Ernest & Celestine (2012)

The review praises the film as a gentle and delightfully weird animated treat, highlighting its resonant themes of taboo friendship and odd-couple endurance in a sweetly strange story.

The critic calls it a charming magical bonbon with a painterly watercolor touch, praising the understated mash-up of a lively tale about outsiders forging an unlikely friendship amid artistic troubles. It singles out the comforting storybook effect as a refreshing departure from hyperkinetic animation.

The critic finds the film the coziest of the year, praising its gentle watercolor animation style and simple story of an unlikely mouse-bear friendship that avoids Hollywood tropes. The overall integrity and message about overcoming superficial differences are highlighted as key charms.

The film is a just-about-perfect hand-drawn animated feature that melds visual style and narrative pirouettes delightfully. It follows the unlikely alliance between gruff bear Ernest and artistically inclined orphan mouse Célestine, loaded with charm, adventure, and relatable hopes and fears.

The critic calls it a delightfully old-fashioned children's film with a meaningful message and a clever, timeless tale of an improbable friendship between a bear and a mouse.

The review celebrates the lovely animated tale of interspecies friendship between a tiny mouse artist and a bear, based on children's books, noting its ode to individuality, pluck, and happiness with those different from us. It singles out the push and pull between childlike safety and adult perils as stirring the heart.

The film is described as a profoundly civilized and beautiful children's fable with a wise, grown-up heart, full of visual whimsy and a graceful message of acceptance.

The critic finds it an endearingly nutty hand-drawn delight with whimsical sensibility and tender relationship at its core, though it stretches to feature length.

The review highlights how the film refuses to characterize the central friendship solely on isolation and praises its self-reflexive animation and endearing fable about outcasts carving their own path.

The review describes a charming animated feature with a teensy drop of darkness in its tale of interspecies friendship between a mouse artist and a bear musician-poet, adapted from children's books. It notes the 2D aquarelle-style graphics and skew toward younger audiences while highlighting the meet-cute and scrapes with authorities.

The critic calls the film a delightful animated import that mixes wit, warmth and watercolor visuals to spin a charming tale for all ages, offering whimsy for kids and wit for grown-ups. They single out the visual treats like the underground mouse village and the moving, sweet climax.

The critic praises the film's exposure of small-town prejudice and celebration of artistic sensitivity, while noting its elegant storybook animation style and inventive sequences of collaboration between the bear and mouse protagonists.