News

Gkids has unveiled the U.S. release date, first trailer and English-language voice cast for Ernest & Celestine: A Trip to Gibberitia, the sequel to the Oscar-nominated animated feature Ernest & Celestine, which it likewise released stateside.

Slated for a September 1 release at the Village East in New York, as well as at L.A.’s Laemmle Santa Monica and Laemmle Glendale and additional markets nationwide (view the full list here), the film based on the children’s books by Gabrielle Vincent has Andrew Kishino playing Ernest the bear, with Ashley Boettcher as his unlikely mouse friend Celestine. Others in this cast of the film, which is also coming to U.S. theaters in its original French-language form, include David Lodge, Anne Yatco, Lena Josephine Marano, Bill Lobley and Daniel Hagan. Check out its trailer above.

The new Ernest & Celestine flick nabbed a nomination for Best Animated Feature at the...

Gkids has snapped up U.S. rights to Ernest & Celestine: A Trip To Gibberitia — the sequel to the acclaimed Ernest & Celestine, which landed a Best Animated Feature Oscar nom in 2014. The decorated producer and distributor of animation, celebrating its 15th anniversary, will put both the original French-language version of Gibberitia and a new English dub in theaters this year.

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Both Ernest & Celestine films are based on the children’s book series by Belgian author-illustrator Gabrielle Vincent. The original helmed by Stéphane Aubier, Vincent Patar and Benjamin Renner examines the unlikely friendship between a bear, Ernest (Lambert Wilson...

France’s Dandelooo, best known for International Emmy winner “The Treehouse Stories,” and Belgium’s Vivi Film, whose credits include Oscar nominated films “The Triplets of Belleville” and “The Secret of Kells,” have partnered to co-produce and co-finance the animated series “The Upside Down River.”

Dandelooo’s animation studio Ooolala will produce the 2D animation in co-operation with Canal Plus Family, written by Jean Regnaud (“Ernest & Celestine”) and Marie de Banville (“Tobie Lolness”), and directed by Paul Leluc. The series, targeted at 8 to 12-year olds, will start production at the end of this year. Delivery is set for mid 2023, with Dandelooo responsible for worldwide distribution.

“The Upside Down River” is adapted from the children’s novel “La rivière à l’envers” by leading French children’s author Jean Claude Mourlevat, winner of the 2021 Astrid Lindgren Memorial Award, the world’s biggest prize for children’s literature.

Published by Editis Group,...

In today’s Global Bulletin, Ang Lee will be honored with this year’s BAFTA Fellowship; Locarno Pro opens the call for its Alliance 4 Development project platform; and Dandelooo’s “The Upside Down River” gets a PR boost as its creator wins the Astrid Lindgren Memorial Award.

Awards

The British Academy of Film and Television Arts (BAFTA) has selected two-time Oscar winner and multiple BAFTA-winning director Ang Lee with the Fellowship at this year’s 74th Ee British Academy Film Awards, which take place April 11.

Each year the BAFTA Fellowship is awarded as the Academy’s highest accolade that an individual can receive in recognition of an outstanding career in film, games or television. Lee joins a prestigious list of previous Fellowship honorees including the likes of Charlie Chaplin, Alfred Hitchcock, Steven Spielberg, Stanley Kubrick, Martin Scorsese, Mel Brooks and Ridley Scott.

Lee broke onto the international scene in the...

A quarter of this year’s Cartoon Forum pitches are derived from existing IP and “The Upside Down River” – a high concept mini-series – is a fine example.

Based on the book “La rivière à l’envers” by award-winning French children’s author Jean-Claude Mourlevat, the 10-part fantasy adventure comes from the 10-year-old Paris-based producer-distributor Dandelooo, whose animation credits include the International Emmy-winning “The Treehouse Stories” and France 3 special “Houdini”.

Comprising 26-minute episodes and aimed at an audience of eight-to-12 year olds, “The Upside Down River” follows the adventures of Hannah, a spoiled girl mourning the death of her father who needs a drop of water from a fabled river to give her beloved pet bird eternal life.

She’s joined in her quest by a shy boy called Tomek, in an epic fantasy adventure that Dandelooo’s joint founders, Jean-Baptiste Wéry and Emmanuèle Petry describe as having “life and death...

by Tim Brayton

If you've been following the Best Animated Feature Oscar for the past few years, perhaps you remember the 2013 nominee Ernest & Celestine, a gentle and generous children's movie from France, about the adventures of a bear and a mouse becoming best friends while on the run from the law. This year, two of that film's producers and one of its directors are back in the hunt with The Big Bad Fox and Other Tales, an anthology of stories about the inhabitants of a rural farmyard in France.

The film took a roundabout path to theaters. Based on comic books by Benjamin Renner – the Ernest & Celestine director, back to help usher his material to the screen, with co-director Patrick Imbert and co-writer Jean Regnaud – the three stories were initially intended to be episodes in a TV series. Somewhere along the way, they got promoted to feature film status, with...