Ernest & Celestine () is a 2012 animated comedy-drama film directed by Stéphane Aubier, Vincent Patar and Benjamin Renner. The film is based on a series of children's books of the same name by the Belgian author and illustrator Gabrielle Vincent that were first published in the early 1980s. The film was selected to be screened in the Directors' Fortnight section at the 2012 Cannes Film Festival, as part of the TIFF Kids programme at the 2012 Toronto International Film Festival and at the 2013 Hong Kong International Film Festival.
It was selected for the grand competition at feature film edition of the 2013 World festival of animated film Animafest Zagreb and was screened as the opening film. The film was released in the United States in 2013 by GKIDS. An English dub was released on 28 February 2014, with the voices of Forest Whitaker, Mackenzie Foy, Lauren Bacall, Paul Giamatti, William H. Macy, Megan Mullally, Nick Offerman and Jeffrey Wright. The film received widespread acclaim, and became the first animated film to win the Magritte Award for Best Film. It was nominated for Best Animated Feature at the 86th Academy Awards, but it lost to Walt Disney Animation Studios' animated musical Frozen.
A sequel, entitled Ernest & Celestine: A Trip to Gibberitia, was released in France on 14 December 2022.
Plot Celestine is a young mouse who lives in the underground world of rodents. At the orphanage where she lives, the caretaker known as the Gray One tells scary stories about the evil nature of the bears that live in the outside world, though Celestine doubts that they are entirely true. She loves to draw but must soon study dentistry, since that's what all rodents do, and to prepare, she must travel above ground to collect the lost teeth of a cub from underneath pillows. On one such occasion, the bear family catches Celestine in the act and chases her into a trash can where she is trapped and spends the night. The next morning, a destitute and starving grizzly bear named Ernest discovers Celestine and attempts to eat her. Celestine convinces him to let her go by helping him break into the basement of a candy shop, where he can eat his fill. He is soon caught by the store's owner, however, and arrested. Celestine, who is behind on her quota of collected teeth, agrees to free him from the police wagon if he will help her break into and rob the teeth from the office of the store owner's wife, who happens to be a dentist.
Although the robbery initially seems successful, the pair soon find themselves being pursued by the police forces of both the rodent and bear cities. They manage to evade capture by stealing a van, and escape to Ernest's remote cabin. Ernest is initially reluctant to allow Celestine to stay with him, but they begin to bond after he discovers her love of art. He reveals to her that his current destitution is a result of his rejection of his family's plan for him to go into law, like his ancestors, due to his desire to become an entertainer. The two spend the winter happily together, though their joy is somewhat dampened by the constant radio broadcasts declaring that both police forces are still searching for them as well as how civil unrest has become rampant around both of their homes with the once submissive and complacent poor now rising up against their upper class oppressors.
In the Spring, the police are able to track the stolen van to the cabin. Ernest is arrested by the rodents, while Celestine is arrested by the bears. Both are simultaneously put on trial, in the main floor and basement of the same courthouse. Though each of them protest their unfair treatment along with the government's bias and prejudice, as well as refusing to sell out their respective companion, the furious judges refuse to listen. Ernest and Celestine then call the judges and the rest of the higher class out on their cruelty to the lower class common folk. During the proceedings, a fire is accidentally started in the courthouse, and while the rest of the citizens flee despite the furious judges' demands to stay, Ernest and Celestine each stay behind to rescue their respective judges. The judges are both humiliated and broken that their people, the ones they thought they could always rule, have abandoned them to save their own lives while the ones they sought to wrongfully punish are their saviors. Having truly admitted defeat in their own hearts, the shameful judges drop the charges against them and have no other choice then to grant their wish to be able to remain living together. All the while, the judges express their inability to comprehend the concept of unconditional bonds; and can only watch along with the shaken populace of each place as the courthouses burn to the ground.
Reunited in Ernest's cabin, the pair decide to write and illustrate a book, telling the story of their friendship, though with some embellishments after Celestine protests including the part of their meeting where Ernest attempted to eat her.
Cast Character French voice actor English dubbing actor Ernest Lambert Wilson Forest Whitaker Celestine Pauline Brunner Mackenzie Foy The Grey One Anne-Marie Loop Lauren Bacall The Rat Judge Pierre Baton Paul Giamatti The Dentist Dominique Collignon-Maurin William H. Macy Lucienne Brigitte Virtudes Megan Mullally Georges Patrice Melennec Nick Offerman The Bear Judge Féodor Atkine Jeffrey Wright Chief Police of Bears Vincent Grass David Boat Antionette Ashley Earnest
Production The project was launched by producer Didier Brunner in late 2007, and an animated pilot was completed after a year. The search for funding for the film lasted until April 2009. From mid-2009 to mid-2010, the bulk of the work focused on developing the storyboards. The actual production phase, consisting of creating the animation, then lasted a year and a half, followed by a shorter post-production phase.
