After a series of lightning-paced, hyper-colored franchise animated features dominating the box office this year, a heartfelt European indie can feel like a soothing cup of tea for the senses and a fuzzy blanket for the soul. Opening this Friday, September 1 through GKIDS, Ernest & Celestine: A Trip to Gibberitia is shaping up to be one of these welcome refreshers, as the first raft of reviews (from 13 critics) have buoyed the title to a perfect 100% Fresh rating on the Rotten Tomatoes Tomatometer.
A sequel to the César-winning, Oscar-nominated Ernest & Celestine (2012), the new 2D adventure co-directed by Jean-Christophe Roger and Julien Chheng catches up with the unlikely bear and mouse best friends. This time, when Celestine accidentally breaks Ernest’s rare “Stradabearius” violin, the duo set off for his home country of Gibberitia in search of an artisan who can repair it. But they discover that the mountainous country once renowned for its music is now ruled by a repressive, ludicrous one-note limit. The leads are voiced by Canadian actor/composer Andrew Kishino (The Monkey King, Catwoman: Hunted) and Ashley Boettcher, the English dub voice of Hina in Weathering With You.
Read on for a sample of what critics are saying:
“The brisk, lively plot has shades of a French Revolutionary spirit — a band of insurgent musicians call their underground movement ‘the resistance’ — but the film’s real magic lies in the illustrations. Backdrops brim with painterly detail, and tiny changes in characters’ faces convey worlds of feeling. In a film whose moral emphasizes the necessity of artistic freedom, there is a deceptive simplicity to this aesthetic style that makes it all the more special.”
— Natalia Winkelman, The New York Times
“In one stunning chase sequence, [the town’s] zipline network is suddenly transformed into the lines of a musical score, each rider acting as a single note bounding along it … With it, the film is explicitly calling attention to the fact that it’s animated, pulling the picture apart so that we can see the lines and brushstrokes that make it up, and allowing for all sorts of playful possibilities to come piling out. More than anything, this sequence embodies the unique joie de vivre that courses through A Trip to Gibberitia’s every meticulously composed frame.”
— Ross McIndoe, Slant
“Because this is ultimately a story meant for children, the messages are designed to be easily understandable rather than nuanced. That’s okay. The real emotional heart are the quiet moments that underscore Ernest and Celestine’s friendship … Ernest & Celestine: A Trip to Gibberitiais a crowd-pleasing, heart-warming joy about true platonic love and political defiance. Don’t be surprised if this bear and mouse duo find themselves back in the Oscars hunt.”
— Travis Hopson, Punch Drunk Critics
“What’s especially refreshing about Ernest & Celestine: A Trip to Gibberitia’s moral arc is that its protagonists are not necessarily fighting against a singular villain, but rather deep-rooted, systemic issues that suppress the freedoms of all Gibbertians. The film highlights how a rule that requires children to follow the professions of their parents is closely connected to Gibberitia’s banning of all non-single-note-music, forwarding the idea that certain laws may not always be in humanity’s best interest and that one has the ability to bring tangible sociopolitical change for causes they care deeply about.”
— Kathy Michelle Chacón, Paste Magazine
