ERNEST and CELESTINE (2012 in
France; 2014 USA)
Directed by Stéphane Aubier, Vincent Patar, et. al.
La Patri Productions, 80 minutes, G (Dubbed in
English)
* * * *
I don’t recall which of my
friends recommended the delightful animated film Ernest and Celestine, but if it was anyone reading this review,
thank you, thank you, thank you! It is sweet, sentimental, and cute–in all the
good ways.
As animated films often do,
this one builds an alternative world, one in which bears live above ground and
mice below the surface. As everyone knows, bears and mice hate each other—even
if they don’t know why. That’s just the way it is. It would take two special
beings to break through the walls of prejudice, which is what happens. Ernest
is a jazz musician, but he’s really a slacker bear who mooches off others and
is too scatter-brained and disorganized to do anything as mundane as planning.
Naturally, when he awakes from his winter sleep his bear pantry is bare and
because of his shabby musician appearance, he has no luck begging for spare change
from the bourgeois bears of the town. Driven by hunger, he impulsively burgles
a sweet shop window and consumes everything in sight, which makes him a bear on
the run.
The mouse Celestine is a
dreamer in her own way, but she’s as assertive as she is idealistic. Her
troubles begin when her studies don’t go well. It seems that mice have an
underground industry in dentistry! After all, what’s a mouse to do if he or she
loses a few incisors? Starve to death? Nope. You go to a dentist’s office for
an implant and it’s the job of trainees such as Celestine to secure a supply of
replacement teeth. As fortune would have it, castoff bear teeth are the gold
standard, as they can be whittled down to make lots of mouse incisors. This, of
course, means mice must make risky journeys above ground—a trip that could lead
to death by stomping or chomping.
You pretty much know the
rest. Through a set of bizarre circumstances Ernest and Celestine are thrown
together in an animated riff on It
Happened One Night. They eventually become good friends, and find
themselves outcasts in their respective worlds (both of which are imaginative
and visually appealing). More wacky circumstances lead to direct engagements
between the two worlds and confrontations with illogic, bigotry, and rigidity.
There will be a happy ending.
If all of this sounds gag-me
sweet to you, I can assure you that I shared those reservations. Me? Watch a
children’s cartoon made in France? Quelle horreur! Yet I found cynicism
impossible to sustain amidst this film’s charms. Ernest is simply a lovable
goof and Celestine is an Everywoman underdog. (Okay, undermouse.) Go ahead.
Raise your cynical hackles. At some point in this film you’ll find yourself
saying, “Awww….” To be sure, it’s a kids’ moral lesson about the value of friendship
and the dangers of preconceived prejudice, but the animation, jibes, and spirit
of this film will also appeal to discerning adults.
The English-language release
of this film features Forest Whitaker’s tone-perfect exclamations for Ernest,
as well as cameo voice work from luminaries such as Lauren Bacall, Paul
Giamatti, and Jeffrey Wright. Give it a try and be prepared to be awwwwed.
Rob Weir
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