Every few years, the Academy tweaks the rules for its animated feature category, with the net result that the nominees tend to skew ever more mainstream. That makes it tough for most of this year’s hopefuls: A record-setting number of animated features submitted. Those who pick the noms are required to watch roughly a third before ranking their top five, which can include additional titles they might have seen on their own. Blockbusters naturally benefit, though “Flee” and “Marcel the Shell With Shoes On” earned nominations in 2022 and 2023, respectively, suggesting that artful indies still stand a chance.
The Boy and the Heron
Director: Hayao Miyazaki
Voices: Luca Padovan, Robert Pattinson
Studio: Studio Ghibli
Distributor: GKids
Rumors of Miyazaki’s retirement were greatly exaggerated, as the unstoppable creative force (who won an Oscar for “Spirited Away” in 2003) returns with a story inspired by his childhood memories during wartime. More fanciful than “The Wind Rises,...
The Boy and the Heron
Director: Hayao Miyazaki
Voices: Luca Padovan, Robert Pattinson
Studio: Studio Ghibli
Distributor: GKids
Rumors of Miyazaki’s retirement were greatly exaggerated, as the unstoppable creative force (who won an Oscar for “Spirited Away” in 2003) returns with a story inspired by his childhood memories during wartime. More fanciful than “The Wind Rises,...
- 12/5/2023
- by Peter Debruge
- Variety Film + TV
Chicago – Patrick McDonald of HollywoodChicago.com appears on The Eddie Volkman Show with Hannah B on a 3-Station Broadcast … Star 96.7 Joliet (Il), Star 102.3 Waukegan and Star 105.5 McHenry on September 1st, reviewing the animated French film “Ernest & Celestine: A Trip to Gibberitia.” In theaters since September 1st.
Rating: 4.0/5.0
This is a sequel to the Oscar nominated 2012 “Ernest & Celestine,” and again features the bear Ernest (voice of Lambert Wilson) and the mouse Celestine (Pauline Brunner as charming besties. In this new animated adventure Celestine breaks the prize violin of musician Ernest, and feeling guilty goes to the bear’s hometown of Gibberitia to get it fixed. With Ernest in pursuit they find out that the town, and Ernest’s father who is an authoritarian judge, has banned music. The friend duo may be there to save the day.
“Ernest & Celestine: A Trip to Gibberitia” in limited theaters since September 1st.
Rating: 4.0/5.0
This is a sequel to the Oscar nominated 2012 “Ernest & Celestine,” and again features the bear Ernest (voice of Lambert Wilson) and the mouse Celestine (Pauline Brunner as charming besties. In this new animated adventure Celestine breaks the prize violin of musician Ernest, and feeling guilty goes to the bear’s hometown of Gibberitia to get it fixed. With Ernest in pursuit they find out that the town, and Ernest’s father who is an authoritarian judge, has banned music. The friend duo may be there to save the day.
“Ernest & Celestine: A Trip to Gibberitia” in limited theaters since September 1st.
- 9/4/2023
- by adam@hollywoodchicago.com (Adam Fendelman)
- HollywoodChicago.com
Jean-Christophe Roger and Julien Chheng’s animated film Ernest & Celestine: A Trip to Gibberitia begins with Celestine the mouse (Pauline Brunner) excitedly waking Ernest the bear (Lambert Wilson) from a long hibernation. Their simple domestic ritual—she clambers up to the stove to prepare bowls of hot chocolate while he lumbers groggily downstairs to join her—is quietly enchanting thanks to the film’s expressive, elegant hand-drawn aesthetic.
The fact that the film’s two protagonists are such different sizes also allows A Trip to Gibberitia to explore each part of its lovingly crafted world from two distinct perspectives. Throughout, the filmmakers continually find creative ways for Celestine to traverse Ernest’s mountainous furniture while he blunders over everything in his path like a one-man slapstick show.
Ernest and Celestine’s happy domesticity is interrupted when the mouse accidently smashes the bear’s prized violin, leading them on an...
The fact that the film’s two protagonists are such different sizes also allows A Trip to Gibberitia to explore each part of its lovingly crafted world from two distinct perspectives. Throughout, the filmmakers continually find creative ways for Celestine to traverse Ernest’s mountainous furniture while he blunders over everything in his path like a one-man slapstick show.
Ernest and Celestine’s happy domesticity is interrupted when the mouse accidently smashes the bear’s prized violin, leading them on an...
