Ethel & Ernest

In a year where the Christmas TV schedules have been packed with 'specials' that weren't special at all it's very refreshing (and a nice change) to have something as lovely as 'Ethel and Ernest' on to watch.

Beautifully animated, it brings to life Raymond Briggs' graphic novel of the same name. Capturing the life of his parents this charts their struggles, their highs/lows against the changing face of Britain.

The book covers some tough issues, and I was pleased to see that the film did not shy away from these either, but doing so in a dignified and poetic way.

Parents thinking this is going to be like 'The Snowman', another adaptation of Briggs' work should be warned though, this isn't always child friendly due to the content.

Well done to all those involved in the making of this film.

I've just got around to watching this today. As a 50-year-old I could relate to so much of it and relate it to my grandparents and uncles and aunties who were around during this time. Frankly, I found the film utterly heartbreaking. I must have had tears in my eyes pretty solidly for the last 30 minutes of it. It was quite overwhelming in places especially when Raymond views a body in the morgue which was very reminiscent of something that happened to me recently. I was going to write that it was a perfect slice of life but that is not big enough as it really does pretty much cover two entire lives. My boys who are under ten it has to be said were not gripped by it and did fade in and out of watching it but for adults, I can't recommend it highly enough.

A utter delight from start to finish. Raymond Briggs ability to turn 'ordinary' people into extraordinary stories is incomparable. The story of his mum and dad living through incredible times, world war 2, particularly.

The voices of Broadbent and Blethyn are the highlight, there able to bring Ethel and Ernest to life as us the audience fall in love with these simple but very human characters. Visually as expected it's beautiful yet simplistic in its form and adult Raymond has a very poignant and educated voice which works beautifully alongside his less informed but traditional parents.

I could wax lyrically about this all night but do yourself a favor take 90 minutes out of your lives and laugh, cry and wonder how Briggs is once again able to make the simplistic fantastic!

Ethel & Ernest is a tribute by author Raymond Briggs to his working class parents. Both meet in 1928, Ethel who is older, is a maid to a wealthy family. Ernest, a milkman who is 5 years her junior waves at her every day and then one day brings her flowers and asks her out.

Ernest is a Labour supporter, Ethel believe that the toffs are born to rule and is a Conservative. They get married and Ernest saves enough money to put down a deposit for a house and get a mortgage. Eventually little Raymond arrives but they could not have anymore children. When war breaks out Raymond is sent to the country where he would be away from the bombing raids.

After the war, Ernest cheers on the creation of the welfare state but ongoing rationing places a strain. As Raymond gets older, he does his bit in National Service and later goes to art school and insists on having long hair.

The film becomes more episodic as we go through the swinging sixties and eventually to their old age. Ernest, ever the optimist, although it dawns on him that as a manual worker, he was always relatively low paid (he finds out that Raymond could earn just as much as him by working one day in art school) but he did manage to buy a house in London and eventually purchased a car.

A charming animated film of two people in love and coping with events but also a social history of the twentieth century. Lovely voice work from Brenda Blethyn and Jim Broadbent.

I had, of course, read the reviews of this film before unintentionally falling upon it by chance on Christmas television.

I have long lamented the lack of charm in most of the recent Disney films, for example, indeed the absence of charm in today's society in general, but it is present in this film in abundance. Not only is this film visually captivating but I was frequently moved to tears by the unexpected pathos of this story, which is a microcosm of the experiences of that most extra-ordinary generation who fought and survived the Second World War and who's members, through age and slow disease, are now virtually all departed from this world.

This film is sincere, amusing and observant, and like the Snowman, however different in style, will endure forever.