Ernest and Celestine is a film of pure joy for an hour and
twenty minutes. There is simplicity to its storytelling and its imagery that
belies a precision and exceptional craft. The film reminds me of the films of
Charlie Chaplin, or, perhaps more appropriately, Jacques Tati: pure, beautiful,
and utterly enchanting. Celestine is a mouse and Ernest is a bear, and they
live in a Metropolis-like world of above ground and below ground cultures,
divided by differences and reasons that have long faded into memory. The mice
tell their children about the “big evil bear”, but Celestine, adventurous and
precocious, doesn’t buy it. The film builds up a fully inhabited world, defined
by its own logic and rules, and filled with memorable characters and locations.
The mice steal the baby teeth from the bear world above to be used replacing
their more delicate canines. They’ve built a culture around dentistry, but
Celestine has aspirations to be an artist. Ernest, bumbling yet
well-intentioned, is down on his luck and desperate to find some food. When he
comes across Celestine he intends to eat her but soon becomes fast friends with
her when she introduces him to the storage basement of a candy shop. The hand
drawn animation is gorgeous: picturesque, delicate, and charming. Ernest and
Celestine’s friendship makes sense to no one but themselves, and in that way it
is, like all great friendships, a world onto itself.
Grade: A-
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