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.
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.