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.
Jared Curtis
Ernest & Celestine is one of the best animated films I've seen in the past five years. It's art style and character work is absolutely beautiful and charming, and nearly everything it sets to achieve is achieved. This is the classic story of two clashing worlds coming together, but done in a way that is not cheesy; the film doesn't end with the Bears who live above and the Mice who live below coming together and singing "Kumbayah" and everything is hunky-dory, but done in a very realistic, nice way. The first thing I need to say is that this film is very similar to the story and themes of Zootopia, but done in a much quieter, nuanced way, with no punchy pop song to pull tween crowd. The story focuses on Celestine, a little mouse who doesn't believe in her society's mantra that bears are terrible creatures to be feared, and instead has a cautious belief that the can be friends, and Ernest, a poor musician bear who is always in the search of a meal, and is generally a little selfish. Over the course of the film, we see the two begin to work together, but not in the way that films like this usually handle this. We see Celestine already possessing a friendly sympathetic respect for Ernest, while Ernest, though not mean-spirited, only helps Celestine out of convenience, more than compassion (that comes later). The movie really knows how to draw comparisons between it's world's view of prejudice and the real world's view of prejudice without screaming "HA! SEE WHAT WE DID THERE!", and instead flows very naturally. In terms of technical elements, the music of this film is beautiful, and compliments the water colored artwork and lower frame-storybook animation style supremely well, and it's physical slapstick and comedic dialogue carry it well, and the American voice dubbing is fantastic; Forest Whitaker as Ernest is simply brilliant in this film. My biggest gripe with the movie is its ending scene, where the two societies both bring Ernest and Celestine to court to hold them accountable for the "crimes" (Ernest in the mouse world, Celestine in the bear world). Instead of having the people who doubted or were negatively impacted by Celestine and Ernest, such as the Mouse Dentist or the Bear Family be the ones that see the error in their ways, it's simply the judges of the courts, who had not been introduced to the movie before then, to be the ones to realize this, so the impact is less. Even then, it's still handled so well. The two societies don't come together after this (at least, if they are, it's not shown), but they simply let Ernest and Celestine to go off and live together how they'd like to. They don't change the world globally through their actions, they only change it for themselves, which is something I wish a lot more films would do when talking about these types of subjects. Because of these things, this film is a work of art. I would highly recommend this film for young children, as I think it could easily become a modern animated classic, and it's a shame this film isn't more well known. I just watched this film, and I already want to watch it again. 9.0/10
guccipix
I just completed the HD version of Ernest and Celestine with English voice overs. I must say, it may just be the most visually appealing movie I have ever seen! The title characters are very lovable and the English voice actors did a great job. The plot holds up well, and unlike many movies aimed towards children, it has a great message.I recommend Ernest and Celestine as a movie for the whole family, because while kids will love it for the visuals, parents are likely enjoy the plot.Other than maybe a few proportioning issues with the objects within the film, there were very few problems. I give this one an 8/10, really good!
Red_Identity
This is definitely film for very young kids, but like most animated films, it can be enjoyed by all ages. That doesn't mean that it's actually really great for older people, because for me, I found it way too simplistic. Still, it's solid, and the original foreign language voice performances are really great. I wish I could see it with the new English dubbing and all of the actors that lend their voices, but as it is it seems like it isn't all that needed. The basic plot is pretty simple for kids but I could also see some kids getting restless, since this isn't an adventure animated film like so many are used to. Still, recommended.
