Ernest & Celestine

Ernest & Celestine (Ernest et Célestine, 2012) is a hand-drawn animated feature you can watch online on iFILM. Adapted from Gabrielle Vincent's picture books, this French-Belgian-Luxembourg film was directed by Stéphane Aubier, Vincent Patar and Benjamin Renner.

Celestine is an orphaned mouse being pushed toward dentistry when all she wants to do is draw. Ernest is a shaggy, broke street musician who happens to be a bear. Their worlds are built to keep them apart — mice live underground in fear of bears, bears up above look down on mice. A chance meeting turns into friendship, then into a bit of shared petty crime, and soon both are outcasts from two societies at once.

The whole thing is painted in watercolor, and you feel it in every frame: soft outlines, bare paper edges, a storybook come to life. It earned an Oscar nomination and took the César for best animated film. Quiet, funny and quietly grown-up about prejudice, it works for small kids and for adults tired of loud 3D animation alike. Stream Ernest & Celestine (2012) online on iFILM.