Ernest & Celestine | Review

Cute in Court: Bears and Mice Controversially Live In Harmony

We are not for lack of anthropomorphized mice nor bears, from all the way back to Mickey through Ratatouille‘s Remy, to Maurice Sendak’s Little Bear and Jungle Book‘s Baloo, yet Stéphane Aubier, Vincent Patar & Benjamin Renner’s loving adaptation of Gabrielle Vincent’s charmingly subdued children’s book series Ernest & Celestine most recalls that of another beloved bear – Winnie the Pooh. While Vincent’s original works utilized a somewhat scribbly watercolor look, the adapting filmmakers have acclimated Vincent’s style to the animated form, and in doing, have produced an earthy but elegant hand drawn effect that closely resembles Disney’s watercolored take on Alan Alexander Milne’s Hundred Acre Wood. Though bumbling and forever as hungry as Pooh bear, Ernest inhibits an allegorical microcosm far less innocent and far more socially critical than his honey-crazed counterpart. The tale of an unlikely pair of friends in a world where bears live above ground as humanoid stand ins, while mice are relegated to the dark, but not unsophisticated sewers, Ernest & Celestine is a ravishing children’s tail that slyly plants the issue of mix race relationships behind the cuddly cuteness of its title characters.

As in Vincent’s book series, Ernest (voiced in the English dub by a perfectly cast, raspy ragabout Forest Whitaker) seems to have served time in the circus perfecting his unicycle skills and performing as a one bear band, though he’s interpreted on screen as a buffooning beggar, busking for baguettes, improvising tunes. Celestine (sounding of pure innocence via Mackenzie Foy), on the other hand, is an artistically inclined orphan who’s been unwillingly drafted as an intern at an incisor obsessed dentist’s office. Part of an intern search party, her task is to scour the township of bears above for discarded teeth. You see, bears’ teeth are the strongest and most fitting replacement for the rotted out teeth of mice. Without the ever important incisors, mice not only lose their natural talent to chew, but they also hilariously lose their ability to speak in anything but garbled gibberish. So, Celestine is sent to collect, but, to her disgrace, instead she spends her time sketching, almost being eaten by, and ultimately, befriending one ever-so-hungry bear by allowing him entry to the local candy shop.

Their friendship begins with a single, self preserving act of kindness, but it quickly develops into what could be construed as a loving mixed race relationship in the wake of their raucous Looney Toons jailbreak and subsequent shacking up in Ernest’s backwoods cabin. Bandits on the run, the couple bunker down for the winter, hoping the looming dual police forces gives up and forget, but this is not the case. Separated in the inevitable raid and stood before opposing judge and juries, the outlaws take a stand against segregation in a remarkable scene in which the racial partitions are literally burned to the ground. Where Aubier and Patar’s brilliantly zany A Town Called Panic harbored lo-fi free associating hilarity, Ernest & Celestine holds onto something of much firmer moral fiber with an incomparable visual eloquence. Relentlessly cute and still darkly stylized enough to demand the attention of kids of all ages, it’s possible we have a new pair of furry friends to add to the animated canon.

★★★★½/☆☆☆☆☆

Reviewed on January 18th at the 2014 Sundance Film Festival – SUNDANCE KIDS Programme. 80 Min