"Ernest and Celestine" is the coziest movie you'll likely see all year. Every frame is suffused with a fireplace kind of warmth that, for me at least, cast an immediate spell that didn't let up. The French-produced animated movie is skewed to kids, and unlike today's animated product from Hollywood, it isn't self-consciously concerned with making an appeal to adults: this simple story of an unlikely friendship between a mouse and a bear in a funny-animal world doesn't have any pop-culture jokes or winking irony.
But it's the overall integrity of the movie, directed by Stéphane Aubier, Vincent Patar, and Benjamin Rattar, adapting Belgian children's books by Gabrielle Vincent, that's key to its charm for children of all ages.
The movie begins in a kind of mouse orphanage, whose overseer tries to scare her charges with tales not of big bad wolves but big bad bears. Soon after this, mouse-dentist-in-training Celestine endures a tooth-hunting mishap that puts her out in the street for a night. She's discovered by grumpy, hungry, far-from-home and out of sorts bear Ernest, who thinks the mouse would make a tasty snack.
La película comienza con un tipo de orfanato de ratones cuyo encargado trata de asustar a sus cuidados con cuentos, no de lobos malos, sino de grandes osos malos. Después deesto, Celestine, el ratón y dentista en entrenamiento soporta un percance en una cacería de dientes que la deja en la calle por una noche. Es descubierta por un gruño, hambriento y alejado de casa oso Ernest, que piensa que la ratona sería un gustoso aperitivo.
La película empieza en una especie de orfanato de ratones, cuyo inspector intenta intimidar a sus huérfanos con historias, no de lobos malos sino, de grandes y malvados osos. Al poco tiempo, la ratona aprendiz de dentista llamada Celestine enfrenta un percance con un diente que la deja en la calle por una noche. Ella es descubierta por un malhumorado, hambriento y deambulante oso, Ernest, quien piensa ve en la roedora una especie de bocadillo.