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$12 General Admission, $9 Member, $7 child age 14 or younger

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Based on the classic Belgian book series by Gabrielle Vincent, Ernest & Celestine is winner of the Cesar Award for Best Animated Feature and numerous festival prizes. Voiced in English language (no subtitles).

Deep below snowy, cobblestone streets, tucked away in networks of winding subterranean tunnels, lives a civilization of hardworking mice, terrified of the bears who live above ground. Unlike her fellow mice, Celestine is an artist and a dreamer – and when she nearly ends up as breakfast for ursine troubadour Ernest, the two form an unlikely bond. But it isn’t long before their friendship is put on trial by their respective bear-fearing and mice-eating communities. Fresh from standing ovations atCannes and Toronto Ernest & Celestine joyfully leaps across genres and influences to capture the kinetic, limitless possibilities of animated storytelling. Like a gorgeous watercolor painting brought to life, a constantly shifting pastel color palette bursts and drips across the screen, while wonderful storytelling and brilliant comic timing draw up influences as varied as Buster Keaton, Bugs Bunny and the outlaw romanticism of Bonnie and Clyde. Bringing it all together is the on-screen chemistry between the two lead characters – a flowing, tender and playful rapport that will put a smile on your face and make your heart glow.

Voiced by Forest Whitaker, Lambert Wilson, Mackenzie Foy, Pauline Brunner, Lauren Bacall, and Anne-Marie Loop.

 

“Marked as outsiders by their respective societies, an unlikely friendship is forged, an ill-tempered uproar unleashed, and a delightful movie is the result.”

–Betsy Sharkey, Los Angeles Times

“The film’s gorgeous, hand-drawn animation is as lovingly detailed as the drawings a girl mouse named Celestine is secretly making about an imaginary mouse and bear friendship.”

–Chuck Wilson, L.A. Weekly

“The characters are computer-rendered, but the watercolor environments they move in are expressive and detail-rich.”

–Joel Arnold, NPR