Disney to offer up lots of the credit. Rightfully so, the studio paved the way for companies like Dreamworks and Sony Pictures to dip their feet into the animation arena. One of the quiet and brilliant studios that isn't on the lips of everyone yet is the impressive GKIDS. They made heads turn in the 2009- 2010 awards season when they pushed The Secret of Kells and managed a surprise nomination for Best Animated Feature. In 2011-2012, they pulled a one-two punch with Chico & Rita and A Cat in Paris, snagging nominations as well. For my money, they produced the best animated film of last year with Jean-François Laguionie's The Painting and found no wiggle room to get in over Brave and Wreck-It Ralph. This year, the animation studio is at it again with their captivating French film Ernest & Celestine. Touching all the sweet parts of my cinematic heart, the Daniel Pennac written film tells the story of an unlikely friendship between a grumpy bear and a young mouse. Encompassing the powerful elements of honesty, truth, and acceptance, Pennac's screenplay, once again, fixates on the small details that bring our story full circle and unimaginably to life. It's one of the great surprises of the film year. Pennac is quickly becoming one of my favorite animated film writers working today. One of the qualities that have made other animation studios so successful over the years is easy application of the child-like story that is being told, into the moment of the now and even the adult world. As life above ground includes Ernest, and a race of bears, they are the dominant power on the Earth. Down below, lives a race of mice, fending for survival, and only going to the world above to collect teeth in preparation to become dentists, which all rodents hold. Celestine lives in an orphanage, with a zeal and talent for drawing, she yearns for a world outside though stories are constantly told about the evil world of bears above. Ernest is down on his luck. When Celestine gets chased by a bear family after attempting to take one of the cubs' tooth, she hides in a trash can. When a hungry and desperate Ernest finds Celestine and tries to eat her, the two find an understanding and affection for one another that is both poetic and moving. As we continue to live in a world that is dominated by the Pixar-3D mediums, that are only told in our native language, general audiences and industry people need to branch out their scope in the genre and discover these little diamonds that are found in the nooks and crannies of the movie world. Lambert Wilson voices the gentle bear Ernest, who you might remember from The Matrix Reloaded as The Merovingian or more recently from Of Gods and Men where he played the lead Christian. He plays particularly well off his co-star Pauline Brunner, who's innocent ticks and beats in her voice, shine brightly through the naïve and sweet Celestine. The animation is simply stunning, reminiscing a storybook you would read to your youngest love, everything flows magically from page to screen, and inevitably into your heart. Directors Stéphane Aubier, Vincent Patar, and Benjamin Renner know, with great confidence, what kind of story they want to be told. Inserting the humor at the appropriate times before hitting the right emotional chords with the viewer by film's end. A tender yet bombastic composition by musical composer Vincent Courtois is the film's secret weapon. Capturing the moment and executing the ambiance with absolute precision. I was completely smitten with everything about Ernest & Celestine. By any means possible, seek out this French animated film from GKIDS. A sensational welcome to the animated genre that will be cherished for years. Ernest & Celestine is proof that hand-drawn animation should and still lives well in the medium. Its clever and fresh nature is purely magnetic and is something that should be considered for the Academy Awards. The film is scheduled for a limited release December 6.

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