The Case for Mice and Bears

I went to Ernest and Celestine due to the lack of anything of else of interest in the lead up to the International Film Festival and after seeing that it had an incredibly high score on Rotten Tomatoes, always a good barometer of a good movie!

A small animated tale of French origin (visible in the animation, if not the voices in this dubbed version), the film focuses on young mouse Celestine and her relationship with Bear bum, Ernest.  The two are misfits: Celestine dreams of a bear buddy in a world where bears have the roles of humans and the mice in similar style though underground and in fear of the bears above; Ernest is an artist who lives outside of town but comes in every so often to try and scrounge for food, busking for some scraps from the more well to dos.

Circumstances throw them together, and then the societies throw them out.  Together they find they are happier than they ever were alone and with their own “kind”.  It is a thoroughly sweet tale of friendship and prejudice, with a few knowing jokes about candy and teeth, and all wrapped up in a lovingly animated style.

The voice cast is great too: even just hearing Lauren Bacall is a treat, and with some well known men in leading roles (Forrest Whittaker as Ernest and William H Macy as the lead Dentist), the film doesn’t lack for star talent. 

The story is sweet, if a little prone to syrup every now and again.  The ending almost comes undone with its mawkishness (I am not a big fan of oversentimentality, so it may just be me), but it doesn’t dwell on that too long and the road to get there is so amusing and entertaining that both adults and children alike can (and did) enjoy the journey.

Finally, the animation is amazing.  Not overly detailed, with backgrounds looking almost half completed most of the time, its still incredible to behold and get lost in.  There is no highly detailed hair or 3D rendering.  This is all two dimensional, with the background disappearing every so often as the story dictates, and the film also nods to the fact it is animated too, doing things not possible if all the characters believed their world was “real”.

All up then, the film was a real treasure.  It didn’t quite hit me as strongly as the last Rotten Tomatoes-recommended film I saw, but then, as a tale for the whole family, it possibly couldn’t have (well, it could have, but its not Up!).  For what it was though, and as a nice and not overlong film, and for a cold winter’s evening, it was wonderful.

Verdict: Ernest and Celestine is sweet and lovely and very child friendly.  Totally lovely, and the kids in front of me seemed to love it as well.  8 premolars out of 10.