Ernest & Celestine

Note: This review contains spoilers for Ernest & Celestine.

While researching The Big Bad Fox and Other Tales, I learned more about an animated film called Ernest & Celestine (French: Ernest et Célestine), based on a series of Belgian children’s books by Gabrielle Vincent. The visuals and the premise of a mouse and bear becoming friends in spite of interspecies prejudice were enough to make me curious about seeing it, which became possible once I received the Blu-ray from GKIDS as a Christmas gift. Notably, while it originally premiered in 2012, its stateside release in 2013 made it eligible for the 2014 Academy Awards, where it was nominated for Best Animated Feature Film and ultimately lost to Disney’s Frozen. After finally watching Ernest & Celestine, I am honestly baffled as to how it even lost to Frozen in the first place.

All her life, Celestine (Mackenzie Foy), like other mice who live underground, has been taught to fear the bears who live above-ground, however she believes it’s possible to make friends with them. One night, while going on a run to steal bear teeth, Celestine gets caught by a family of bears and winds up trapped in a garbage can. The next morning, while attempting to obtain food, a down-on-his-luck bear named Ernest (Forest Whitaker) finds Celestine sleeping in the trash receptacle. Despite his attempt to eat her, she quickly talks him out of it, befriending him instead.

Not being familiar with the source material, I thought the story was written well enough to stand on its own. The budding friendship between Ernest and Celestine is the main focus and is handled in such a heartwarming fashion that you want to see them overcome the societal prejudices between mice and bears. Though this, among a number of other misdemeanors, eventually sees them being hounded by police, it is especially cathartic to see the two stand up for each other in the end. While the story is overall very heartfelt, just the right amount of levity is inserted to balance out the heavier moments, many of which involve Ernest’s personality and the workings of the mouse and bear societies at large.

One thing I found interesting was how teeth form an integral part of the narrative. Since mice in this universe live and die by their incisors, many including Celestine are sent up to steal discarded teeth from bears as a way to replace their own if something happens to them. Additionally, the bear family that first spots Celestine turns out to have their own racket going on, in which the papa bear sells candy to children, which creates cavities in the long run and causes adult bears to seek replacement teeth from the mama bear across the street. To ensure their scheme works out in the long run, the mama and papa bear go so far as to deny their son any sweets so that his own teeth will remain unaffected and he will eventually inherit both businesses.

Celestine (Mackenzie Foy, left) and Ernest (Forest Whitaker, right)
bond as friends during the course of the movie.

The tradigital animation technique later used for The Big Bad Fox and Other Tales lends itself to some very fluid and expressive character movements, made more impressive by the fact that every frame was drawn by hand. The consistent watercolor aesthetic fits perfectly with the atmosphere of the story and allows it to stand out from other animated films that came out at that time, while also being used in some very creative visual transitions. One that stood out was a visual transition from winter to spring, in which the landscape paints itself in time with music Ernest plays.

Like with The Big Bad Fox and Other Tales, this movie was originally recorded in French, however my opinions on the voice acting are based on the English dub, as that was how I decided to watch it. That said, for those who wish to view it this way, the GKIDS Blu-ray also features the option of the original French audio track with optional English subtitles.

On that note, the English voice acting was solid, matching the lip flaps of the French audio flawlessly. As for the title characters, Mackenzie Foy, of Twilight fame, and Forest Whitaker, who more modern viewers may know for his roles in Black Panther and Rogue One, work very well off each other and give off very believable performances for their characters. Though the dub cast also includes some other known actors, one that stood out to me more immediately despite his limited screen time was Nick Offerman as Georges, the papa bear who runs a candy store. The movie also employs a more limited soundtrack, which allows the more character-driven moments and the humor to stand on their own, though the music that is used is mainly done in time to emphasize some character movement.

Ernest & Celestine is an overlooked movie that animation fans should definitely seek out. The story and its subject matter are written expertly well, complimented by its creative animation and watercolor style that enhances many of its emotional and humorous moments. If you decide to watch this movie, I would also suggest watching The Big Bad Fox and Other Tales as well.