Of the five nominees up for the Best Animated Feature Oscar this year, Ernest & Celestine is likely the least known. But it looks every bit as worthwhile as the other contenders, with a pleasingly old-fashioned animation style that stands in stark contrast to the slick CG works by Disney, Illumination, and DreamWorks. This new…
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If the increasing prevalence of CG animation hasn't dulled your passion for more traditional forms of animation, this trailer for Ernest & Celestine, a story about a friendship between a bear and mouse, might seem to float right off the screen. I've written about the animated film Ernest and Celestine in the past, in part because it just…
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Just today I was recommending the incomparably wonderful animated film A Town Called Panic to a friend, which it occurred to me to wonder: what progress has been made on the project the makers of that film (Stéphane Aubier and Vincent Patar) are cooking up now? They're making a new film, Ernest and Celestine (co-directed…
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Here's to a school of dagger-propelled, orange barracuda siccing any listmeister who jumped the gun and failed to consider A Town Called Panic for his or her top ten films of 2009. Undeniably the most entertaining and energetic movie of that now-caput year, I found myself funstruck from film's start to its fireworks-laden finish; ATCP is also 2009's…
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A Town Called Panic was one of the more well-received films at Fantastic Fest last month, where it also picked an Audience Award. The unorthodox, stop-motion style of this Belgian animated film needs to be seen to be fully understood, as it taps a mesmerizing, madcap absurdity from the disposability of cheap, plastic toys (think…
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