Movie review: 'Ernest and Celestine: A Trip to Gibberitia' (2022), and some Christmas films

Ernest and Celestine: A Trip to Gibberitia (trailer, pronounced "Gibberish-ia") is an 80-minute 2D animated children's film from 2022, a sequel to a 2012 film previously reviewed on Flayrah. They're part of a larger franchise based on a book series, that later got a TV series and a couple of specials.

Originally produced in France, it's been dubbed into English by GKids, however this new film has a completely different set of directors and writers. The producers and studios remained largely the same. In French the title was Ernest et Célestine: Le voyage en Charabie, based on the French word "charabia" that means gibberish or gobbledygook.

You can watch this film without having seen the first one! Ernest is a grumpy, kind-hearted musician (a bear), who adoped Celestine (a young mouse), despite bears and mice not typically getting along. The story begins with Ernest waking from his long winter sleep, when Celestine accidentally breaks his prized violin. Trying to make things right, she embarks on a journey to Ernest's hometown to get it repaired. In panic, Ernest chases after her, and they arrive in Gibberitia together.

Gibberitia is a silly place, a seemingly idyllic alpine city of bears with Slavic stylings. However, the locals adhere to tradition and law in a way that's just... well, completely stupid. Their official motto is "That's just how it is". This puts the story solidly in children's territory; anyone with half a brain will immediately question the reality. Like... prison guards being fooled by a disguise using a wastepaper bin on your head. But without the premise, the story wouldn't work.

Otherwise it's a cute film. Not amazing, but nice! I'd give it a 7.3 out of 10. It's also crazily similar to the first movie: both end in a courthouse and revolve around defying conformity. In the first film the conflict was about bears befriending mice; in this film it's about rejecting family tradition and stupid laws.

I wish the voice acting had been better. GKids, its North American distributor, made an English dub of both films. In the first film, they hired Forest Whitaker to voice Ernest, going for the name recognition. Forest wasn't anything special in the role. In the sequel, they hired Andrew Kishino, who tried to imitate Forest. In my opinion that made it worse, resulting in a soft, husky mumble, when instead he could have re-interpreted the role and, y'know, enunciated. In the original French version, Lambert Wilson really captured Ernest's impatience and stubborn personality with louder, gruffier tones.

On the positive side, I loved the art design of the city, and the absurd touches in the street signs, traffic lights, and other things. The music was good, and the comedic chases were fun! And for some reason, the locals add the "-of" suffix to random words.

Would I recommend it, though? Only to curious adults, it's really aimed at kids, and I wouldn't say it's a must-watch, but it's not bad either! In the U.S. it should be available from Amazon Video and Apple TV.

Changing the subject to Christmas, which is just around the corner, I can recommend two holiday non-furry animated films!

Arthur Christmas (2011, trailer) is a British film from Aardman Features - directed by Sarah Smith, not Nick Park, if you're not into Nick Park's style. At the North Pole, Arthur is the dopey, younger son of (the current) Santa Claus, who runs the mail room. When he realizes a present for a little girl has been overlooked, he does his best to deliver it himself, with the help of his retired grandfather.

I'll be honest, the initial promotions for this film didn't appeal to me at all, but when I finally got around to watching it, I was pleasantly surprised. In the U.S. it's available on Amazon Video (only for the next week), and on Apple TV..

Klaus (2019, trailer) is a Spanish-American co-production by several folks who had experience working for Disney. It's really good! I'm still feeling the warm fuzzies from watching it recently!

An entitled young man is exiled by his father to make something of himself, given the task of running the post office in an isolated town in the Arctic Circle, whose two largest families have been feuding for centuries. As the new postman tries to befriend some locals, he discovers a reclusive toymaker. And even though the postman starts off as an extremely selfish and manipulative individual, as he begins to succeed at his job, he slowly develops into a decent human being and a much better person. Basically this film is an alternative origin story for Santa, with some wonderfully dark humor. If you haven't seen it, you really should! This one's a Netflix exclusive.

From all of us here at Flayrah, here's wishing everyone a good holiday season! And if you're not in the mood, that's okay too!