Ernest & Celestine (2012)

 Hi fellow animation fans, welcome to my review of Ernest & Celestine.

Synopsis: A young dental apprentice mouse, Celestine (Pauline Brunner) and the struggling street musician bear, Ernest (Lambert Wilson) live in a world of deep-seated prejudice, where bears are supposed to stay above ground and mice below. But a series of unique circumstances see Ernest and Celestine working together, which earns them the ire of their respective authorities and forces them to go into hiding together. It is here their friendship blossoms and their talents bloom as their love for each other also grows. The authorities though catch a lucky break and now it's up to Ernest & Celestine to win their freedom and maybe change their world in the process.

The Good:

* The animation appears to be a fairly basic storybook style, but it is so well suited to the story that it takes on an almost dreamlike quality towards the end. I quite enjoyed it and I found that even in times of action everything was clear and easy to see what was happening, there weren't any points the animation became muddied (which sometimes happens with this style of animation).

* The voice acting was really good, I watched it in the original French and found that the musical quality of the speech helped enhance the dreamlike quality of the animation.

* I really enjoyed the story and found it quite heartwarming, without being overly sweet. I especially liked the fact that they were able to take such a heavy subject as prejudice and still make it suitable for all ages.

* The humor was also really well done, there's a little bit of slapstick and some nice subtle tongue in cheek laughs that had me laughing out loud in a few places.

The Bad:

* I think one or two small moments may scare younger children.

                             IMDB 7.8/10             Rotten Tomatoes 98%                 Me 9/10

Celestine and Ernest learning to be friends.