Ernest and Celestine

Every year, it seems, the Academy's animation branch reaches out to nominate a film that is not made by a big studio. For every lackluster The Croods, we get a delightful film that I otherwise wouldn't have seen, like Ernest and Celestine, a French-Belgian production based on characters from a popular children's book series.

Directed by Benjamin Renner, the film details the unlikely friendship between Ernest, a slacker bear, and Celestine, an inquisitive mouse. In the world of the film, bears and mice are mortal enemies (I'm kind of confused by this--I thought mice feared cats, but there's nary a pussycat to be found). Mice live underground, and are taught to fear the The Big Bad Bear, while bears live above ground, and hate mice, except when they come in the form of tooth fairies to take their children's teeth. I know, it gets kind of weird, especially when we find out that mice use the bear's discarded incisors to replace their own.

Anyway, Celestine is fascinated by bears, and doesn't believe the ursine hyperbole. Ernest, a one-man band who has awakened after hibernation, is ready to eat Celestine, but instead she leads him to a candy store, where he pigs out. He escapes the police, and they hide out in his cabin in the woods, bonding. When the police (both bear and mouse) find them, they are tried.

The film is utterly charming, and ideal for smaller children. Adults with taste will enjoy the nature of the animation, which is keeping with picture books--it has a watercolor look, without a lot of great detail, which is in direct contrast with some of the Hollywood animation. There's also a nice message that basically echoes Rodney King: "Can't we all get along?"

The DVD I saw is a English dub version with some big names in the voice cast: Forest Whitaker as Ernest, and also Lauren Bacall, William H. Macy, and Paul Giamatti. It's a lovely film.