Ernest and Celestine

This weekend I saw a great movie -- Ernest and Celestine, based on the series of books by author/illustrator Gabrielle Vincent (who is also the author of one my favorite dog books, A day, a dog.)

The movie won France's César Award for Best Animated Feature and was a nominee for this year's Oscar for Best Animated Film.  It is a an absolute delight -- I can't wait to watch it again.  I do that, you know, I watch movies I like over and over again.  It's started when I was learning English and used to watch movies several times to practice (I would read the subtitles the first time, and then stop for all subsequent viewings.) You can learn a lot from watching movies repeatedly: once is really not enough, you miss too much.  This is also what started my love affair with movie soundtracks.  By the way, the soundtrack by Vincent Courtois is also a treat.

Anyhow, the movie does a wonderful job adapting Vicent's characters and artistic style.  The film blog has a lot of really cool information about the making of the movie, including how they decided to keep the backgrounds as watercolors to stay true to Vicent's sketchy and airy watercolors.  The blog is well worth a read: it's not only informative, but quite funny too!

Ernest and Celestine is a must-see!