Libramedi Intense, gripping, stylish and poignant

GetPapa Far from Perfect, Far from Terrible

Jacomedi A Surprisingly Unforgettable Movie!

SteinMo What a freaking movie. So many twists and turns. Absolutely intense from start to finish.

bellasings-47917 Ernest & Celestine is beyond charming. I, as an adult, have persuaded many of my friends to watch this film & they fell in love with it as well. Ernest's unlikely friendship with Celestine is endearing & lovely. Both characters are well rounded & pure in the best way. The animation & music are honestly my favorite parts. They come together so beautifully & make the heart happy. It feels like a story that came to life on the pages & I couldn't enjoy it more.

Imdbidia Ernest an Celestine feels like an old Beatrix Potter's book brought forward in time. The story is actually based on a series of children books by Gabrielle Vincent, a Belgian author and illustrator.This is a story about an impossible friendship and partnership between a male lonely street musician bear and a dentist apprentice female mouse who just wants to be a painter. The two live in the same city but in different worlds that don't mingle and despise each other, but are essentially a version of each other. Ernest and Celestine, despite their origin, have an immediate connection because they are practical common sense people, artists with a sensitive nature and a view of the world that don't easily accept absurd societal norms.The story is very simple, with a great message and mix of heart, fun and cuteness, perfect for small children, still enjoyable by adults. It is well narrated, very entertaining and visually wonderful. The hand-drawn animation in pastel colors is absolutely gorgeous, especially beautiful regarding the backgrounds and interior design. Celestine's character is uber-cute. There is not much to tell about this movie, it is heart-warming, has a good message of acceptance of different people, teaches you not to judge a book by its cover, and speaks of how wonderful is having a good friend.The film is 90 minutes long, but it feels shorter.I watched this movie dubbed by the Americans, and I found all the cast stupendous. You know the cast of an animated is good when you don't recognize their natural voices. Forest Whitaker is excellent and unrecognizable as Ernest, Mackenzie Foy is delightful as Celestine, Giametti makes the rat judge really despicable, and Jeffrey Wright has a wonderful judging calm voice as the Grizzly Judge. Lauren Bacall is great as the Great One. All great assets for this delightful movie.

Amari-Sali This was an academy award nominee amongst The Wind Rises, and the overrated Frozen, and unfortunately wasn't available to me around the time of the ceremony. But after watching it, I'm starting to think perhaps I should have a stronger interest in French cinema. For in the movies I've seen thus far from the country, they all have a beautiful complexity, even when a horror film like Martyrs, which perhaps solely comes from being too accustomed to America cinema. Leading to the question: despite an Oscar nomination, is it worth seeing this film?Characters & StoryIn a world segregated between bears and mice, bears living on the surface and mice in the sewers, prejudice is rampant between the two. Mice children are taught bears are ferocious and deadly, while bears see mice as humans do: uninvited greedy little guests. But, despite all this, mice need bears for their teeth are good replacements for theirs. As for bears, well they don't really get anything out of this deal.But teeth are what lead to the main plot of the story as one young artistic orphan named Celestine (Pauline Brunner) finds herself befriending a poor musician named Ernest (Lamber Wilson). And what starts with him trying to eat her turns into them looking out for each other, loving each other, and finding each other to fit their needs. Celestine gives Ernest the love and encouragement he needs, and Celestine receives the sense of family and a home in return. Making their crime filled journey to their own personal bliss quite the tale.PraiseOh where to begin? There is the art style, story, the characters, and the fact it packs such a well-developed story in only a little over an hour. But perhaps what should be highlighted the most is that as cute as the story is between this Celestine and Ernest, it also creates a good learning tool for talking about prejudice with kids, as well as why people in poverty steal, why people panhandle and beg, and the importance of social services. For in the movie, often times there are examples of how prejudice is learned as shown by the stories of how dangerous bears are, and how everyone is pushed to conform into prejudice beliefs over their own perceptions.Which makes Celestine interacting with Ernest a good tool for teaching kids to question what others whisper and say about others. For, using examples from the movie, Celestine was warned her whole life about bears, and yet Ernest became perhaps one of the nicest animals she has ever met. Then, during later scenes, it shows examples of negative peer pressure and how simply following along, and not speaking out, could lead to someone being judged unjustly for something they did, or did not, do. Making, overall, what looks like a simple kid film greatly complex.CriticismHonestly, the only thing worth critiquing is after the "crime spree" of Celestine and Ernest, I was confused how come the ever fearful mice were able to take a bear Ernest's size into custody. Outside of that little issue though, you'd be hard pressed to find something wrong with this.Overall: Worth SeeingComplex animated films, which are kid friendly, are sort of rare. So when films like this come out and can either be seen as simple cute films, or learning tools, they certainly deserve praise. And that is why I'm labeling this as "Worth Seeing."

Elliot1976 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.