- 8/30/2023
- by Ross McIndoe
- Slant Magazine
The French animated film "Ernest & Celestine: A Trip to Gibberitia" executes a music gag you wouldn't expect to be both world-building and silly. With the stoic seriousness of a concert professional, an anthropomorphic bear musician flexes his knuckles over a piano, as if prepping for Sergei Rachmaninoff's "Piano Concerto #2 in C Minor." But instead, he proceeds to plink the C-note repeatedly. There is no variation in the tune except a change in tempo. Then the editing expands the gag by revealing a payoff: the piano really only has one piano key. The crowd lauds his music. The lead bear and mouse, the eponymous Ernest and Celestine, are gobsmacked by this display of "music." At once, they learn the hard way that this country banned multi-note instruments. This gag best represents the family-friendly politics within the "Ernest & Celestine" sequel.
Dare I say the sequel might sing a better tune than the first?...
Dare I say the sequel might sing a better tune than the first?...
- 8/28/2023
- by Caroline Cao
- Slash Film
Gkids has snapped up U.S. rights to Ernest & Celestine: A Trip To Gibberitia — the sequel to the acclaimed Ernest & Celestine, which landed a Best Animated Feature Oscar nom in 2014. The decorated producer and distributor of animation, celebrating its 15th anniversary, will put both the original French-language version of Gibberitia and a new English dub in theaters this year.
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Both Ernest & Celestine films are based on the children’s book series by Belgian author-illustrator Gabrielle Vincent. The original helmed by Stéphane Aubier, Vincent Patar and Benjamin Renner examines the unlikely friendship between a bear, Ernest (Lambert Wilson...
Related Story Laura Linney Comedy ‘The Miracle Club’ Acquired By Sony Pictures Classics Related Story 'Inu-Oh' Director Masaaki Yuasa On Exploring Undocumented Possibilities For A "Modern Interpretation Of Old Tales" Related Story As The Best Animated Feature Competition Heats Up, Can Netflix Or Another Newcomer Bring Home The Oscar?
Both Ernest & Celestine films are based on the children’s book series by Belgian author-illustrator Gabrielle Vincent. The original helmed by Stéphane Aubier, Vincent Patar and Benjamin Renner examines the unlikely friendship between a bear, Ernest (Lambert Wilson...
- 3/2/2023
- by Matt Grobar
- Deadline Film + TV
A cheering crowd at France’s Annecy Festival got a sneak peek at the hugely anticipated sequel to French family hit “Ernest and Célestine” on Thursday.
It was not disappointed-
“Ernest and Célestine: A Trip to Gibberitia” is slated for release in France in December, nearly a decade after the multi-prized original, which scored an Academy Award nomination alongside 2014 winner “Frozen.”
The 22-minute long preview screening in Annecy was followed by a short concert by the film’s composer, Vincent Courtois, playing the cello, and one of his band members on the clarinet.
“The story revolves a lot around music,” co-director Julien Chheng told Variety. “While making the film, we would wait for his demo to animate our characters. We wanted to be true to the Ernest and Celestine style which is very subtle: We didn’t want to use music to enhance emotions but rather allow the characters and...
It was not disappointed-
“Ernest and Célestine: A Trip to Gibberitia” is slated for release in France in December, nearly a decade after the multi-prized original, which scored an Academy Award nomination alongside 2014 winner “Frozen.”
The 22-minute long preview screening in Annecy was followed by a short concert by the film’s composer, Vincent Courtois, playing the cello, and one of his band members on the clarinet.
“The story revolves a lot around music,” co-director Julien Chheng told Variety. “While making the film, we would wait for his demo to animate our characters. We wanted to be true to the Ernest and Celestine style which is very subtle: We didn’t want to use music to enhance emotions but rather allow the characters and...
- 6/17/2022
- by Lise Pedersen
- Variety Film + TV
Might be the most ridiculously cute movie I’ve ever seen, in a way that transforms adorableness into something honest and wise and deeply satisfying. I’m “biast” (pro): nothing
I’m “biast” (con): nothing
I have not read the source material
(what is this about? see my critic’s minifesto)
This might be the most ridiculously cute movie I’ve ever seen. Not cute in a schmalty, sappy, insipid way, but in a way that transforms adorableness into something honest and wise and deeply satisfying, like how the best children’s picture books do. (Indeed, this is based on the series of books by Gabrielle Vincent.) An ineffable sweetness arises as if by accident from this simple story of a mouse, Celestine (the voice of Pauline Brunner), and a bear, Ernest (the voice of Lambert Wilson: Flawless), who overcome the “natural” animosity between their kind to...
I’m “biast” (con): nothing
I have not read the source material
(what is this about? see my critic’s minifesto)
This might be the most ridiculously cute movie I’ve ever seen. Not cute in a schmalty, sappy, insipid way, but in a way that transforms adorableness into something honest and wise and deeply satisfying, like how the best children’s picture books do. (Indeed, this is based on the series of books by Gabrielle Vincent.) An ineffable sweetness arises as if by accident from this simple story of a mouse, Celestine (the voice of Pauline Brunner), and a bear, Ernest (the voice of Lambert Wilson: Flawless), who overcome the “natural” animosity between their kind to...
