- The fairy odd animal couple
Whew, sorry for that brief if not funny
throw away review. I just had to review it, all these good movies, I
had to put it all into perspective. Thursday will always be Oscar
nominated films, but as we'll run out of Thursdays, some Tuesdays
will also be Oscar nominated films. Next up a movie nominated for
best animation! I'm glad to see the Oscars always pick an animated
film that isn't Pixar, Disney, Dreamworks or a high profile Japanese
anime. Not that any of them are bad, just I'm sure everyone knows
that there are a lot of other animated movies around and we just
aren't seeing them. I hope that my review pushes someone into seeing these underrated movies because they are worth it.
A great example is 2011's Oscar
nominated animated film L'illusionniste was amazing, It was full of
deep emotion and save a couple of phrases that were on purpose not
translated as they were meaningless, it's a silent animated movie and
says a million things. My point is the animated category doesn't
need to be just for children and can be very meaningful. Unlike
2011's eventual and to me unfortunate winner Toy Story 3 (2010) which I felt had the underlying moral of as an adult you should be ashamed of yourself for letting go of your
toys and assuming you already have, you are a terrible person.
Anyway, comparatively to the other
Oscar nominated films, this is pretty short at 1h19m in length. But
what it lacks in run time, it makes up for with feeling and artistic
appeal. The story is about a mouse who befriends a bear and they live
together in a world that expects them to hate each other. It has a
simple premise, one that ultimately shows you should love one
another, and that was nice and all but some of the scenes were just
amazingly cute and beautiful that I felt the movie just went above
the general child's story. Early in the movie Célestine (voiced by
Pauline Brunner) draws a picture of herself and a bear having fun.
She's promptly scold and taught that all bears are monsters who eat
mice in all kinds of horrid ways. She ignores the story and adds a
cute smile to the picture and it's adorable. We are then introduced
to Ernest (voiced by Lambert Wilson) Ernest isn't a great role model
and if you're looking for the movie to teach things (like everyone
should be friends) you could also come out having your child thinking
it's alright to steal candy if you are hungry. What I'm saying is
it's adorable but if you think about some things a poor message is
coming across.
 |
| Way to be stereotypical Ernest. |
The best thing about the Ernest et
Célestine though is the animation. It has this beautiful watercolour
feeling to it. No harsh colours and everything flows together like a
brook into a river. It's just a nice movie. The only real thing that
was weird for me was the strange obsession with candy and teeth -
both bears and mice. It goes along well enough with the story in
some regards, but still at the end of the day you scratch your head
at the oddity of it. Especially the scenes where they show mice are
unable to talk right at all without teeth and brawls break out
because of it. As if teeth were connected to their human qualities.
 |
| Chief tooth inspector. |
It's unfortunate that nobody really
thinks this will win the best animated feature, and I'm on the same
boat, but just because I'm being realistic. Disney/Pixar and
Miyazaki/Studio Ghibli have awards wrapped around their finger tips.
It doesn't mean you shouldn't give Ernest et Célestine a viewing.
I give it a 8/10
PS: I don't always have allergies, but
when I do, I cry like a baby.
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