(courtesy IMP Awards)
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Ernest and Celestine return in this delightful, joyous follow-up to their first Academy Award-nominated adventure, about a bear and a mouse as the unlikeliest of friends. Ernest remains an ursine troubadour dedicated to a life of music and art, and his constant grouchiness is softened by the creative whims of his mouse friend Celestine. When she accidentally breaks his beloved violin, they must take a long voyage to Ernest’s country of Gibberitia, home to the only artist who can repair it. But when they arrive, they are shocked to discover that all forms of music have been banned in Gibberitia for many years, and a land once known across the world for its incredible musicians has fallen silent. It is up to Ernest and Celestine and their friends, including a mysterious masked outlaw, to bring music & happiness back to the land of bears.Ernest and Celestine: A Trip to Gibberitia, originally known as Ernest et Célestine: Le voyage en Charabie in French, is co-directed by animation filmmakers Jean-Christophe Roger (director of The Storytelling Show and the The New Adventures of Lassie series) & Julien Chheng (making his first feature; executive producer / supervisor on Primal, director of “The Spy Dancer” short for Star Wars: Visions). The script is written by Guillaume Mautalent & Sébastien Oursel, in collaboration with Jean Regnaud; from an idea by Agnès Bidaud & Didier Brunner, based on the original work by Gabrielle Vincent. (courtesy First Showing)
Taking up the fight to restore what is valuable and good and necessary for the wellbeing of the soul is a huge undertaking, and one that often takes you up against intransigent powers that be.
But in Ernest and Celestine: A Trip to Gibberitia (Ernest et Célestine: Le voyage en Charabie) the two lead characters who make their first and most welcome appearance since 2012’s Ernest & Celestine aren’t daunted by this, knowing that the world needs music and life, and that whatever has caused its diminishment must be tackled or they will be all the poorer for it.
Honestly, this looks like just the tonic for a world-weary soul because it doesn’t just offer sweet charm and whimsy but some emotional muscularity too and it will be exciting what this is like when it begins screening more widely next month.
Having already screened in Europe and Canada in late 2022, Ernest and Celestine: A Trip to Gibberitia (Ernest et Célestine: Le voyage en Charabie) opens 1 September 2023 in USA.