Start of the project and choice of directors The film project originated as an initiative by producer Didier Brunner: Having been familiar with the illustrated children's book series Ernest and Celestine for a long time, he seized the opportunity to acquire the audiovisual adaptation rights of the series when Gabrielle Vincent's nephew considered giving them up for an animated series; however, Brunner opted for a feature film instead.. In December 2007, Brunner contacted Benjamin Renner to work on an animated pilot defining the main orientations of the feature film project; Renner was then the art director.Benjamin Renner: "I always look for uncomfortable situations; being a director was perfect!", interview conducted by Noémie Luciani in Le Monde on 11 December 2012. Accessed 6 January 2013. The realization of this animated pilot took about a year.
After its completion, the first director initially considered by Didier Brunner stepped down, and Brunner then proposed that Benjamin Renner direct the film. Having never directed a feature film before, Renner requested to be teamed with more experienced co-directors, Belgians Vincent Patar and Stéphane Aubier, directors of the animated series A Town Called Panic (made in stop-motion animation using figurines).Interview with Benjamin Renner (part one), interview conducted by Pascal Pinteau on the website Effets spéciaux on 13 December 2012. Accessed 6 January 2013. The film was thus co-directed by three directors: Benjamin Renner, Vincent Patar, and Stéphane Aubier."Benjamin Renner, Vincent Patar, and Stéphane Aubier, directors", interview conducted by Domenico La Porta for the site Cineuropa on 25 May 2012. Accessed 26 December 2012. The film's actual production (after the pilot) began in 2009.Film profile on Unifrance. Accessed 1 September 2012. The three directors divided tasks: All three worked together on the script, storyboards, and breakdown, Renner was responsible for the film's art direction, while Vincent Patar and Stéphane Aubier were involved again during post-production, for voices, sound effects, and sound mixing.
Screenplay The screenplay was written by writer and screenwriter Daniel Pennac, then revised by the directors according to the constraints of animation. The film's team made an extra effort to stay true to the universe of the original books, since Gabrielle Vincent had refused all adaptation proposals during her lifetime, due to the very smooth and impersonal style of a proposed adaptation by a British studio.
The team ultimately chose to create an homage rather than a literal adaptation of the book universe: Renner integrated Daniel Pennac's universe into the story, and the final narrative took the form of more of an entryway into the universe of the books rather than a direct transposition, which resulted in a somewhat darker atmosphere for the film's screenplay.Ernest and Celestine, three excerpts commented by Benjamin Renner, co-director, comments collected by Cécile Mury in Télérama on 13 December 2012. Accessed 6 January 2013. Benjamin Renner emphasized the creativity of the characters present in the initial screenplay proposed by Pennac and used it to reinforce the visual and narrative coherence of the film.
Art direction The art direction of the film aimed to be as faithful as possible to those of the original books, particularly to the economy of lines in Gabrielle Vincent's illustrations and the sense of spontaneity they exhibit."Ernest & Celestine": meetings with Daniel Pennac and Benjamin Renner, video on Allociné on 8 December 2012. Accessed 6 January 2013.
The character designs are partly based on the books and partly on inventiveness in the spirit of the books' universe. In the project's early stages, the character designs of Ernest and Celestine closely resembled the original book illustrations. It was through preliminary sketches that Benjamin Renner realized he had inadvertently modified the features of the two characters, even though Vincent herself had evolved from one book to another in her way of drawing them. Celestine's design underwent the most visible changes: her nose is shorter and her forehead more pronounced than in the books, which slightly humanizes her features and makes her various expressions easier for animators to work on."Character Research," blog post on the film's making of blog by Benjamin Renner on 19 November 2012. The harmonization of this adaptation of the character designs was ensured by animator Seï Riondet. The outfits worn by Ernest and Celestine are all inspired by those they wear in the books.Interview with Benjamin Renner (part two), interview conducted by Pascal Pinteau on the site Effets spéciaux on 17 December 2012]. Accessed 12 January 2013. Seï also designed the numerous principal characters present in Pennac's script, but without equivalents in Gabrielle Vincent's books, totaling around 174 characters.
The backgrounds in the film created by Zaza and Zyk are inspired by nature drawings by Gabrielle Vincent, whether they were from the Ernest and Celestine books or not. The court scenes were inspired by a book by Vincent, Je voudrais qu'on m'écoute, which is not part of the Ernest and Celestine series and tells a story of running away. The underground city of rodents and the outfits of the gendarmes were influenced by Paul Grimault's film The King and the Mockingbird. For the scenes depicting the crowd of police mice, which worried the producer due to the cost of their animation, Benjamin Renner came up with the idea of a collective character, a sort of mass that deforms as it moves, inspired by the movements of creatures from Princess Mononoke and Spirited Away, both directed by Hayao Miyazaki.
Music The original score was composed by Vincent Courtois. It also includes two songs written by Thomas Fersen: one performed by him, and the other by Lambert Wilson.
Among the musicians who participated in the film's soundtrack are Louis Sclavis, Dominique Pifarély, Michel Godard, François Couturier, and Vincent Courtois himself.
Animation