“Ernest and Celestine” is a French-Belgian animated film based on the books by Gabrielle Vincent. It tells the story of a society in which bears and mice are separated and forbidden to see each other. Ernest is a hungry, lonely bear who makes a living playing music for a few pennies. Celestine is a young orphan mouse with big dreams of becoming an artist despite the pressure of her job to collect bear teeth for the incisor shortage. The two meet by chance and decide to help each other out. What follows is a series of events including candy thievery, teeth thievery, and trespassing. They quickly become friends as they try to evade the police force for crimes against candy and bear/mouse relations.
The animation is some of the best I have seen out of any animated film. Everything you see is completely hand drawn. The style is very reminiscent of a children’s book, which makes sense as the story did start out that way. The watercolors do a masterful job of making the world appear bright and colorful, but still dark and foreboding when needed. Despite the lack of sophisticated digital programs, everything moves organically. The expressions and movements of the characters are exaggerated enough to convey emotion, but subtle enough so that it does not appear too cartoony.
The story contains little to no fluff that’s meant to pander to kids. In fact, there are some subtle yet powerful themes of race relations and discrimination included. Using animals to portray differences in social classes isn’t a new concept, we’ve seen it in Art Spiegelman’s “Maus” and George Orwell’s “Animal Farm,” but we’ve rarely seen it in a children’s film. The themes are there, like when the bear says, “You can’t get rid of a mouse once her moves in and brings in all of his friends.” It’s great to have movies that trust both adults and children to deal with mature themes. It’s not so strong however that it overpowers the film and distracts us from the entertainment and story.
All of the characters are charming and memorable, even the smaller ones. But what truly steal the show are the titular characters. We automatically connect with both of them and their troubles of adapting to a society they can’t seem to fit into. There is also a genuine chemistry that forms between them, and the movie takes the time to form this bond. They start off as nothing more than partners, and even have some resistance to each other. But as they share their interest in music and art with each other, they start to become a family.
This movie should be a masterpiece, but it’s unfortunately marred by its ending. Although it’s not a bad ending by any means, it just felt too rushed and underdeveloped. A lot of the characters and plot points that were built up throughout the movie never came into fruition. We never see the two groups truly come together in some way. It’s implied through a few characters, but we never see a direct change. Maybe they could have worked together to solve the tooth crisis? Not showing the forged ties between the two groups implies that racial groups will never truly be together, which undermines the whole message. We never even get to see Ernest and Celestine try to absolve the crimes they committed.
So while Ernest & Celestine may not be the Oscar-winning masterpiece I was looking for, the memorable cast, superb animation, and well-handled themes is worth the price of admission. It is a near masterpiece, and I highly encourage everyone to check it out.
Rating: 8.5/10
Ernest & Celestine is playing again on Saturday, October 4th at 11:00 a.m. at the Fox Bay Cinema and on Sunday, October 5th at 11:15 a.m. at the Times Cinema.