Ernest and Celestine (2013)

[baumer]

Discuss

[AniNate]

Saw this at the Cleveland Film Festival last night. When you combine the clever sense of humor of Pixar with the unhurried pacing and  charmingly uneven yet fluid animation style of Miyazaki films, you'll probably end up with a film like this. It's thoroughly enjoyable from beginning to end and the English vocal dub is terrific. I did have some issues with the heavy-handed ending, though.

 

A-

[Goffe]

it's not the awful messages "it's okay to steal as long as you're hungry and steal from the rich", "you can only become rich by taking advantages on people" and "police is bad" that bothers me, it's how heavy-handed they are.

 

It's a rather generic story, with pretty unlikable lead characters, stereotypically bad supporting characters, awful messages wrapped in a "hey, look at me, I'm cute" animation.

 

but hey, it's for kids and foreign

 

25/100

Edited March 3, 2015 by Goffe

[Alpha]

I loved it. Simplistic and cute, and that's all it needs to be. In some parts, it felt like an adaptation of a Roald Dahl book, with the dialogue and the characters.

 

A-

[luna]

B+

 

a capitalist society hellbent on endless production requires the division of labour into segregated classes, preventing the development of genuine intimacy. the maintenance of this "society" is sustained not only at the end of law's baton, but in the dissemination of ideas: one must believe in the Big Bad Bear. a truly surprising and funny film that is not at all reducible to a simplistic "prejudice is bad".

Edited October 25, 2016 by luna

[lolifofo]

The Good:

• Beautiful art
• Funny
• Cute characters
• Short (could be considered a con)

The Bad:

• Weak story
• Doesn't reprimand theft
• Ending felt very forced
• Weak execution of message

 

Overall, I'll give it a B-.

Sure, it has problems, but it's pretty, short, for kids, and I enjoyed it for what it is. I won't judge it too harshly. But it's very overrated for sure.