- 2/26/2014
- by MaryAnn Johanson
- www.flickfilosopher.com
Taboo friendship is one of the many resonant themes in the sweetly strange and delicately animated “Ernest & Celestine,” which is up for the Best Animated Feature Oscar, and is co-directed by Stephane Aubier, Vincent Patar and Benjamin Renner. The French film is based on a series of twenty children’s books by Gabrielle Vincent, which follows the ongoing adventures of a bear and mouse, illustrating both literally and figuratively that odd couples can endure over time.Celestine (voiced by Pauline Brunner in the French version; Mackenzie Foy in the American dubbed version) is a young mouse with aspirations of being an artist, but forced into dental school. (The head mouse at the dental office where she studies waxes poetic on the importance of the incisor to the greater mouse civilization.) The best way to procure extra incisors for beleaguered mice missing teeth is for the students to steal them from...
- 2/24/2014
- by Beth Hanna
- Thompson on Hollywood
Ernest & Celestine
Written by Daniel Pennac
Directed by Stéphane Aubier, Vincent Patar and Benjamin Renner
France, 2012
Based on Belgian author Gabrielle Vincent’s children’s books, Ernest & Celestine is an infectiously joyous piece of entertainment from the duo behind the manic A Town Called Panic, who direct here alongside Benjamin Renner. That earlier film’s stop-motion approach is abandoned for a more traditional hand-drawn animation style, presented in a beautiful, gentle watercolour palette. Ernest & Celestine is also not quite so anarchic in its humour, though one struggles to think of what film could match A Town Called Panic for that, but shares its predecessor’s wittiness regarding heated exchanges and heightened characters prone to snap decision-making.
In the film’s fictional universe, bears and mice live in parallel worlds. The bears live above ground, operating businesses and such, while the mice live below the surface in a metropolis within the sewers.
Written by Daniel Pennac
Directed by Stéphane Aubier, Vincent Patar and Benjamin Renner
France, 2012
Based on Belgian author Gabrielle Vincent’s children’s books, Ernest & Celestine is an infectiously joyous piece of entertainment from the duo behind the manic A Town Called Panic, who direct here alongside Benjamin Renner. That earlier film’s stop-motion approach is abandoned for a more traditional hand-drawn animation style, presented in a beautiful, gentle watercolour palette. Ernest & Celestine is also not quite so anarchic in its humour, though one struggles to think of what film could match A Town Called Panic for that, but shares its predecessor’s wittiness regarding heated exchanges and heightened characters prone to snap decision-making.
In the film’s fictional universe, bears and mice live in parallel worlds. The bears live above ground, operating businesses and such, while the mice live below the surface in a metropolis within the sewers.
- 12/9/2013
- by Josh Slater-Williams
- SoundOnSight
Everyone knows a mouse and a bear cannot be friends. Or can they? Based on the children’s books of the same name, Ernest & Celestine is a lovely tale of what friendship and understanding truly means. Celestine (voiced by Pauline Brunner) is a tiny mouse living beneath the streets in France, forced to steal teeth from the bears living above ground in order to help her fellow mice keep their incisors (apparently the one thing giving them a leg up on the bears) sharp and reliable. But things are not all easy above ground, either, as “big, monstrous” bear Ernest (voiced by Lambert Wilson) has fallen on hard times and just wants something to eat. After her attempt to steal a newly lost tooth goes terribly wrong, Celestine finds herself trapped in a trash bin until Ernest finds her during his quest for food. While Celestine seems like a tasty treat to Ernest at first, she...
- 6/23/2013
- by Allison Loring
- FilmSchoolRejects.com
Hollywood's Costner takes home Honorary Award Speaking of Hollywood, the French Academy has frequently given its Honorary César (an equivalent to the Lifetime Achievement Award) to some curious group of Hollywood celebrities. Among those are Kate Winslet, Jude Law, Quentin Tarantino, Hugh Grant, Will Smith, Johnny Depp, Spike Lee, Andie McDowell, and Sylvester Stallone. This year, they've made another curious choice: Kevin Costner, whose Honorary Award was a tribute to his "fabulous contribution to cinematic history." Costner, among whose movie credits as actor and/or director are Dances with Wolves, Bull Durham, JFK, The Bodyguard, The Postman, and Waterworld, thanked the French Academy of Film Arts and Sciences for embracing him "for who I am." Other César winners Among this year's other César winners were, in the supporting categories, Valérie Benguigui and Guillaume de Tonquédec for What's in a Name? / Le Prénom, directed by Matthieu Delaporte and Alexandre de la Patelliere.
- 2/23/2013
- by Andre Soares
- Alt Film Guide
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