Ernest & Celestine (2014)

Best movie ever!

At first rather annoying in its heavy emphasis on reenactments, this movie ultimately proves fascinating, simply because the complicated, highly dramatic tale it tells still almost defies belief.

It is neither dumb nor smart enough to be fun, and spends way too much time with its boring human characters.

It's the kind of movie you'll want to see a second time with someone who hasn't seen it yet, to remember what it was like to watch it for the first time.

A charming and heartwarming tale about the unlikely friendship between a bear and a mouse in a world divided by convention, tradition, assumptions and prejudice into two territories - the bears above ground and the mice underground. Painted in bright and cheerful watercolours, the audience followed the pair of "bandits" in their adventures and encountered the self-righteous, the hypocritical, the mercenary and the conforming members of both races on the way amidst laughter. The portrayal of Céléstine was most adorable as a dreamy coquettish schoolgirl and her attachment to Ernest the street musician was touching. The French are good at engineering happily-ever-after endings minus the dowdy feelings which were made possible by the kind nature of both protagonists and this movie is suitable even for children (unlike most modern remakes of fairy tales). One more note, it is amusing watching two equally biased and opinionated societies blackmouthing each other without realizing their similarities.

This film was nominated for the Oscar for Animated Feature. There will be spoilers ahead:This is a beautiful film about a most unlikely friendship between a mouse and a bear. Mice are taught to fear and hate bears and bears are similarly taught to do the same with mice. But Ernest is not a typical bear and Celestine is no ordinary mouse. Both are a bit out of step with their own world, but remarkably good as a pair when they come together. They complement one another and they are both artists.Ernest is basically a very large and furry kid at heart, given to very simple reactions to pretty much everything, unless he's playing music-and even there, he has a playful side, as shown by his busking early in the film. He inadvertently helps Celestine out of a jam, has designs on eating her, but she points him towards candy, a much better treat than one tiny mouse.Ernest, in turn, winds up in trouble, to have Celestine help him out. One thing leads to another and they both wind up in deep trouble and hiding out at Ernest's house, where they develop a bond together.Everything is wrapped up in a most intense closing series of scenes which teach tolerance, the true value of courage and the strengths of friendship. It's a truly heartwarming film.This is available on Blu-Ray and DVD and is well worth watching. Most highly recommended.

This is definitely film for very young kids, but like most animated films, it can be enjoyed by all ages. That doesn't mean that it's actually really great for older people, because for me, I found it way too simplistic. Still, it's solid, and the original foreign language voice performances are really great. I wish I could see it with the new English dubbing and all of the actors that lend their voices, but as it is it seems like it isn't all that needed. The basic plot is pretty simple for kids but I could also see some kids getting restless, since this isn't an adventure animated film like so many are used to. Still, recommended.

As a person who works in animation, I don't tend to watch a lot of animation. I actually have hardly seen the features I worked on. I watched bits and pieces during the production but usually by the time they came out, I was on the next project and to be honest I couldn't bother. I worked on 6 feature productions(not mentioning the countless TV productions) of which 3 were among the most expensive Hollywood productions and 3 were European, so I worked on productions of both "worlds". None had the sincerity and appeal Ernest and Célestine has to me. I totally missed this one while it was in production and was released(I know, it's pathetic) and only noticed it because it was nominated at the Oscars. I immediately watched video clips and thought WOW. Great art, great animation, appealing characters and the overall look was completely stunning. I knew the French are great when it comes to animation because they were among the best animators on all the Hollywood productions I worked for. I immediately bought the DVD and was blown away. It's so sincere and endearing that it's refreshing to see this among all the generic stuff that got me tired of watching animation. Being a person who works in the industry it sounds absurd. I completely lost faith that animation still can be good after years of formula productions. I do like Miyasaki but I have to admit, I was never the super fan. It became even more apparent when I tried to watch Ponyo straight after watching this movie. What I like about Ernest & Célestine is that I keep on watching small bits of it because I just love watching the details, the animation, the situations and everything. It's small things like when Ernest discovers Célestine in the garbage can and first kicks the can to wake her up, then pokes her, her reaction, then it goes on when Ernest tries to eat Célestine, her reaction to that and finally the starving Ernest ending up in the candy store with the scene turning into hilarious slapstick. The whole scene is pure brilliance just like the rest of the movie. It doesn't get any better than this or at least it will be hard to top. This is a must see if you really love animation.This makes me hopeful that there might be more good stuff to come but until then this will be one of my all time favorite animation features ever.