Ernest & Celestine: A Trip to Gibberitia

Gabrielle Vincent’s Ernest & Celestine books may be harder to come by now, but when I finally watched the 2012 animated adaptation, which got an Academy Award nomination for Best Animated Feature, years after it came out, I liked it enough to track down a former library copy of the first book due to a lack of modern availability. 10 years later, this film would receive a proper sequel, subtitled A Trip to Gibberitia, the idea of which had me excited. Although I had known about it for a while, I somehow missed its limited US theatrical run, but I would finally get to see it when GKIDS listed an English US Blu-ray release, and found to be just as enjoyable as the first film.

Following the events of the first film, Ernest (Andrew Kishino) and Celestine (Ashley Boettcher) are living together. Celestine wakes up Ernest one morning to the first day of Spring, but they have hardly any food and are flat broke. Celestine has the idea that they could raise money by playing music in the street, but accidentally breaks Ernest’s violin while retrieving it for him. The violin turns out to be difficult to fix since it was one-of-a-kind and made in Gibberitia, where Ernest is from, but Ernest refuses to go back for undisclosed reasons. Despite this, Celestine sets off on her own anyway since she feels bad about breaking the violin, forcing Ernest to go after her upon finding the note she left behind.

In this film, Ernest’s backstory and hometown are explored in greater detail in a way that’s internally consistent with the original, with some interesting plot developments that ultimately lead to an emotional and satisfying conclusion. Ernest takes much of the spotlight as we see the internal struggles stemming from the state of his family life, but Celestine is nowhere near superfluous and in fact becomes integral to the third act, in addition to serving as the surrogate character that learns about Gibberitia at the same time the viewer does. While 80 minutes is a little on the short side for a feature film, the plot is paced well enough to prove that it had enough story to tell in that amount of time, as making it any longer would run the risk of needless padding.

 

Ernest (Andrew Kishino, center) and Celestine (Ashley Boettcher, left) travel to
Gibberitia to repair Ernest's violin.

The original film’s storybook aesthetic is retained here, with some interesting experimentation in this film’s musical theming, such as a chase sequence that plays around with the appearance of bars found in sheet music. The design and layout of Gibberitia is also visually interesting, feeling very lived-in and leaving enough to the imagination to make you want to actually go there. Although the animation is of a consistent quality with the previous film, one thing I did notice was that, after the opening sequence, Ernest's violin seems to change size depending on whether or not the much smaller Celestine is carrying it, but I assumed on my initial viewing that it might have been just simply a cheat to make things easier to animate rather than an extreme oversight.

Since music is central to the plot, it’s fortunate that the music both in-universe and out is very well-made, even when there’s only a single note involved. Although this film lacks the star power of the original, with even the title characters being recast, the English voice cast still contains some professional voice actors, with Andrew Kishino and Ashley Boettcher still having the same energy as Forest Whitaker and Mackenzie Foy in the respective roles of Ernest and Celestine.

Ernest & Celestine: A Trip to Gibberitia is a worthy follow-up to the original that manages to retain the same level of quality, making it well worth the 10-year wait. While I highly recommend it, I would also recommend watching the original Ernest & Celestine beforehand if possible, if only for the sake of the plot.