Ernest & Celestine: A Trip to Gibberitia

The second Ernest and Celestine film, from 2022, opens with a journey to the bear's homeland. They travel to Gibberitia to have his broken violin repaired, a country said to hold the best musicians on earth, where the streets are always full of music. On arrival they learn that music was banned years ago, that only a single sequence of notes may be played, and that a member of Ernest's own family enforces it. Together with a masked outlaw the pair set themselves against the ban. The film keeps the watercolour aesthetic of the first and sustains its hand-drawn look, with music both the subject and the engine of the story. Repressive government, the banning of art and estrangement inside a family are simplified for younger viewers without being diluted. Who it's for: viewers who like family animation and hand-drawn European films. Who it's not for: anyone expecting the calm of the first film; this one takes a more adventurous route.