While Toronto is the birthplace for the majority of the upcoming awards contenders this fall, it is still a place to discover some wonderful, hidden gems. Aside from its big showing of the Hollywood animation Hotel Transylvania, the festival had a few other surprises in the same genre. We gave our takes on two others, but our favorite animated film was the French creation Ernest & Celestine.
Based on Gabrielle Vincent‘s popular book series, directors Benjamin Renner, Vincent Patar and Stéphane Aubier (the latter two worked on the excellent A Town Called Panic) have brought his work to life. Following a bear and a mouse, Twitch has delivered an international trailer, but more substantially we’ve got over six minutes of gorgeous footage straight from the film. Check it all out below and read our review from TIFF here.
Synopsis:
Spirited, orphaned young mouse Celestine must reluctantly put aside her budding artistic inclinations to devote herself to her training as a dentist. She longs to experience something besides the humdrum work of denture fittings and teeth cleanings. Meanwhile, far above the subterranean world of the mice is the parallel world of the bears. Ernest, a reclusive and curmudgeonly musician-poet, lives in a secluded woodland cottage, only venturing out when his growling stomach forces him into town to find his next meal. It is well-known that mice and bears are never to mingle, so when the two unexpectedly cross paths and form an unlikely but inseparable friendship, it naturally incites the disapproval of their respective town elders. Will Ernest and Celestine’s unshakable bond be powerful enough to topple the long-standing barriers between their two worlds?
Ernest & Celestine has no US release date yet.