Ernest & Celestine

Ernest is a bear who would rather make music than follow the respectable path laid out for him, while Celestine is a young mouse who dreads the dentistry that awaits every mouse in her underground world. Both live at odds with the expectations of their communities, where mice and bears keep their distance from one another. When the two meet by chance, they form an unlikely bond and build a life together on the margins of their societies, drawing disapproval from those around them. The story comes from a series of children's books by Gabrielle Vincent, and the film moves between Celestine's subterranean mouse city and the bears' world above.

The film was directed by Stéphane Aubier, Vincent Patar and Benjamin Renner, with a screenplay by Daniel Pennac. For all three directors it was their first feature, and Renner went on to direct The Big Bad Fox and Other Tales and Migration; Aubier and Patar later made Le Trésor. The voice cast includes Lambert Wilson as Ernest, Pauline Brunner as Celestine, Anne-Marie Loop, Patrice Melennec, Brigitte Virtudes and Léonard Louf. It was produced in Belgium, Luxembourg and France on a budget of about 13 million dollars and took roughly 8 million dollars worldwide.

Audiences rate the film 7.8 out of 10 on IMDb from around 24,000 votes and 7.8 out of 10 on TMDB from several hundred votes, while critics gave it 8.2 out of 10 from 81 reviews, placing it somewhat above the audience scores.